Texas Lawyer Blog

New development in Houston case involving constitutionality of death penalty

At a hearing today, Judge Kevin Fine of Houston’s 177th District Court rescinded his March 4 order in which he granted defendant John E. Green’s “motion to declare Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure unconstitutional,” says Alan Curry, appellate division chief in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Article 37.071 is the state’s death penalty statute. But neither Curry nor Robert K. Loper, a Houston criminal-defense solo who is one of the lawyers representing Green, believe Fine has changed his interpretation of Article 37.071. “Based on what he [Fine] said from the bench, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t changed his mind,” Curry says. And Loper says Fine “certainly did not change his mind.” Curry says Fine now wants the parties to brief the issue the judge believes was raised in Green’s motion to hold Article 37.071 unconstitutional and that is: “Is it OK to execute an innocent person so that we can maintain a death penalty?” Loper says his interpretation of Fine’s March 4 order and subsequent statements is the judge found the death penalty procedure itself unconstitutional as it relates to Article 37.071. Loper says the judge wants to give the state and the defense in State v. Green an opportunity to brief the issue. Fine has tentatively set an April 27 evidentiary hearing to consider the issue, say Curry and Loper, both of whom were at today’s hearing. Green is charged with capital murder in connection with the June 2008 robbery and shooting death of Thien Huong Nguyen, aka Tina Vo, according to the indictment against him. Loper says Green’s trial, originally set for March 31, will have to be rescheduled. Loper says Green plans to plead not guilty.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Alleged shooter, a disbarred lawyer, received full pardon for prior bribery conviction

Robert Mustard Jr., the 60-year-old man whom Dallas police have identified as the alleged shooter Monday at a Dallas office building, is a disbarred lawyer who went to prison in 1987 for bribery and received a full pardon three years later. Mustard remained in the intensive care unit at Baylor University Medical Center this morning as more details about his life continued to surface. According to online offense records of the Dallas Police Department, police are investigating aggravated assaults against Chris Smith, 39, who was shot in the neck or head, and his father, Richard Floyd Smith, who also was shot, that occurred at about 10:25 a.m. Monday at an office building at 12222 Merit Drive in Dallas. Also under investigation, according to the offense records, is the attempted suicide of Mustard, who shot himself in the head after police arrived at the building. An article on WFAA.com indicates Mustard was a client of Smith Financial Services Group, which offices on the third floor of the Four Forest building, where the shootings occurred. Kim Cobb, a spokeswoman for Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, notes in an e-mail that Mustard received his law degree at SMU in 1978. As noted on the State Bar of Texas Web site, Mustard was licensed to practice law on May 28, 1979, but is disbarred. According to the disciplinary petition in State Bar of Texas v. Mustard, Mustard faced compulsory discipline after his 1985 conviction of bribery, a felony of moral turpitude. Maureen Ray, spokeswoman for the State Bar’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, provided copies of the disciplinary petition and the June 13, 1988, judgment of disbarment. Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, says Mustard received a 10-year sentence in June 1987 on the bribery conviction. TDCJ received Mustard on Nov. 13, 1987, and he was released on parole on Dec. 4, 1988, Lyons says. She says TDCJ parole records show Mustard received executive clemency and a full pardon on Sept. 14, 1990. Bill Clements was governor at the time.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Dallas County prosecutors to seek indictment against attorney

Dallas County prosecutors will seek an indictment for murder against plaintiffs attorney Scott Marshall (pictured) in connection with the Dec. 20, 2009, shooting death of Staci Montgomery, the ex-wife of Marshall’s former law partner, Bady Sassin. According to an e-mail from Jamille Bradfield, spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors will present the case against Marshall to a grand jury on March 12. Montgomery’s death occurred as the two former partners were engaged in a legal battle. Sassin filed Sassin Law Firm v. Marshall Law Firm in August 2009, alleging that Marshall did not hold up his end of the partnership after they agreed to start Marshall Sassin in January 2009. In his first amended petition, Sassin accuses Marshall of fraudulent inducement and breach of contract, among other things – allegations Marshall denies in his response and countersuit. Marshall filed a countersuit in December 2009, alleging that Sassin “wrongfully misappropriated” case files and profits of Marshall Sassin and did not share the proceeds with Marshall. Sassin denies that allegation. Dallas solo Gary Unell, Marshall’s criminal-defense attorney, says he expects the state, which controls the grand jury process, to get an indictment against his client. But Unell says, “The evidence suggests it was an accidental shooting.”
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Will Texas get more federal judges?

The U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas requested additional judges by the March 5 deadline set for responding to a survey conducted by the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts in Washington, D.C. “We’re asking for four,” says Southern District Chief Judge Ricardo Hinojosa of McAllen. “At this point, it would be premature to decide where these judges would be placed,” Hinojosa says. Eastern District Chief Judge David Folsom of Texarkana says his district is requesting one new judge and also is requesting the conversion of a temporary judgeship to a permanent one. Dave Maland, U.S. District clerk for the Eastern District, says his district is authorized eight judges, but one of those positions is a temporary one. The Eastern District will have only seven judges if Congress does not act on the request to convert that temporary position to a permanent one by September 2013, Maland says. Maland says the Eastern District has courtroom and chambers space for a new judge, if one is granted, in Beaumont, Sherman or Lufkin. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas also requested four or five more judges in its response to the survey, which the Administrative Office conducts every two years. Karen Mitchell, U.S. district clerk for the Northern District of Texas, says her district has not requested more judges. The survey is the beginning of a process leading up to the Judicial Conference of the United States making recommendations this month on the need for additional judges in the 94 federal districts. The U.S. Congress will decide whether to provide additional judges. Folsom says the Judicial Conference recommended in March 2009 that his district gain a new judge and convert the temporary position to a permanent one, but Congress has not acted on the recommendation. “If that’s not acted on by Congress this session, the process restarts, so to speak,” Folsom says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Shooting reported at North Dallas office building. Lawyer in building says police searched floor by floor.

The lawyers with Malouf Lynch Jackson & Swinson didn’t hear the reported shooting this morning at their North Dallas office building but quickly knew something was amiss, says firm president Curtis R. Swinson. “They locked the building down,” Swinson says. “The police did a floor-by-floor search. I’m sure they’re trying to determine what the facts were at that time.” Myfoxdfw.com reports that at about 11 a.m. a man entered the 18-story building at 12222 Merit Drive and shot a father and son in their office on the building’s third floor. Malouf Lynch is on the building’s 10th floor, Swinson says. “We didn’t hear anything, other than police cars arriving,” he says. “There were 10 to 15 [police] cars out there, and at one time four ambulances.” Swinson says he has no facts about the incident, other than what he was able to see from his office windows.
-- Jeanne Graham

Houston lawyer named in best supporting actress' Academy Award acceptance speech

Mo’Nique, who won the best supporting actress Academy Award last night for her work in the movie “Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire,” included Houston entertainment lawyer Ricky Anderson (pictured) on a short list of people she thanked during her acceptance speech. “Thank you for your hard work,” Mo’Nique said to Anderson during her speech. “That was very, very kind of her. I’m kind of a quiet guy,” says Anderson, managing partner of Anderson & Smith, who says he’s represented Mo’Nique for about 14 or 15 years. He says she was referred to him by another client, probably comedian Steve Harvey, who is the new host of game show "Family Feud." Anderson says he can’t talk specifically about the work he does for Mo’Nique, but he notes that her comment on the Academy Awards broadcast “made it well known I do represent her.” Mo’Nique has a talk show on the BET network called "The Mo'Nique Show." Anderson says he’s an avid viewer of award shows such as the Academy Awards because he likes to keep up with the industry. Anderson’s client list also includes gospel singer and Houston native Yolanda Adams.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Looking at money raised and spent in the GOP primary race for Place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court

In the Republican primary for Place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court, two candidates — 5th Court of Appeals Justice Jim Moseley of Dallas and 11th Court of Appeals Justice Rick Strange of Eastland — spent the most campaign funds in the last weeks of the battle, according to reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC). During the period covering Jan. 22 through Feb. 20, Moseley spent $118, 268, and Strange spent $128,295. But as Texans learned last week, those two will not appear on the April 13 runoff ballot. Instead, the runoff candidates are Dripping Springs lawyer Rick Green, who spent $58,868 in the same period, and 360th District Judge Debra Lehrmann, who spent $46,435 in the same period. According to a tally of TEC reports compiled by Texans For Public Justice, a nonprofit watchdog group, Moseley raised the most in campaign contributions among the six candidates for Republican Place 3 primary, $299,652, and Lehrmann raised the least, $111,743.

-- Miriam Rozen

This Week in Texas Lawyer

Last candidates standing:GOP primary voters have narrowed a six-pack of Texas Supreme Court Place 3 hopefuls down to two. Reporter Miriam Rozen and Senior Reporter Mary Alice Robbins introduce readers to Rick Green and Debra Lehrmann (pictured).

Give it up: The EEOC is seeking to force a firm to provide information. Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys has the back-and-forth in the rare application to enforce an administrative subpoena.

$58 million: Senior reporter Mary Alice Robbins looks into the history behind and prognosis for a jury verdict in a decade-long battle that spawned a Texas Supreme Court decision regarding arbitration.

Approach the bench: Senior reporter John Council learns about log cabins and childhood dreams fulfilled from 303rd District Judge Dennise Garcia (pictured).

Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal: Oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court focused on whether rage poisoned the Houston jury pool.

Inadmissible. Newsmakers. VerdictSearch. Discipline.

The Solo Life:Paul Schorn looks at the four people lawyers won’t meet in solo practice.

Metro makes allegations about former GC Pauline Higgins in motion seeking to void TRO that bans destruction of documents requested by Lloyd Kelley

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas “terminated” Pauline Higgins as general counsel due to “unsatisfactory performance continued over a prolonged period of time,” the transit agency alleges in a court document. The allegations against Higgins, who was fired on Feb. 23, are contained in a motion to void a temporary restraining order that prevents Metro from destroying documents requested by Houston attorney Lloyd Kelley under the Texas Public Information Act. In its motion to void the TRO in Lloyd Kelley v. Frank J. Wilson, et al., Metro alleges that its decision to terminate Higgins was made on Feb. 19, and it “had nothing to do with any allegations pertaining to document destruction or retention.” Metro alleges Higgins’ work performance was the subject of an independent personnel investigation by Metro’s Employee Advocacy Officer who recommended in December 2009 that Higgins be terminated. In that report, Metro notes in the motion, the officer “noted policy violations, described unacceptable turnover in Ms. Higgins’ department, and states that ‘[i]it was troubling to hear how Pauline had manipulated and caused so much fear into some of her past and present employees.’ ” Metro’s description of why Higgins was fired didn’t sit well with her attorney, Rusty Hardin, or the judge presiding over Kelley v. Wilson, 61st District Judge Al Bennett. At a temporary injunction hearing today, Bennett said he would grant Kelley’s motion to nonsuit Higgins, who had been named as a defendant in the TRO suit. But Hardin, of Rusty Hardin & Associates of Houston, complained to Bennett that Metro’s allegations about Higgins were not appropriate for the motion. Bennett agreed: “I noted it, and I was disappointed in it.” John Beckworth, a partner in Watt Beckworth Thompson & Henneman in Houston who represents Metro in Kelley v. Wilson, said Metro was simply trying to show that Higgins’ firing and the document dispute are unrelated. Higgins declined comment following the hearing, but Hardin told reporters after the hearing that he’s “tremendously disappointed and upset” that Metro put private personnel information about Higgins into the motion. In an interview Hardin says neither he nor Higgins has seen the report and cannot respond until they read it. Lawyers are due back in Bennett’s court in Kelley v. Wilson on March 9 with a proposed temporary injunction.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas requests more federal judges

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas is requesting four or five more judges in a survey submitted to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts in Washington, D.C. Today is the deadline for the nation’s 94 federal districts to respond to the survey, which is conducted every two years. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin says federal judges in the Western District came to a consensus that El Paso, Del Rio, Austin and Midland/Pecos each need one more judge. The judges in El Paso believe they need at least two new judges, not just one, Yeakel says. “This is just a statistical gathering of what judges think they need,” Yeakel says of the survey. Karen Redmond, spokeswoman for the Administrative Office, note sin an e-mail that the Judicial Conference of the United States won’t approve recommendations on new judgeships until March 2011. The U.S. Congress has the final say on creating new judgeships. Bill Putnicki, U.S. clerk of the Western District, says the district currently has 13 active judges, who have jurisdiction over an area covering more than 91,000 square miles. For the fiscal year that ended on Sept 30, 2009, the Western District’s weighted filings per judge averaged 691, Putnicki says. He says a formula is used to weight a case based on the difficulty of the issues involved and how much judge time it takes to dispose of the case. The national average for the 94 federal districts is 480 weighted filings per judge, Putnicki says. “That puts us at least in the top three [districts] in the county for the highest number of weighted filings per judge,” he says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Civil filing fees not applicable to bond-forfeiture cases on appeal

Bail bondsmen won a partial victory Wednesday in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision in Safety National Casualty Corp. (Agent Michael W. Cox) v. State. In its 7-2 decision, the CCA held that appellants are not required to pay civil filing fees in bond-forfeiture cases on appeal. CCA Judge Mike Keasler wrote for the majority, “Based on a historical evaluation of Article 444.44, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure and our judiciary’s history, we hold that civil filing statutes do not apply in such cases.” The CCA issued the same decision in Safety National’s two appeals in bond-forfeiture cases, both of which have the same case style. CCA Judges Charles Holcomb and Paul Womack dissented. The CCA’s decision in Safety National reverses a 2008 holding by Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals that civil appellate filing fees should be assessed in criminal bail-bond forfeiture cases. But Ken W. Good, attorney for Safety National, says the CCA “punted” on the imposition of civil filing fees in trial courts. That issue is beyond the scope of this case because Safety National did not raise it in the trial or the court of appeals, Keasler noted in the CCA’s majority opinion. In 2008, bail bondsmen began suing counties around the state, alleging that the counties were wrongly charging civil filing fees in bond-forfeiture cases. The bondsmen have another opportunity to have the courts address whether the fees can be assessed at the trial court level. Good, a shareholder in Kent, Good, Anderson & Bush in Tyler, says the issue is before Dallas’ 5th Court of Appeals in Ranger Insurance Co. v. State. Kathleen Braddock, a Harris County assistant district attorney who represents the state in Safety National, did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Houston judge declares death penalty unconstitutional

On March 4, 177th District Judge Kevin Fine(pictured) of Houston declared the death penalty unconstitutional. Fine granted a motion filed by defense attorneys in a capital murder case seeking to have the court find that Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 37.071 "violates the protections afforded to the Accused by the 8th and 14th Amendments . . . and that the option to sentence the Accused to die for a crime that he did not commit should be precluded as a sentencing option." “What he’s saying, and what the motion is saying, is that you can’t administer the Texas death penalty fairly in Texas,” says John P. Keirnan, a lawyer for the defendant. “Kevin Fine has taken a courageous stance, finally. This is the beginning of the end of the death penalty in Texas.” Keirnan and Robert Loper represent John Edward Green Jr. According to the indictment, Green is charged with capital murder for shooting Tina Vo to death in Houston on June 8, 2008, while attempting to rob her. Green has pleaded not guilty to the charge and goes to trial March 31. Fine, who has been on the bench since January 2009, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos writes in a statement that she and her office respectfully but vigorously disagree with Fine’s ruling “as it has no basis in law or in fact.” She writes, “Words are inadequate to describe the Office’s disappointment and dismay with this ruling; sadly it will delay justice for the victims and their families. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and other appellate courts have consistently rejected the same issues raised in the Green case.” According to a March 5 press release from the DA's office, lawyers from the office will ask an appellate court to overturn the ruling.  Here's Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's statement: "In an act of unabashed judicial activism, a state district judge ignored longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent and improperly granted John Edward Green's request that the court declare the death penalty unconstitutional. The Attorney General's Office has already offered to provide help and legal resources to the Harris County District Attorney's Office--which is handling the Green prosecution--and will take appropriate measures to defend Texas' capital punishment law. We regret that the court's legally baseless order unnecessarily delays justice and closure for the victim's family--including her two children, who witnessed their mother's brutal murder."

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Editor's note: The above blog has been updated with new information.

Prepare now for looming e-filing switch at 5th Circuit

Effective March 15, attorneys must file pleadings electronically in cases before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They had better register and be ready for e-filing before the deadline, advises Charles R. “Fritz” Fulbruge III, the court’s clerk. Fulbruge says mandatory electronic case filing (ECF) applies to cases that come to the 5th Circuit from the district courts. However, Fulbruge says, “Anything that is case opening, where we have the original jurisdiction, has to be filed in paper.” Fulbruge says an attorney must be admitted to practice in the 5th Circuit and have registered as an ECF user before the court will accept an ECF pleading. An attorney can register, at no charge, through the PACER Service Center Web site. An attorney also must file an appearance form in a case before filing electronically, Fulbruge says. He warns attorneys not to wait to register as an ECF user until they need to file pleadings because there can be a delay between the time the attorney registers on PACER and the time the registration is complete. “It may be a day or two,” he says. Fulbruge also advises attorneys to read the information available on the 5th Circuit’s Web site  before trying to file. “We have found some people will call in and say, ‘I’m registered, but I can’t file,’ ” Fulbruge says. The problem, he says, may be that the attorney’s computer does not meet the technical specifications for ECF, something the 5th Circuit’s Web site discusses. Margaret Dufour, the clerk’s secretary who staffs the ECF help desk at the 5th Circuit, says a user who does not have the correct programs and updates on his or her browser will not be able to access the program for filing. Dufour suggests that attorneys test their computer capabilities to access the program before they need to file pleadings. The 5th Circuit has been offering electronic filing on a voluntary basis since Dec. 7, 2009. Fulbruge says 5,400 people had registered as ECF users as of March 4, but the 5th Circuit had received only 2,177 ECF filings by that date.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

It's the first week on the job for new Exxon Mobil Corp. GC Jack Balagia

On Monday, Jack Balagia (pictured) became general counsel for Exxon Mobil Corp., succeeding Charles Matthews, who retired. Balagia, an in-house lawyer for Irving-based Exxon Mobil for nearly 12 years, had been assistant general counsel-litigation. Balagia says he will move to the Dallas area from Houston because of his promotion. "This is the kind of job one accepts when it's offered. It's a tremendous honor and an awesome responsibility," he says. Exxon Mobil has 456 lawyers worldwide and about 250 in the United States, he says. Before joining Exxon's litigation section in 1998, Balagia was a partner in McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore and helped open the firm's Houston office in 1990. The new job could mean some big bucks for Balagia. In 2008, Matthews, vice president and GC of Exxon Mobil, earned a pay package totaling $9,700,227, including equity with a fair market value of $5,490,643. He was the highest-paid general counsel in Texas, according to Texas Lawyer’s annual Corporate Roster, which examined 2008 executive compensation at the 118 Texas companies on the Fortune 1,000 list.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Widow sued by widow is now represented by Mike McKetta

John "Mike" McKetta III, who served as the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's special counsel in In Re: Honorable Sharon Keller, represents the widow of the pilot whose plane crashed into a North Austin building housing an Internal Revenue Service branch last month. That's according to an assistant in McKetta's office, who declines to be named, and Dan Ross of The Ross Law Firm in Austin. The widow of a man who died after the plane hit the building sued the pilot's widow in state district court in Travis County, according to the Austin-American Statesman. Ross represents the widow who is suing.

-- Miriam Rozen

Postmortem on the bar exam

On Feb. 23-Feb. 25, would-be lawyers endured the three-day Texas bar exam. Taylor Lewis, who graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in December 2009, sat for the test and agreed to answer some questions about it via e-mail. She writes that the toughest part was dealing with her aching hand. She decided to hand write the bar exam “to avoid having to worry about all of the computer issues that may arise and to save a few hundred dollars, and of course, the worst part was that my hand hurt so bad after the first few hours of writing. It was a struggle to write the rest of the exam,” she writes. And while she notes that every day had its ups and downs, overall, she doesn’t think the bar exam is a particularly difficult test. “It is just a ton of material,” she writes. “Also, it doesn't seem like an accurate measure of who will be a good attorney and who will not. It doesn't test knowledge or practical skills. It tests memorization skills,” she writes. Lewis spent the evening of the final day celebrating her finish with friends. “I went to dinner and drinks with my friends,” she writes. “They took the bar this summer, so I got to express my frustrations with people that understood.”
-- Jacylyn Gardner

Appellate court justice seeks depositions

Waco 10th Court of Appeals Justice Felipe Reyna, who today faced a challenge to his re-election bid from 378th District Judge Al Scoggins in the Republican primary, has filed a petition to take depositions of an individual and principals, officers or agents of two organizations. On Monday, Reyna filed a verified petition to take depositions before suit in the 414th District Court in McLennan County in In Re: Felipe Reyna. He claims in his petition that Dr. John Coppedge, a retired physician from Longview, and the Texas BiPartisan Justice Committee (TBPJC) have published statements on the TBPJC Web site that defamed Reyna. He seeks to depose Coppedge and TBPJC representatives. He also seeks to depose representatives of Brazos County Physicians for Judge Scoggins to determine if the organization participated in any way in creating the alleged defamatory statements. The purpose of the depositions, according to the petition, is to obtain testimony in an anticipated civil suit, as allowed by Texas Rule of Civil Procedures 202. Reyna alleges in the petition that the TBPJC published on its Web site false and defamatory statements against him in an article endorsing Scoggins. As alleged in the petition, the article contains statements that “Reyna has been a disaster on the [10th] court” and that his “opinions are those of a classic liberal judicial activist.” According to the petition, the TBPJC article states that, arguably, Reyna is the most frequently reversed appellate judge and that “he favors criminals in criminal cases and plaintiffs in civil cases.” Reyna refers questions about the petition to his attorney, Darrell Keith, a shareholder in the Keith Law Firm in Fort Worth. Keith says, “Justice Reyna is appalled and shocked at the attacks on his integrity as a judge and considers this to be way beyond unfair campaign practices.” Keith says Reyna believes the evidence will show that he has ruled in favor of defendants in civil suits 60 percent of the time and for the state in criminal cases 95 percent of the time. Coppedge, who says he is the treasurer for the TBPJC and the Brazos County physicians group, declines comment on Reyna’s petition. Scoggins did not return a telephone seeking comment.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Attorney job seekers could be in luck in-house

Lawyers looking for new jobs may find more opportunity this year in corporate legal departments: 29 percent of chief legal officers who participated in the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 10th Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey say they plan to hire lawyers this year. Last year, only 23 percent of the CLOs who participated in the survey had hiring plans. Also, ACC reports that 28 percent of the 970 chief legal officers who responded to the survey say they will hire lawyers this year for “commoditized work,” and 21 percent say they will hire specialists. The Washington, D.C.-based ACC notes in a press release that it conducted the survey in December 2009 with assistance from research firm The Boone Group.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5th Circuit judge to preside over fairy tale trial

It’s billed as "The Trial of Gold E. Locks," with 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward C. Prado presiding. The mock trials, featuring the famous children's storybook characters, are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. and then again 3:00 p.m. on March 6 at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. The proceedings, which will include three bears and a girl defendant, are part of the university's all-day events for families who want to learn about the the school. Brandi Weaver, a spokeswoman for the law school's student affairs office, which organizes the trials, says law students play the storybook characters. This is the fifth year Prado has presided, Weaver says. Prado typically selects the jury panels from the children in the audience, Weaver says.

-- Miriam Rozen

Plaintiffs in suit against Perry Homes, warranty company, win $58 million

On March 1, a Fort Worth jury awarded more than $58 million in damages, including $44 million in punitive damages, to a Mansfield couple who sued Perry Homes and a home warranty company over structural and drainage problems in the home they bought from Perry Homes in 1996. The 236th District Court jury returned its verdict in Cull and Cull v. Perry Homes, et al. “I think justice was done,” says Van Shaw, lead counsel for plaintiffs Robert and Jane Cull. Shaw, principal in the Law Office of Van Shaw in Dallas, says the jury awarded the Culls about $7.1 million in actual damages and $40 million in punitive damages against Perry Homes. The jury awarded the Culls the same amount of actual damages against Warranty Underwriters Insurance Co. plus $4 million in punitive damages, says Shaw, who predicts the defendants will appeal the verdict. Gardere Wynne Sewell Dallas partner Gregory A. Harwell, attorney for Perry Homes and Warranty Underwriters, did not return a telephone call and an e-mail seeking comment. In 2002, an arbitrator had awarded the Culls $800,000, but Perry Homes and Warranty Underwriters appealed that award to the Texas Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision in 2008, the high court vacated the arbitration  award. Then-Justice Scott Brister wrote for the majority that the Culls, who sought to compel arbitration shortly before the case was scheduled to be tried, waited too long, thereby waiving the arbitration option.
-- Mary Alice Robbins