226 results for 'court:"USDC Western District of Texas "'.
J. Rodriguez denies several motions, including a motion for a new trial, brought by a healthcare provider after it was subject of a qui tam lawsuit involving fraudulent Medicare billing. While the healthcare company now disputes the methodology by which the number of false claims were counted, ���it is simply too late��� at this stage for the company to raise this issue, not least because it previously agreed on jury instructions.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Rodriguez, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 5:17cv317, NOS: False Claims Act - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Health Care, False Claims
J. Pitman partially grants a motion to dismiss crossclaims brought by the CEO of an e-commerce liquor company after he was countersued by a former employee who asserted ownership claims over the company and was previously sued for copyright infringement. A fraud counterclaim by the former employee should be dismissed because she has failed to include ���vital��� information about when she learned she would not have a significant stake in the company ��� but she may amend her complaint to add this information, and her other claims can proceed.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv467, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Fraud, Business Practices
J. Pulliam finds a hearing officer ruled correctly in determining that individualized education programs issued for a troubled child were reasonable and appropriately addressed his educational needs. The hearing officer found the school district had done ���all that it could��� to design an education plan for the student, and the student���s family has not provided adequate evidence that the district failed to provide him a free appropriate public education. Affirmed.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 5:21cv636, NOS: Education - Civil Rights, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Education
J. Bemporad grants an IT company summary judgment on a retaliation claim after it was sued by a former employee who argued she was fired because she is a Black woman. The company���s stated reason for the firing was that the former employee was not meeting performance expectations for a software test, and while the firing came just days after the employee complained of discrimination, she has not provided evidence that the stated reason for termination was pretextual.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Bemporad, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 5:22cv796, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Employment Retaliation
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J. Hightower denies an insurance company���s motion for a protective order and an alternative motion to quash subpoenas in a discovery dispute with a home building company over alleged construction defects at hundreds of properties, which the building company argues should be covered by its insurance. The insurance company argues the court has not yet ruled on whether the policy was ambiguous and therefore that ���underwriting materials and extrinsic evidence��� about the policies are not ���relevant or discoverable,��� but the court is not ruling on whether these materials ���should be admitted into evidence,��� and the insurance company has not met its burden to disregard discovery requests.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Hightower, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1375, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Insurance, Discovery
J. Gilliland denies a cybersecurity company���s motion to transfer a case to the Northern District of California after it was sued along with several other companies by a competitor in a consolidated and partially redacted case alleging infringement of several patents because the company has not shown that the California court is clearly more convenient.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Gilliland, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: 6:22cv239, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Venue
J. Pitman adopts the magistrate���s report and recommendations, granting a motion for attorney fees and costs brought by an advocacy group dedicated to the separation of church and state after it sued Texas for removing the group���s display from the state capitol building. That display ��� installed under the ���Capitol Exhibit Rule,��� which allows anyone to ���submit an exhibit for display at the Capitol��� so long as it meets certain ���undemanding requirements��� ��� depicted ���Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and the Statue of Liberty gathered around a manger containing the Bill of Rights,��� and was taken down after Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked another official to ���remove the display from the Capitol immediately.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 1:16cv233, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Government, First Amendment
J. Hightower grants and denies several discovery motions in a negligence suit brought by a citizen who says he was rear-ended by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service official. The United States��� motion to exclude some testimony offered by the citizen, including a crash expert who offered legal conclusions, should be partially granted, but the government���s opposed motion to extend discovery deadlines should be denied because lawyers for the U.S. ���did not sufficiently confer��� with the civilian���s counsel.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Hightower, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv787, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Vehicle, Discovery
J. Hightower partially grants a company���s motion to strike a competitor���s reply brief after it sued that competitor for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets and other claims because the first company argues that the reply, which includes more than 230 pages of exhibits, ���includes reams of new evidence improperly introduced for the first time on reply.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Hightower, Filed On: January 4, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1327, NOS: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - Property Rights, Categories: Fraud, Trade Secrets, Jurisdiction
J. Torres denies a former Customs and Border Patrol employee���s motion for appointment of counsel after she sued the agency on her own behalf for discrimination. Not only is the employee unlikely to succeed in her case, but she has demonstrated ���sufficient financial resources to continue her search for counsel,��� including because she has savings and paid an initial filing fee.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Torres, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv139, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination
J. Albright denies a tech company���s motion to transfer this patent case to the District of Idaho after it was sued by a competitor for allegedly infringing on a patent for ���variable charge pump circuit with dynamic load.��� The District of Idaho is not clearly more convenient, but the parties can transfer this case to the Austin venue, as both agree that venue would be better than the Waco one it���s in.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Albright, Filed On: January 2, 2024, Case #: 6:22cv855, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Venue, Technology
J. Gilliland denies a motion to stay by Dropbox after it was sued by a competitor for alleged infringement on file-management patents because while Dropbox has sought an inter partes review of the patents in this case, the ���alleged benefits��� of waiting for that review unfairly prejudice the competitor company and are outweighed by ���the costs of postponing resolution of this case.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Gilliland, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv1142, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Patent
J. Pitman denies motions to dismiss by both citizen defendants and "prosecutor defendants" after they were sued by abortion groups who wish to continue funding services like out-of-state travel and lodging for Texans seeking abortions but have been unable to do so due to the Dobbs decision and SB 8, a Texas law that allows people to sue a person who "aids and abets" an abortion. The groups have shown that they have suffered an injury traceable to prosecutor defendants, that SB 8 defendants were properly joined in this case, and that the WDTX is a proper venue for this case.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv859, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution
J. Smith compels certain testimony in a sprawling lawsuit stemming from the latest round of legislative redistricting in Texas, which the United States and private plaintiffs argue improperly diluted the votes of Latino voters in Texas. Texas lawmakers have asserted legislative privilege in this case in an effort to avoid turning over documents, and while this privilege is sometimes valid, lawmakers have in some cases "waived their privilege" by communicating with outside third parties.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Smith, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv259, NOS: Voting - Civil Rights, Categories: Elections, Discovery, Privilege
J. Pulliam denies a produce company���s motion to dismiss a suit for failure to state a claim after it was sued by a competitor alleging that the produce company was using its trademarked package design ��� namely, a ���two-piece plastic container consisting of a solid yellow opaque base or lid with a clear transparent dome.��� The produce company argues that ���consumer confusion is implausible��� because of differences in packaging, but it is ���similarities between the packaging, not differences, [that] cause customer confusion.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 5:23cv445, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Tort, Trademark, Business Practices
J. Pulliam declines to dismiss a lawsuit, including counterclaims brought by defendants, in a dispute stemming from an alleged oral agreement by defendants to provide ���consulting and collaboration��� to advertising campaigns. Both parties asserted multiple claims against each other, including fraud, and there are too many genuine factual disputes to justify dismissing either side���s claims at this time.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 5:23cv791, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Fraud, Trademark
J. Cardone dismisses some claims in a employment dispute brought by a Black former employee who alleged she was discriminated against while working for a staffing agency providing services for a migrant shelter for unaccompanied children. Although the employee initially held a ���leadership position,��� she said she was wrongfully demoted and abruptly terminated following a change of ownership between defendant companies. The employee has raised sufficient allegations for her case against the second company for some claims to survive, and while the second company argues that it never in fact employed the woman, she says she was not ���privy to information about the precise relationship��� between the companies, and it is not her responsibility to ���divine facts��� that are ���in the sole possession of defendants.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Cardone, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 3:23cv46, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Pitman grants a motion to dismiss after an advocacy group sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials after Abbott issued a directive in 2022 banning TikTok from government devices. While the group argued the directive could infringe on academic freedom, this is not the ���appropriate framework��� for analyzing this case because the directive is ���not a restraint on public employee speech��� and is ���motivated by Texas���s data protection concerns.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv783, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Government, Technology
J. Howell denies a former graduate student���s attempt to disqualify counsel of another party ��� an allegedly abusive teaching assistant ��� after the graduate student brought a civil rights suit against the University of Texas. The graduate student argues the counsel should be disqualified because she had contacted the firm before filing her suit, creating a conflict. Disqualification is not mandatory in this case, because while the grad student argues this court should use its discretionary power to disqualify the attorney anyways, the danger of prejudice is ���exceedingly minimal��� and the law firm has ���done everything within its power��� to prevent it.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Howell, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv1040, NOS: Education - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Education
J. Rodriguez dismisses for lack of jurisdiction a lawsuit brought by a payment-processing company against former executives seeking to protect trade secrets. While the company has argued that the employees are now working elsewhere in the country and that a federal court should have jurisdiction for that reason, the disputes in this case center around ���unilateral activities performed ... in Texas.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Rodriguez, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: 5:23cv840, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Pitman denies summary judgment to Texas��� family services agency after it was sued by a former employee who alleged the agency did not provide adequate accommodations for her after a serious car accident. While the department argues the employee was unable to maintain her workload, she was allegedly ���assigned significantly more work than her peers,��� and ���consistent above-average performance��� cannot be the standard on which her employment is judged, raising genuine factual disputes in this case.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv1218, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Pitman partially denies summary judgment to a Texas county after it was sued by citizens following the suicide of their relative in county jail. While the citizens cannot proceed with failure to train claims, they can proceed with claims over conditions of confinement because there are genuine concerns raised over the jail���s policy of ���allowing inmates to hang blankets across their cell bars to prevent staff from looking inside.���
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv149, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Government
J. Ezra declines to adopt a report and recommendations after a previous judge denied default judgment to an outerwear company in a trademark dispute due to what the previous judge said was lack of personal jurisdiction. The outerwear company had decided not to several product lines and had instead entered a contract to destroy and recycle them, but contrary to that agreement some of the products were instead illicitly sold. While the previous judge found that a person sued in the case did not have sufficient contacts in Texas, Texas has ���legitimate interests in adjudicating a dispute that involves the sale of goods in Texas and to Texas consumers,��� and the outerwear company likewise has ���a compelling interest in obtaining relief in the forum where its goodwill and reputation have been damaged��� due to alleged illicit sales.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Ezra, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1337, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Trademark, Conversion, Contract