17 results for 'judge:"Landau"'.
J. Landau finds that the trial court awarded the wrong amount of attorney fees to a transferee company in a loan dispute case, but otherwise properly granted declaratory judgment against the borrower. The transferee company failed to separate which claims it could have recovered attorney’s fees from, and as such, the trial court failed to place the proper limit on the award. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: August 30, 2024, Case #: 01-21-00042-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Banking / Lending, Attorney Fees
J. Landau finds that trial court improperly certified the class in a product defect and warranty suit against a water filtration company. Though the class members do have standing to sue, the class certification order failed to address the company’s asserted defenses. The trial court’s initial order fails to resolve what, if any, individual issues would overtake the class’s combined issues in the trial. Reversed and remanded.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: August 30, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00422-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Product Liability, Class Action
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly granted summary judgment to two individuals in a property title dispute against a trust and its attorney. The two individuals filed the correct kind of action to claim the title on the land, and they had a clearly established interest in the land from the deed they purchased from the Internal Revenue Service. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: August 13, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00008-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Property, Real Estate
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress statements he made in custody. Defendant’s statements in custody were not the product of interrogation, but were instead spontaneous responses to general questions. However, the trial court wrongly made defendant repay attorney’s fees that he did not have sufficient funds to pay. Affirmed as modified.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: August 13, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00294-CR, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Drug Offender, Attorney Fees
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly allowed testimony of two witnesses in defendant’s trial for aggravated sexual assault of a child. The trial court correctly designated the forensic examiner as the proper outcry witness because the first person the child disclosed the abuse to had no memory or notes of the meeting. And the forensic nurse’s testimony was not hearsay because the child’s statements during the examination were relevant to proper medical diagnosis and treatment. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: August 6, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00037-CR, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Assault
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[Consolidated.] J. Landau finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of providing a prohibited substance in a correctional facility. During trial, defendant objected to jail calls admitted into evidence because he said they violated the Confrontation Clause, but on appeal he objects to them based on his own statements made in the calls. His appeal arguments are not the same as his arguments during trial, so he did not preserve this issue for appeal. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: July 18, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00843-CR, Categories: Evidence
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly ordered the former wife to pay child support. The wife voluntarily left her job and never started her new job, so the trial court did not abuse its discretion when determining that she was voluntarily unemployed and using her potential earnings to determine child support. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: July 9, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00774-CV, Categories: Family Law
J. Landau finds that the trial court improperly denied summary judgment to the oil-and-gas station in a suit stemming from an incident in which an independent contractor was electrocuted when the trailer of a truck and hit an overhead power line. The station owner owed no duty to the independent contractor under any negligence theory because the owner did not exercise actual control over the contractor's work. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: July 9, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00373-CV, Categories: Tort, Negligence
J. Landau finds that the trial court improperly partitioned a gas station and convenience store and the land it sits on by forced sale from one co-owner to another, rather than ordering a sale and division of the proceeds. Permitting the trial court to force a sale of the co-owner's interests to the other co-owner "would directly conflict with the requirements of a winding up process." Reversed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: June 25, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00412-CV, Categories: Property, Partnerships
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child. Although the trial court should have only allowed testimony from one outcry witness and not from three, the error was harmless because the jury heard evidence about the sexual assaults from two sources other than the three outcry witnesses. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: June 20, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00706-CR, Categories: Sex Offender, Witnesses, Child Victims
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly dismissed the insured's action in connection with a claim she made on her homeowners' insurance policy for damage to her plumbing caused by the freeze in Texas in early 2021. The damage was "water" damage even though it was prompted by the freeze, so the insured's claim was subject to the water damage endorsement's coverage limit of $10,000. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: May 14, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00797-CV, Categories: Insurance
J. Landau finds that the trial court properly admitted extraneous offense evidence during the guilt phase of defendant's murder trial. Evidence that defendant assaulted the murder victim's teenage son a few months before the murder had significant probative value that was not outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice to defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: May 9, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00173-CR, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Sentencing
J. Landau finds the lower court improperly issued a default family violence protective order against a boyfriend. A girlfriend applied for the protective order on grounds of alleged harassment and family violence. A temporary order was granted and a date for the protective order hearing was set, but the boyfriend did not appear. A private process server’s affidavit stated that the boyfriend had been served the citation and application for protective order, and the lower court issued a default judgment against the boyfriend and issued a lifetime protective order. The instant court finds that the default protective order required service of notice of the application, and the record does not show that he was served with it. The matter is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: April 21, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00597-CV, Categories: Restraining Order
J. Landau finds the lower court properly rendered judgment for a buyer in this matter concerning possession of real estate. A borrower secured a loan by deed of trust, and when he stopped paying on the loan, the lender followed through with a foreclosure sale of the property. The borrower refused to vacate the property, so the buyer sued for possession, which the lower court granted. The borrower argues the lower court did not have jurisdiction over the matter because the district court had to resolve title first; the instant court disagrees and finds the lower court had jurisdiction over the matter. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00677-CV , Categories: Real Estate, Jurisdiction, Foreclosure
J. Landau finds the lower court properly found in favor of a bounce house company in this matter of alleged negligence. A child fractured his leg while jumping in an inflatable bounce house at a birthday party. A parent of the child filed suit against the bounce house company claiming it was negligent because it did not have a trained attendant at the party to supervise the use of the bounce house, but provided no evidence to show that supervision by the company would have prevented any injury. The instant court finds no error in the lower court’s decision to dismiss. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00898-CV, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
J. Landau finds the lower court properly terminated the parental rights of a mother and father to their minor child on grounds that they knowingly placed or allowed the child to remain in conditions that endangered the child’s well-being, that she failed to comply with a court order establishing the child’s return to her custody, and that it is in the child’s best interest. The child was removed from the parent’s custody and placed into foster care after the mother set fire to the family home with the child inside, removed the child from the premises and threw the child over a fence to the ground. Despite the father's claims that he had no criminal history, an FBI background check revealed 15 criminal charges, including 13 felony convictions for identity theft. Neither parent provided verifiable proof of income, and the mother told authorities that the father had trafficked her and that she was a sex worker, a claim she later denied in addition to her previous claims of domestic violence. The lower court found the parents were unable to care for the child or provide a safe environment. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 01-23-00765-CV, Categories: Family Law
J. Landau finds the lower court properly issued a take-nothing judgment in this matter of alleged tortious interference. Evidence is sufficient to support the jury’s finding that a third-party factoring company did not engage in business disparagement or tortious interference with existing contracts when it contacted a freight brokerage company’s primary client seeking assistance in collecting payment from the freight brokerage. Affirmed
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Landau, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 01-22-00623-CV, Categories: Debt Collection, Tort, Interference With Contract