57 results for 'judge:"Palafox"'.
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in granting summary judgment to El Paso in a tax dispute with residents. Those residents argued there were still genuine factual disputes in this case, including their contention that tax authorities had “improperly and unlawfully” rejected payment of taxes as well as a tax protest, but the residents could not show a factual dispute after the city was able to “conclusively establish all elements of a … delinquent tax suit.” Their disputes with the city should have raised administratively, not here. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: September 28, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00004-CV, Categories: Administrative Law, Government, Tax
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly when it convicted defendant of sexually abusing his daughter. Defendant argued that he had received ineffective counsel, but for the most part the record of this case is not “sufficiently developed to overcome the presumption of reasonable assistance,” and in a specific case where he argued his attorney had failed to object to inadmissible testimony, the testimony was in fact allowable and therefore “objections would have been futile.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00121-CR, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in denying Whataburger’s efforts to dismiss, on Texas Citizens Protection Act grounds, a lawsuit brought by a customer who said was rear-ended in a Whataburger drive-thru, leading to a physical altercation. The customer said Whataburger had failed to handle the situation properly in a number of ways, including by allegedly failing to adequately train employees or maintain security. Whataburger argued it was immune in the suit under the Act, which protects the right of free association and speech in Texas, but the consumer asserts negligence and liability claims that are not covered under the TCPA. Affirmed.l
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: September 7, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00017-CV, Categories: Damages, Negligence, Premises Liability
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in denying habeas corpus relief and a new hearing to a convicted sex offender. Though that sex offender has already completed his sentence, he argues he is nonetheless "restrained by lifetime sex offender registration" and had ineffective counsel and is actually innocent. However, he has not "brought forward newly discovered affirmative evidence that unquestionably establishes his innocence." Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00237-CR, Categories: Evidence, Habeas, Sex Offender
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J. Palafox finds a lower court partially erred in granting summary judgment against a negligence claim brought by a truck driver against another truck driver following an accident caused by a loss in tire pressure. The suing truck driver may still establish a "logically traceable connection" between negligence of the other driver and his injury, and therefore summary judgment was not appropriate at this stage of the case. Reversed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00101-CV, Categories: Tort, Vehicle, Negligence
J. Palafox finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of DUI, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including evidence that defendant admitted she was driving the car at the time of the accident. Defendant's right to physically confront witnesses was not violated when the trial court admitted the testimony of two witnesses via Zoom teleconference. Defendant failed to object to the testimony. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for a mistrial based on the jury's alleged confusion about the verdict form. The trial court was confused in how it had viewed the verdict and later told the jury it had correctly returned the verdict. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00183-CR, Categories: Assault, Dui, Manslaughter
J. Palafox finds that the probate court improperly ruled in favor of the brothers in a conspiracy, conversion and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty action against the caregivers alleging mismanagement of community and estate assets. The master in chancery's report did not conclusively establish every element of the brothers' causes of action or show any evidence of intent on the part of the caregivers. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00148-CV, Categories: Wills / Probate
J. Palafox finds that the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to modify and rescind an order to withdraw funds from his inmate trust fund. Defendant was convicted of aggravated robbery, sentenced to 99 years in prison and $2,300 in attorney fees were assessed against him. Defendant failed to challenge the sufficiency of evidence to support the imposition of attorney fees in his direct appeal. Defendant received procedural due process when he received notice of the withdrawal order. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00085-CV, Categories: Robbery, Attorney Fees
J. Palafox finds a lower court abused its discretion in ordering a new trial for defendant, whom a jury found guilty of indecency with a child, and orders that verdict and judgment to be reinstated. Defendant argued there was insufficient evidence that he had sexual contact with the child victim, but the victim consistently testified that she felt him rubbing his genitals against her in a public location and the jury was free to draw reasonable conclusions and inferences from the victim’s testimony and their own knowledge of the real world. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 27, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00246-CR, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds that a lower court ruled correctly in favor of a client in a dispute with an attorney over attorney fees related to a separate matter. The attorney raises a range of issues on appeal, but most of those issues are "inadequately briefed." While the attorney need only show that he completed contractual work but was not paid an agreed-upon amount for it, some potentially critical documentation here, such as invoices, "were not received into evidence." Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00131-CV, Categories: Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Palafox finds that a lower court properly denied defendant habeas relief and a motion to dismiss in a case involving child sexual abuse. Defendant argues that the victim improperly presented evidence that fell outside of his indictment and that prosecutors "increased charges against him solely because he exercised his lawful rights" by complaining about this, but in fact prosecutors chose to re-indict defendant based on new information. Defendant, rather than moving for a speedy trial, "instead requested a continuance." Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00179-CR, Categories: Sex Offender, Speedy Trial, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in clarifying and enforcing the division of property in a divorce case. The ex-husband argued the terms of an agreed-upon divorce decree were not “ambiguous” and that the court therefore had no business to further modify and clarify it — but after a dispute arose among the parties about the terms of the agreement, the lower court determined the agreement was not “specific enough to allow enforcement by contempt” and therefore committed no error in further clarifying. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00218-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Contempt, Family Law
J. Palafox withdraws this court’s previous opinion issued on March 8, 2023, and substitutes it for one finding the lower court did not err in granting summary judgment to a groundwater district and local official in a water dispute. An interested investment company alleged it had wrongfully been denied party status in a third party’s water application renewal process, but the investment company could neither show how it exhausted administrative remedies nor how it can overcome governmental immunity. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: July 10, 2023, Case #: 08-21-00200-CV, Categories: Government, Water, Immunity
J. Palafox finds that the lower court properly revoked defendant’s deferred adjudication community supervision, finding him guilty of arson and sentencing him to 10 years’ imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. The appeal is frivolous. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00027-CR, Categories: Sentencing
J. Palafox conditionally grants mandamus relief to the U.S. Postal Service and a postal carrier who were sued following a vehicle collision. Both the Postal Service and carrier argued that a local electric company and resident should be designated as third parties because they allege that a telephone pole, a rock wall and shrubbery obscured visibility and contributed to the accident, and the parties timely moved to designate them.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00100-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Tort, Vehicle
J. Palafox denies motions for rehearings from both parties following a dispute between a resident and a condominium association over allegedly unpaid fees that resulted in a foreclosure judgment against the resident. However, the lower court did err in granting no-evidence summary judgment against the resident after he argued he had stopped paying fees because the condominium breached its duty to him by not performing repairs. While this alleged lack of repairs did not excuse defendant from paying fees, it did nonetheless provide him with his own valid cause of action. Affirmed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 13, 2023, Case #: 08-21-00057-CV, Categories: Housing, Foreclosure, Contract
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in issuing a take-nothing summary judgment against a home developer after it sued a HOA for several claims in a dispute over HOA rules prohibiting it from working on a home in the subdivision. The developer raised a range of alleged issues with the lower court finding, including arguing that the “Architectural Control Committee” for the HOA had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously,” but the developer has raised no points to show either that the HOA’s rules were unreasonable or illegal or that it was treated differently than other developers may have been. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00134-CV, Categories: Property, Housing, Contract
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in terminating the parental rights of a mother. The mother argued authorities had not provided adequate evidence either to justify a removal or to support their contention that removal was in the child’s best interest. In fact, not only did authorities make “reasonable efforts,” as required by law, to ensure the child could return to the mother, but the mother also did not “regularly visit or maintain significant contact” with her child while the child was in the care of Texas’ child welfare agency. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 08-23-00037-CV, Categories: Administrative Law, Family Law, Guardianship
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in convicting defendant of sexual assault of a child. Defendant argued there was not adequate evidence to convict him due to a lack of physical evidence and because he argued prosecutors “investigate or clarify the timing of the alleged assaults,” but it is the responsibility of the jury to “reconcile conflicts, contradictions and inconsistencies in the evidence,” and the jury did not abuse its discretion in doing just that. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: June 6, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00119-CR, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds a lower court correctly terminated a mother’s parental rights. The mother argued there was not adequate evidence to determine she was an unfit mother or remove her parental rights, but child welfare workers provided evidence of the mother’s “ongoing drug use” and “lack of participation in court-ordered services.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00247-CV, Categories: Evidence, Family Law, Guardianship
J. Palafox finds a lower court ruled correctly in convicting defendant of evading arrest in a motor vehicle. Defendant argued there wasn’t adequate evidence to prove he “intentionally” fled police and that he had merely wanted to get his vehicle back to his house before surrendering, but regardless, defendant “admitted he did not stop when he knew he was lawfully required to do so.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00176-CR, Categories: Evidence, Resisting Arrest, Vehicle
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in declining to dismiss a negligence and wrongful death suit against a hospital after a patient died following alleged “use or misuse of a catheter.” That patient initially brought suit over the incident and his widow continued the case after his death. While the hospital sought a plea to the jurisdiction and argued it had provided reasonable care to the patient, that question is “not relevant to our analysis today.” Rather, the question is whether the patient’s injury was “proximately caused” by “tangible property” belonging to the hospital, and the hospital has not been able to show otherwise. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00112-CV, Categories: Health Care, Negligence, Wrongful Death