28 results for 'judge:"Pulliam"'.
J. Pulliam denies a franchisee’s motion to dismiss after he and his company were sued by a franchisor in a contract dispute. While that franchisee argues that this court lacks jurisdiction, he is “closely related to the dispute” and therefore “bound by the forum selection clause contained within the Franchise Agreement,” which specifies that either the Western District of Texas or Travis County state court will be the forum for any contract disputes.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1531, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Jurisdiction, Venue, Contract
J. Pulliam remands to state court a convoluted contractual dispute concerning the foreclosure of several properties, because a nondiverse party in the case — a substitute trustee for the foreclosing bank — was properly joined, and therefore this court lacks jurisdiction.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1527, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Jurisdiction, Foreclosure, Contract
J. Pulliam mostly grants an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in a dispute with policyholders over payout for roof damage, which the insurer contends was largely uncovered wear-and-tear. While the policyholders have not shown bad faith, and the insurer is therefore entitled to summary judgement on most of their claims, the insurer has conversely presented “no specific argument” for dismissing the remainder of the case, including for alleged violations of the Texas Prompt Payment Act.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv411, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Pulliam issues several rulings, including denying an Air Force worker’s motion for leave to amend her complaint, after that worker sued the secretary of the Air Force in a pro se case for failing to accommodate her alleged disability and retaliating against her. Multiple ripe motions stacked up because the worker has not responded to filings, which she says is a result of service issues. Regardless, the worker’s delays have been “particularly egregious” and have caused undue prejudice, and this court is “uncertain” why she has been unable to receive court orders.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 5:22cv1186, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment
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J. Pulliam adopts a report and recommendations and denies partial summary judgment to a oilfield services company after it was sued by former workers in a class action for allegedly failing to pay overtime. At dispute in this case is whether employee pay by the company constitutes “a salary plus a bonus or a salary plus a day rate.” The company argued that a previous judge failed to comply with precedent on wage laws, but in fact it is the company that misreads precedent.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 5:21cv142, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Class Action, Labor
J. Pulliam dismisses most claims in a lawsuit brought by a citizen against San Antonio and several police officers after the citizen was shot multiple times with sponge rounds during George Floyd protests in 2020. While the citizen’s claims overall do not survive qualified immunity, and he has “abandoned” some of them by failing to brief them, he can bring excessive force claims against the officer who shot him twice. Video footage of the scene “does not unambiguously support” the officer’s explanation for why he fired a second time, and the San Antonio Complaint and
Administrative Review Board found the citizen’s allegations about the second shot are “justified.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 5:21cv837, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Police Misconduct
J. Pulliam finds a bankruptcy court ruled correctly in confirming a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan after that plan was disputed by a loan servicing company. The company’s arguments here are “repetitive” and have already been “dispelled by courts in other divisions,” and the company is admonished that in the future it must “focus on ways in which it contends the bankruptcy court erred, rather than simply reiterating arguments made to the bankruptcy court.” Affirmed.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: February 12, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv361, NOS: Bankruptcy Appeal 28 USC 158 - Bankruptcy, Categories: Bankruptcy, Civil Procedure
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. 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. Pulliam finds a San Antonio officer is entitled to qualified immunity in a civil rights lawsuit stemming from a deadly police shooting. The victim in the shooting, a young woman who was walking near a school with a BB gun, may have had “no malintent” in reaching for the BB gun during a police encounter, but regardless she made a “clear, deliberate and indisputable effort to reach for it,” giving the officer probable cause for use of deadly force.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: October 2, 2023, Case #: 5:21cv281, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Pulliam declines to dismiss a lawsuit brought against a financial company by a consumer who alleges the company and others unfairly dinged his credit and tried to collect debts from him that stemmed from identity theft. Amendment is more appropriate than dismissal at this stage because the consumer needs to better clarify which claims he is seeking against which companies, and because the company in this motion has not provided adequate basis for dismissal under the shaky argument that it is a creditor rather than a debt collector.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv1204, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Fraud, Banking / Lending
J. Pulliam rules in favor of the police officers in a civil rights action brought by an individual and his family members challenging the officers' arrest and prosecution of the individual as well as the search of the family home. The officers are entitled to qualified immunity because they had probable cause to believe the individual, a Second Amendment activist, violated the law by bringing a firearm into a building in which municipal court was being held. The individual failed to offer evidence showing that the gun was fake and a video recording shows that he did not directly tell officers that the gun was fake. Even if the gun was fake, the individual admitted he painted it black so people would think it was real.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv642, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights
J. Pulliam denies summary judgment to an insurer in a dispute with an insuree over hail damage that the insuree argues should have been covered by its policy. The insurer argues summary judgment is appropriate because its policy only covered the insuree’s costs of repairing the damage, but the insurer has separately tried to argue the damage was not covered at all and these two arguments are contradictory.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: August 1, 2023, Case #: 5:21cv1031, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Pulliam finds the Department of Veterans Affairs acted in an “arbitrary and capricious manner” when it reversed a decision from an administrative board in favor of a doctor who had faced allegations of medical wrongdoing following an EEOC complaint by that doctor. While that board cleared the doctor of any wrongdoing except for one minor instance where it questioned her “decision-making,” that decision was reversed by a top VA official on the dubious grounds that he “personally” felt the decision was wrong. Reversed.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv75, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Administrative Law, Government, Health Care
J. Pulliam grants in part Aetna Dental’s motion to dismiss in this dispute brought by dental healthcare providers who claim Aetna failed to pay or underpaid thousands of claims. The plaintiffs may not pursue claims under sections 541.051, 541.052, and 541.061 of Chapter 541. They also cannot pursue independent claims under Chapter 542.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv834, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance