Take the Fifth: Dec. 18, 2020 opinions

Designated for publication McMillan v. Amazon.com, Inc., 20-20108, appeal from S.D. Tex. Willett, J. (Wiener, Costa, Willett), products liability, certification Certifying question to the Texas Supreme Court whether an e-tailer such as Amazon is a “seller” liable under Texas’s products liability statute for products sold on its website by third-party vendors. The district court had … More Take the Fifth: Dec. 18, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Dec. 16, 2020 opinions

Unpublished Union Pacific Railroad Company v. American Railway and Airway Supervisors’ Association, 18-50110, appeal from W.D. Tex. per curiam (Owen, King, Stewart), Owen, C.J., dissenting; labor law, employment law Reversing district court’s vacatur of Public Law Board’s order to reinstate employee on finding that positive drug test was a false-positive, and remanding for further proceedings. … More Take the Fifth: Dec. 16, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Nov. 19 and 20, 2020 opinions

Designated for publication Joseph v. Bartlett, 19-30014, appeal from E.D. La. Willett, J. (Elrod, Willett, Oldham), Oldham, J., concurring; excessive force, qualified immunity Affirming district court’s denial of qualified immunity-based summary judgment in favor of two defendant officers who repeatedly tased and struck a young man (who subsequently died), reversing the district court’s qualified immunity … More Take the Fifth: Nov. 19 and 20, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Nov. 13, 2020 opinions

Designated for publication U.S. v. Batiste, 19-30927, appeal from E.D. La. Engelhardt, J., (Graves, Costa, Engelhardt), criminal, sentencing, First Step Act Affirming in part sentence of imprisonment and denial of sentence-reduction under the First Step Act, but remanding in part the portion of the sentence regarding the term of supervised release for the district court … More Take the Fifth: Nov. 13, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Nov. 2-6, 2020 opinions

Designated for publication Pizza Inn, Inc. v. Clairday, 19-11302, appeal from N.D. Tex. Smith, J. (Smith, Clement, Oldham), breach of contract, equitable intervention doctrine Reversing district court’s upholding of jury verdict in favor of franchisee, applying equitable intervention doctrine and awarding damages and attorneys’ fees to franchisee for pizza franchise’s refusal to renew contract when … More Take the Fifth: Nov. 2-6, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Oct. 14, 2020 opinions

To create a little efficiency for the writers of this blog, Take the Fifth will take a different tack beginning today. We will continue to include full summaries of those opinions designated for publication, but for unpublished opinions will only continue to provide links to the opinions and basic statistical information regarding basic outcome, district … More Take the Fifth: Oct. 14, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Oct. 7, 2020 opinions

U.S. v. Omigie, 19-40526, appeal from E.D. Tex., designated for publication Higginbotham, J. (Higginbotham, Jones, Higginson), criminal, sentencing, guilty plea, forfeiture, supervised release Affirming conviction, remanding for determination of whether supervised release condition is consistent with oral pronouncement of court. Court held there was no plain error in the district court’s informing the defendant of … More Take the Fifth: Oct. 7, 2020 opinions

Take the Fifth: Sept. 30, 2020 opinions

Texas Alliance for Retired Americans v. Hughs, 20-40643, Designated for Publication per curiam (Clement, Elrod, Haynes), elections law Staying district court’s preliminary injunction of enforcement of Texas House Bill 25, which would eliminate straight-ticket voting. HB25’s straight-ticket voting ban became effective September 1, 2020; District Court enjoined HB25 on September 25; early voting in Texas … More Take the Fifth: Sept. 30, 2020 opinions