Attorney Fees—The SCOTX Report

24-0183·Petition For Review

Borusan Mannesmann Pipe US, Inc. v. Hunting Energy Servs., LLC

civil procedure attorney fees

A court of appeals erred in holding an appellant forfeited its argument that invoices were not valid and enforceable contracts because its brief cited no cases or statutes, since its roughly five pages of argument with record citations adequately challenged the trial court's determination; there is no minimum quotient of citations to authority.
Forfeiture through inadequate briefing should be a last resort, and on remand the court of appeals may order supplemental briefing under Rule 38.9 or decide the merits on the briefing it has, but may not litigate the case for a party.

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24-0339·Petition For Review

Webb Consol. Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Marshall

attorney fees administrative law

School-board members who won a temporary injunction ordering the district to produce records they were entitled to under Education Code § 11.1512 "prevailed" for attorney's-fee purposes even though their terms later expired, because the order effectively gave them the final relief the statute authorizes.
The statute also excepts board members from the general requirement to exhaust administrative remedies before suing.

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24-0828·Other

Mann v. Sikh Nat'l Ctr., Inc.

attorney fees civil procedure business organizations

The Court denied a petition for review in a fight over control of the Sikh National Center's board and bank accounts that raised whether a trial court that lacks subject-matter jurisdiction under the ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine may still award attorney's fees under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, and Justice Young concurred in the denial.
The concurrence tentatively viewed a court wholly lacking jurisdiction over a UDJA claim as unable to award fees on that claim, though fees may be available for litigating the jurisdictional question itself, but said the case was a poor vehicle because the trial court's rulings were unclear and the parties changed their jurisdictional positions.

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24-1039·Petition For Review

Kuo v. Regions Bank

civil procedure financial services attorney fees

A court of appeals erred by ruling sua sponte that a guarantors' summary-judgment challenges were not preserved because certain evidence was missing from the appellate record, when both sides agreed the documents were on file for the trial court, since Rule 166a requires evidence to be on file at the hearing, not physically attached to the motion.
Where a court of appeals is unsure whether documents attached to another pleading apply to the motion under review, it should ask the parties to clarify or consider the on-file evidence and reach the merits rather than find a procedural default that no party urged; the case is remanded to decide the unaddressed issues.

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24-1073·Mandamus

In re Madison

civil procedure attorney fees

An interlocutory appeal of the denial of a Texas Citizens Participation Act motion to dismiss is not resolved, and the automatic stay of all trial court proceedings does not expire, until the court of appeals' mandate issues, not when its plenary power over its judgment expires.
A trial court that awarded TCPA attorney's fees and disposed of all claims against a law firm before the mandate issued therefore acted without authority, so the Court conditionally granted mandamus and directed the trial court to vacate that order.

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25-0175·Mandamus

In re Marquez Ad, LLC

civil procedure attorney fees

Whether a trial court that signed a final judgment containing finality language, and that lost plenary power thirty days later, may eight months afterward "reform" the judgment to cut an $81,977.19 attorney's-fee award to $2,076, or whether that order is void for want of jurisdiction.
Whether the change was a substantive (judicial) modification rather than a correctable clerical error, and whether mandamus is the appropriate last remedy after the court of appeals denied relief.

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25-0274·Petition For Review

Wings v. Freedman

business organizations contract interpretation attorney fees breach of contract

Does an LLC's buy-sell provision let a member condition a buyout offer on return of the other member's unreturned capital contribution, or does Section 12.2 allow only the purchase and sale of "Membership Interest"?
Can a party recover Chapter 38 attorney's fees when the only relief obtained on a breach-of-contract claim is a specific-performance injunction rather than damages?

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25-0297·Petition For Review

Champion Food Serv., Inc. v. Proalamo Foods, L.L.C.

breach of contract attorney fees

A supplier cannot recover in quantum meruit for goods that express agreements between the parties covered, even when the jury found the customer did not breach those agreements.
With the quantum meruit recovery barred, the supplier had not prevailed on a claim that supports attorney's fees, so the trial court erred in awarding $219,674 in fees over the jury's $0 finding.

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25-0303·Petition For Review

Marshall v. Maropco, Inc.

civil procedure employment attorney fees fiduciary duty

Whether a court of appeals may decline to reach the merits of an appellant's challenges, including to a $10 million attorney's-fee award and a salary disgorgement award and to the fiduciary-duty and attorney-immunity rulings for a company's general counsel, by finding them inadequately briefed or waived, given this Court's directive that waiver be a last resort.
Whether failing to request additional findings of fact under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 298 forfeits an appellant's right to challenge the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting express or deemed findings after a bench trial.

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25-0340·Mandamus

In re Delta Equine Ctr., Inc.

civil procedure attorney fees

Did the trial court abuse its discretion by ordering defense counsel to pay $126,590.78 to fund the plaintiff's retrial as a sanction for mentioning "insurance" in violation of a limine order that was never entered?
Do the law firms lack an adequate remedy by appeal from a pre-judgment sanction that has them fund litigation against their own client, and can a court use inherent power to shift fees?

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25-0350·Petition For Review

Wang v. Whittenburg

breach of contract attorney fees

Attorney's fees incurred in prior litigation are recoverable as breach-of-contract damages when the breach was not a basis for that prior litigation; the American Rule does not bar them.
The Court rendered judgment awarding $216,112 in partition-proceeding fees, because the partition suit was brought before the settlement agreement was breached.

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25-0579·Petition For Review

Quantum Plus, LLC v. Hosp. Internists of Austin, P.A.

breach of contract attorney fees

Are lost profits recoverable past the notice period under a terminable-at-will contract?
Did the jury charge use a legally incorrect definition of the corporate practice of medicine, does electing recovery on one breach-of-contract claim preclude Chapter 38 fees on the other, and did the court of appeals improperly render judgment for tortious interference rather than remand?

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26-0060·Petition For Review

Bexar Appraisal Dist. v. Abasto Props. LLC

tax attorney fees

Does Tax Code § 42.29, which says a prevailing property owner "may be awarded" reasonable attorney's fees, make the award discretionary or mandatory, and was the owners' fee evidence legally sufficient?
After Texas Disposal Systems Landfill v. Travis Central Appraisal District held market-value evidence admissible in equal-and-uniform cases, must the case be retried because the trial court excluded the district's evidence of sales prices?

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