The Appellate Record : Texas Appellate Lawyer & Attorney Kendall Gray for Fifth Circuit & Supreme Court Appeals

It was forum shopping day at the Supreme Court of Texas.  The Court released two mandamuses mandamii mandamae opinions granting petitions for writ of mandamus in which choice of forum was key.

• In re United Services Automobile Association (pdf) involves the question of whether limitations ought to have been tolled (it was not) where the plaintiff's claim exceeded the jurisdictional limits of the county court at law where he chose to file it.  Tolling depends upon whether the filing was made in "intentional disregard of proper jurisdiction" (it was).  Chief Justice Jefferson wrote the Court's opinion.
• In re Liabe Corporation (pdf) involves application of a forum selection clause to commercial actors complaining about equipment that did not work right.  The court only had to resolve fairly pedestrian contract formation questions about whether the plaintiff really really really agreed to bring suit in Indiana (it did) and whether The Hoosier State was really really really inconvenient (it was not).  As a result, the prolific Justice Per Curiam wrote the opinion.

I want to read United Services in more detail this weekend and perhaps write more.  It is certainly a new candidate to be added to the Practice Court reading list at Baylor Law School, highlighting as it does the complexity of trial court jurisdiction in Texas.  Fodder for Socratic torture questioning that is.  United Services also includes some important new wrinkles to the "inadequate remedy by appeal" standard given that denial of summary judgment is ordinarily not a subject for mandamus relief.

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