Arbitration Agreement, Agreement.

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In an 8-1 decision, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Court’s judgment in Fifth Court’s judgment in Aerotek v. Boyd, a dispute about whether employees agreed to arbitration via their employer’s electronic system. The court observed:

“It may be that the use of electronic contracts already exceeds the use of paper contracts or that it will soon. The [Texas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act] does not limit the ways in which electronic contracts may be proved valid, but it specifically states that proof of the efficacy of the security procedures used in generating a contract can prove that an electronic signature is attributable to an alleged signatory. An opposing party may, of course, offer evidence that security procedures lack integrity or effectiveness and therefore cannot reliably be used to connect a computer record to a particular person. But that attribution cannot be cast into doubt merely by denying the result that reliable procedures generate.”

(footnote omitted). A dissent would have evaluated the record differently. No. 20-0290 (Tex. May 28, 2021).

Lawyers’ Roles

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Two recent opinions provide guidelines for the important roles that attorneys play in our society.

The first, Haynes and Boone LLP v. NFTD, LLC, holds that “attorney immunity applies in all adversarial contexts in which an attorney has a duty to zealously and loyally represent a client, including a business-transactional context, but only when the claim against the attorney is based on the ‘kind’ of conduct attorney immunity protects.” No. 20-0066 (May 21, 2021).

The second, Landry’s, Inc. v. Animal Legal Defense Fund, holds: “An attorney who repeats his client’s allegations to the media or the public for publicity purposes is not acting in the unique, lawyerly capacity to which Texas law affords the strong protection of immunity.” No. 19-0036 (May 21, 2021).

Not a fact issue after all

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In JLB Builders LLC v. Hernandez, the Texas Supreme Court reversed an en banc Fifth Court opinion about a construction-site accident. The issue was the general contractor’s right of control over the workplace, and the supreme court reached these conclusions about key aspects of that issue (all emphasis added):

  • Direction. “Hernandez references his additional testimony that he had previously seen JLB supervisors talking to [the subcontractor’s] foremen and that the supervisors ‘appear[ed] to be giving instructions as to how our jobs were to be done.’ Without more, evidence of what JLB generally ‘appeared’ to be doing is no evidence that it was exercising actual control over the details of the injury-causing work.”
  • Safety requirements. “A general contractor that promulgates mandatory safety requirementsand procedures owes only a narrow duty to ensure that those requirements and procedures generally do not ‘unreasonably increase, rather than decrease, the probability and severity of injury.'”
  • Direction. “[T]here is no indication that JLB was aware that the wind posed a particular danger that day, and the testimony that JLB employees ‘could watch’ the supports being secured is not evidence that they did so or that they were aware the supports were improperly secured.”

(In my three-part system for categorizing Texas intermediate-court en banc opinions, JLB Builders would be a “successful failure,” in that it drew supreme court attention but for the purpose of reversal.)

Amendments and TCPA deadlines

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“We hold that an amended or supplemental pleading that asserts the same legal claims or theories by and against the same parties and based on the same essential facts alleged in a prior pleading asserts the same ‘legal action’ to which the sixty-day period previously applied and thus does not trigger a new sixty-day period for filing a dismissal motion. But to the extent an amended or supplemental pleading either (1) adds a new party or parties, (2) alleges new essential facts to support previously asserted claims, or (3) asserts new legal claims or theories involving different elements than the claims or theories previously asserted, the new pleading asserts a new legal action and triggers a new sixty-day period as to those new parties, facts, or claims.” Montelongo v. Abrea, No. 19-1112 (April 30, 2021).

More on jury selection

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CNN recently reported on a Capitol rioter who was turned in by an unimpressed Bumble match (right). This story illustrates precisely the kind of “red-blue” interaction (admittedly, with less romanticism) that jury service forces when it brings together people of different backgrounds and interactions.  These interactions are increasingly important in our divided times, and have taken on new dimensions after the difficult year of 2020. I discuss this topic (jury selection, not date-getting) with top jury consultant Jason Bloom in the most recent episode of the Coale Mind podcast. 

Argue to Juries? Listen to this.

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This week on the “Coale Mind” podcast, I had top-flight jury consultant Jason Bloom as a special guest; in the episode we touch on the many pervasive effects that 2020 will have on jurors and jury selection, including:

– A surprising eagerness of people to show up and serve on juries, in part driven by widespread feelings of frustration after months of shutdown;

– Concern about what Jason calls the “massive exercise in confirmation bias” that potential jurors bring to the courthouse with them, depending on how restricted a juror’s information sources may be;

– The once-obscure psychological terms “ultracrepidarian” and “pareidolia” (you have to listen to the podcast to explore those terms’ meaning 🙂;

– Remembering that 2020 changed potential jurors not only because of COVID, but because of Black Lives Matter, the Biden-Trump election and its aftermath, etc.

– And a reminder that jury service—unlike the similar civic-engagement exercise of voting—forces jurors to form a consensus among their different beliefs; and

– Why 1-page written questionnaires for potential jurors may be particularly useful now in light of the above issues.

Void COVID TRO

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A high-profile 2020 dispute about the enforcement of a COVID-related TRO against a Dallas-area hairdresser was resolved in In re Luther by finding the TRO void. It said:

The Texas Supreme Court found that this order did not satisfy Tex. R. Civ. P. 683, as “it nowhere specifies any particular state, county, or city regulation that Luther has violated, is threatening to violate, or is being commanded to stop violating. Nor does it describe with specificity which ‘in-person services’ were restrained, such that performing them would cause Luther to violate the temporary restraining order.” No. 20-0363 (April 9, 2021).

The I-35 Court of Appeals

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The state Senate has undertaken the redistricting the current 14 intermediate-court districts in Texas; Law360 has a thorough story after a recent Jurisprudence Committee hearing. As for Dallas, the Senate’s plan links Austin and Dallas (right, below), cities that have been jurisprudentially distinct since at least 1893 (left, below). Please make your opinions known on the “I-35 Court of Appeals” as the Legislature continues to consider this proposal.