The case arose from a dispute involving an SMU professor who alleged she was denied tenure due to discrimination and retaliation. In addition to statutory discrimination and retaliation claims against the University, she brought common law claims for defamation and fraud against individual co-workers, based on statements and actions taken during the tenure review process.
Texas Supreme Court
Texas Supreme Court Holds Defendant Attorney Fee Data Not Normally Discoverable
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Case Summaries
In many employment disputes, the recovery of reasonable attorney’s fees is an element a prevailing plaintiff-employee can recover. Some plaintiffs attempt to show the reasonableness of their counsel’s rates and fees by comparing it to the rates and amounts billed by the employer’s counsel. In In re National Lloyds Ins. Co., et al., the…
Texas Supreme Court Rejects Compelled Self-Publication Theory in Defamation Case
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Case Summaries
An element of a defamation claim is that the defamatory statement was published to a third party. Plaintiff-employees sometimes attempt to satisfy this element by arguing that, while the former employer never published any defamatory statements about the employee to a third party, the employee is compelled to self-disclose the reasons for his or her…
Two Recent “Yawn” Employment Cases from the Texas Supreme Court
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Case Summaries, Disability
There have been two employment cases decided by the Texas Supreme Court in the last several months. However, because I expect them to have little impact on Texas jurisprudence, I have not been compelled to write about them before today. However, in the interest of keeping the blog up-to-date with each of the employment cases from the…
Supreme Court of Texas Rejects At-Will Employee’s Argument that Agreement to Waive Jury Trial was Coerced
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Case Summaries, Jury Waivers
The Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion this morning holding that advising an at-will employee that his employment will be terminated if he does not sign a mutual waiver to resolve disputes without a jury is not unlawful coercion sufficient to sset aside the agreement. If you read this blog frequently, you know I am a big proponent…
Texas Supreme Court Holds that Arbitration Agreements Governed by State Law May Include Avenues for Appellate Review
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Arbitration, Case Summaries
I have written some of the disadvantages of arbitration over other procedural methods of resolving cases such as waivers of jury trial. (See post and post). However, in an opinion from the Supreme Court of Texas, one disadvantage of arbitration (i.e., the limited appellate review of arbitration awards that is available) can be minimized…
Supreme Court of Texas to Determine if Punitive Damages Recoverable in Wrongful Termination Claim
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Judicial Updates
Texas Supreme Court Holds Employers May Be Held Liable for Unilateral Contracts Created with At-will Employees
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Judicial Updates
The Texas Supreme Court held that unilateral contracts can be formed with at-will employees when employers make promises to employees and those employees perform based on that promise. In Vanegas v. American Energy Services, Inc. the Supreme Court was asked to decide the enforceability of an employer’s alleged promise to pay five percent of the proceeds of…
Supreme Court of Texas Compels Arbitration of Discrimination and Retaliation Claims
By Russell Cawyer on
Posted in Arbitration
Texas courts strongly favor the resolution of disputes through arbitration. When parties to a dispute have signed an agreement to arbitrate covered disputes, Texas courts will rarely disregard that agreement. A recent per curiam opinion of the Supreme Court of Texas continues that trend by conditionally granting mandamus relief in a case alleging national origin discrimination…