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In April 2023, a Dallas County jury awarded over $860 million to the family of a woman killed when a crane collapsed on her apartment complex. The jury’s award against real estate developer, Greystar Development & Construction, LP (Greystar), was $160 million more than the Plaintiffs requested. How did this happen? During a severe thunderstorm on June 9, 2019, a tower crane collapsed on the Elan City Lights Apartment Community in Dallas. The collapse injured several residents of the Elan and killed Kiersten Smith. Shortly after the collapse, Smith’s family sued Greystar and two other e

Can an employer be justified in terminating an employee for violating the employer’s policies and at the same be liable for religious discrimination under Title VII?  Southwest Airlines recently learned that the answer is, “yes”, and faces a $5.1 million verdict in its former employee’s favor. Southwest Airlines terminated flight attendant Charlene Carter in 2017 after 20 years of service, determining that Carter’s behavior violated Southwest’s Social Media Policy, Workplace Bullying and Hazing Policy, and Harassment Policy.  Carter filed a grievance against Southwest pursuant to

Who decides whether a dispute is properly brought in court or arbitration? The Texas Supreme Court recently weighed in on this issue, holding that a contract referencing a standard set of arbitration rules evidences the parties’ intent to delegate the issue of “arbitrability” to an arbitrator. In Totalenergies E&P USA, Inc. v. MP Gulf of Mexico, LLC, MP Gulf and Total owned an oil-and-gas processing system servicing a group of oil-and-gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The parties agreed to create a “Common System” wherein the parties executed contracts governing multiple facets o

Serving Central Texas from our Austin office, Maria, Jacy, Justin, and Melissa have a few opinions about Austin BBQ and traffic that they would like to share with you. We asked them a few questions that go beyond their passion for law so you can get to know them a little bit better. Maria Moffat’s first inspiration to become an attorney was a history class assignment where she interviewed Vietnam veterans, giving her a glimpse of how the law influences people’s lives.  Today, Maria, the Managing Partner of our Austin office, practices construction and employment law.  She grew up in Plan

Is a transcript of an arbitration proceeding required to argue that the award should be vacated on appeal?  Matthew Rindt, a Partner at Gerstle Snelson, successfully argued to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals that vacatitur is not appropriate without one. In Spears Construction Management, LLC v. Physical Therapy Dynamics, PLLC, Spears Construction Management, LLC (Spears) entered into a contract with Physical Therapy Dynamics (PTD) to construct a physical therapy facility in Crowley, Texas (Project). The contract contained a binding arbitration clause, requiring any disputes between Spears an

What effect does limiting the amount of required insurance in a construction contract have on an insurer writing umbrella coverage?  The Texas Supreme Court recently considered this issue, answering that the limitation was not incorporated into the umbrella policy and was of no effect. The Court was very familiar with facts of the underlying dispute, ExxonMobil v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA, as it was the second coverage dispute the Court had heard and decided involving the same incident.  Exxon retained Savage Refinery Services (Savage) to perform work at Exxon&

How is evidence of a so-called white collar crime relevant to determining whether someone us guilty of an unrelated murder?  The trial judge in the South Carolina murder trial of Alex Murdaugh provided a roadmap. Murdaugh was on trial for the murder of his wife and son in June 2021.  However, a significant portion of the testimony concerned Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes. Jurors heard days of testimony about Murdaugh, a former personal injury attorney, stealing settlement funds from clients and his former law firm. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh’s financial crimes were coming to l