Anadarko produces crude oil on the Alaskan North Slope, and Williams Alaska operates a refinery in Alaska. The two parties entered into two purchase agreements under which Anadarko agreed to sell crude oil to Williams Alaska.
Chinese officials have announced that four executives working for the huge pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline had been detained as part of investigation into a wide-ranging bribery scheme. The Xinhua news agency, citing Chinese government officials, reported that, since 2007, Glaxo used a network of more than 700 Chinese travel agencies to funnel hundreds of millions of…
The Federal Trade Commission has announced that more than 500,000 consumers will receive a total of $40 million in refunds paid by Skechers to settle claims that it deceptively advertised its Shape-Ups toning shoes. Skechers had previously advertised the shoes as helping users burn more calories than they would with other athletic shoes.
In J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro, 131 S. Ct. 2780 (2011), the Unites States Supreme Court reversed a decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court that had found New Jersey courts could exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company that had only sold one machine in the state. Robert Nicastro had injured his hand in…
Nelda Gonzales hired a plumber to repair water leaks under her foundation and hired Olshan Foundation Repair Co. (Olshan) to repair the foundation problems the water leaks had caused. The foundation repair contract included a lifetime, transferrable warranty on the work requiring Olshan to adjust the foundation due to settling. The contract further provided that…
Does an “alien”—including a corporation organized under the laws of a foreign country—have a right to bring a lawsuit in the federal courts of the United States? A federal district court in Louisiana recently dismissed a breach of contract lawsuit filed by a Venezuelan corporation against an American corporation. The Fifth Circuit has now reversed…
A lawsuit filed in 1998, tried to a jury in 2009, and appealed to the Supreme Court of Texas more than two years ago has finally resulted in a ruling … that the parties should start over at the trial court.
In 2011, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 274 which, among other things, added Government Code § 22.004(h) calling for “rules to promote the prompt, efficient, and cost-effective resolution of civil action . . . in which the amount in Controversy …. does not exceed $100,000.” The Supreme Court of Texas appointed a Task Force…
Mel Acres Ranch is a cattle ranch in Washington County near Chappel Hill, Texas. Houston Unlimited, Inc. operates a metal-processing facility across Highway 290 from the ranch. A culvert flows downhill from Houston Unlimited’s facility, under the highway, and into a stock tank on Mel Acres’s property.
To sue for breach of contract, there has to be a contract. A recent opinion from the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals illustrates that it’s not always clear whether an enforceable contract existed or not—even when a deal involves sophisticated parties and more than $15 million.
The Haynesville Shale is a stratographic rock formation in East Texas, Northwest Louisiana and Southwest Arkansas that lies beneath the Cotton Valley formation and contains large quantities of natural gas. In 2008, when natural gas prices were soaring, Chesapeake Exploration, LLC (a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corporation) attempted to acquire as much producing acreage as…
A debt collector is contacting you. Maybe you’re behind in paying a bill or maybe the collector mistakenly thinks you are. You need to know that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect from you.