Breach of Contract/Breach of Fiduciary Duty/Fraud
Universal Image v. Mark Cuban, Yahoo!, et al. – obtained summary judgment on behalf of Mark Cuban dismissing $3,000,000,000 claims for fraud; dissolved injunction requiring Yahoo! to shut down its website. (Lawrence J. Friedman opposing counsel).
Bank One, Texas, N.A. v. FDIC – obtained summary judgment on behalf of Bank One dismissing $70,000,000 breach of contract claim.
Eljer Industries v. Household Finance – obtained $30,000,000 settlement on breach of contract claim after defeating seven motions for summary judgment.
Belo v. Mark Cuban – obtained favorable settlement for a fraction of $40,000,000 breach of contract claim.
Marketing Specialists Corp., et al. v. Mary Kay, Inc. et al. – represented Richmont Capital Partners I, MSSC Acquisition Corporation d/b/a MSSC Acquisition, Inc., and MS Acquisition, Limited (collectively, "Richmont"), all subsidiaries of Mary Kay, Inc., in litigation arising out of the bankruptcy of Marketing Specialists, Corp. Marketing Specialists was one of the largest food brokers in the country and was publicly traded. The Trustee in bankruptcy sued Richmont and others asserting 27 causes of action, including claims for breach of fiduciary duties, misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion of assets, fraud, waste and gross negligence, negligent misrepresentation, tortious interference, conspiracy, fraudulent transfers, computer fraud & abuse, sought to pierce the corporate veil and claimed damages of over $210,000,000 plus punitives and attorneys' fees. Case settled on very favorable terms for client.
Sovereign Associates v. Doe – obtained $1,500,000 AAA arbitration award on breach of contract claim.
Obtained jury verdict of $4,000,000 in a breach of contract and fraud case in state district court in Dallas County, Texas for Dallas architect, William Croft.
For a large investment fund, we settled a breach of contract claim for $8,500,000 in value through cash paid and debt forgiven.
Securities Fraud/Derivative Actions
Coolink Trustee in Bankruptcy and a large group of Coolink shareholders – settled securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty litigation for $8,100,000.
EOS Partners v. Hunt Asset Management – represented Hunt Family Investment Fund in litigation against investors in a telecommunications company. Settled a $20,000,000 lawsuit fund under which our client paid nothing and recovered 100% of its attorney’s fees from insurance.
Lawrence v. TICOR – represented plaintiff in employment claims and shareholder derivative action alleging damages exceeding $2,000,000; after defendant's experts were stricken prior to trial, case settled on favorable terms.
Rosenthal v. Texas Cardiology – represented plaintiff in shareholder derivative action seeking millions of dollars for breach of fiduciary duty against officers and directors of cardiology group. Lawsuit disclosed on eve of potential merger and settled on favorable terms.
Insurance Coverage/Bad Faith
Dallas Mavericks v. Trustmark – brought an arbitration action against Trustmark Insurance Company for its failure to pay insurance benefits related to an injured player. Settled the case for more than $10,000,000.
Dallas Mavericks v. TIG – prevailed in the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court on a coverage claim resulting in a payment of the indemnity and bad faith claims for approximately $3,000,000. This case has been cited by some commentators as the first pro insured result in the Texas Supreme Court in a coverage dispute in the last 8 years, and as the reason the insurance industry has had to adopt a mandatory endorsement excluding such claims from CGL policies. Published opinion available at TIG Ins. Co. v. Dallas Basketball Ltd., 129 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2004, pet. Denied).
For a large health care provider, we settled an insurance coverage claim for $6,500,000.
Employment/Whistleblower
Driscoll Children’s Hospital – obtained summary judgment dismissal of a $30,000,000 claim under the Federal False Claims Act in federal court in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Lorna Pilgrim v. Victor Costa – obtained $1,500,000 judgment on sexual harassment claim.
Layman v. Xerox Corporation – obtained reversal of $9,000,000 jury verdict in favor of former employee of Xerox for breach of contract and age and sex discrimination.
Pearl v. Texas Cardiology Consultants – represented group of vascular surgeons in dispute with their cardiology group; after their covenants not to compete and other restrictive covenants were held unenforceable as matter or law, case settled on favorable terms, which allowed the surgeons to start their own practice.
State of Texas v. Driscoll Children's Hospital – represented defendant in False Claims Act case alleging over $200,000,000 in damages. Case settled for a fraction of amount in controversy; hospital not required to submit to corporate integrity program.
United States of America, et al. v. Driscoll Children’s Hospital, et al. – represented defendant in False Claims Act case alleging fraud by the hospital in seeking reimbursement by the Texas Medicaid program. Following summary judgment in favor of the hospital on all False Claims Act and fraud claims, the case settled for less than 1% of the alleged damages of $6,000,000.
Professional Negligence
For a large health care provider, we settled an auditor negligence case for $7,300,000.
For a client of a law firm, we settled an attorney malpractice case for over $3,000,000.
Appellate
TIG v. Dallas Basketball Ltd. 129 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2004) – upheld summary judgment on appeal to the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Texas for insured professional basketball team in suit for the duty to defend against TCPA claims under CGL policy. Appellate victory caused the insurance industry to adopt a mandatory endorsement excluding such claims from future CGL policies. Published opinion available at TIG Ins. Co. v. Dallas Basketball Ltd., 129 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.-Dallas 2004, pet. denied).
Texas Workers' Compensation Comm'n v. Garcia 893 S.W.2d 504 (Tex. 1995), rev’g 862 S.W.2d 61 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1993, writ granted) – filed an amicus curiae brief in the court of appeals and Texas Supreme Court on behalf of the three largest insurance trade associations and Continental Casualty Company in support of the constitutionality of the Texas Workers' Compensation Act. The Texas Supreme Court adopted our arguments on appeal.
Temple EasTex, Inc. v. Old Orchard Creek Partners, Ltd.848 S.W.2d 724 (Tex. App-Dallas 1992) – obtained reversal of $7,800,000 jury verdict based on claims of negligence and products liability in the construction of apartment complex.
Brown v. Texaco Inc. – obtained reduction by trial court of $15,000,000 jury verdict against Texaco to $2,700,000 million; case then settled on favorable terms.
Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, Texas v. A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.989 F. 2nd 1054 (5th Cir. 1990) – obtained Fifth Circuit opinion related to arbitration clause in multimillion dollar securities churning case; case then settled on favorable terms.
Watson v. Brazos Electric Power Corp.918 S.W. 2nd 639 (Tex. App. -Waco 1996, writ denied) – reversing trial court in holding that spoliation, trespass and gross negligence issues should have been submitted to jury; we then settled on favorable terms.
In re Universal Image, Inc. – mandamus denied in multiple case filings of lawsuit against Mark Cuban (2000 WL 127078); denial of relator’s motion for emergency stay of proceedings and writ of mandamus (2000 WL 378525).
First Amendment/Privacy
Tod Lindholm v. Alex Gibney, HD Net Films, L.L.C., and Jigsaw Productions, Inc. – obtained court-ordered dismissal on behalf of a film director and production company in defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit. An individual who appeared in the trailer to an Oscar®-nominated documentary film sued alleging that the use of his image in the film’s advertising was a misappropriation of his likeness and harmed his reputation. On a motion by the clients, the court found that the plaintiff had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and dismissed the action.
Tammie Kirkham, et al. v. Michael Cain, et al. – obtained a take-nothing jury verdict in favor of the producers of the Sundance award-winning documentary, "TV Junkie," which was featured on HBO. The film depicted the drug addiction of Richard "Rick" Kirkham, a former journalist for "Inside Edition." Rick Kirkham's ex-wife filed suit on behalf of herself and her minor children asserting claims for breach of contract, invasion of privacy, negligence, and quantum merit. Ms. Kirkham unsuccessfully sought damages in excess of $1,000,000. The plaintiffs did not appeal.
Class Action
Rodriguez v. Dallas Basketball Limited – settled multiple class action litigations against Dallas Mavericks basketball team alleging $135,000,000 in damages for less than 1% of claims. Subsequently prevailed in claims against insurance company who were ordered to pay all costs of litigation and settlement with penalties and interest.
Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. v. Prophet Equity, L.P. - We represented Prophet Equity, LP and others in defense of multiple class action lawsuits filed by shareholders of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. arising from a proposed acquisition of SSTI by Prophet that was valued at over $200,000,000. After less than six months of litigation, the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss Prophet and its affiliated companies with $0 paid in settlement, despite projected damages claim in the range of $95,000,000.
Patent
Shaw v. Yahoo!, Microsoft and Real Networks – obtained summary judgment for Yahoo! in suit alleging that Microsoft’s and Real Network's multimedia applications, when used in combination with Yahoo!'s streaming media services, infringed the Shaws' patent. The plaintiffs never specified an exact dollar amount for damages they were seeking. However, had they been successful in claim construction or on the merits, the decision would have implicated anyone who uses a network such as the Internet to download multimedia content, any computer or software application used for downloading multimedia content, and every Internet website that provides multimedia content.
Deep Nines v. McAfee – represented plaintiff in patent infringement suit that resulted in jury verdict of $18,000,000.
Trademark
U.S. Risk v. Lighthouse Programs – represented plaintiff in trademark infringement case that resulted in $5,500,000 jury verdict, which was listed in the top 40 jury verdicts of 2009 by the Texas Lawyer.
Tort
In re September 11 litigation - For four billionaire Saudi Arabian bankers, a team of F&R Dallas attorneys obtained dismissal of all allegations of claims based on the September 11 attacks in New York and DC after six years of litigation. The MDL case in the Southern District of New York was purported to be the largest case in the United States based on amounts in controversy, with damage claims potentially totalling in the trillions of dollars.