Texas Supreme Court allows jury verdict in partnership dispute to stand

In a long-fought partnership dispute, Ware Jackson has obtained a final judgement on a jury verdict that rejected a $17 million fraud claim against the firm’s clients and awarded them $2 million on their counterclaim for breach of contract. After the trial court declared a post-verdict mistrial because its staff mistakenly left excluded evidence in the jury room, Ware Jackson obtained a mandamus order from Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals directing the trial court to vacate its mistrial order. Ware Jackson then successfully defended a petition for mandamus in the Texas Supreme Court seeking to reinstate the mistrial order.

Ware Jackson’s trial team included Don Jackson and Scott Hooper as co-leads, along with Michelle R. Meriam Blair and Avery Sheppard. Michelle R. Meriam Blair was lead appellate counsel and assisted by Tim Lee. The opinion from the court of appeals is: In re Mooney, No. 14-20-00556-CV, 2021 WL 3576947 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Aug. 10, 2021, orig. proceeding). The proceeding before the Texas Supreme Court is In re Mooney, No. 21-1023 (Tex. March 11, 2022)