[DOWNLOAD] "Air Routing International Corp. v. Britannia Airways" by Texas Court of Appeals Eighth District of Texas El Paso * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Air Routing International Corp. v. Britannia Airways
- Author : Texas Court of Appeals Eighth District of Texas El Paso
- Release Date : January 31, 2004
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 84 KB
Description
This is an attorneys fees case arising under the Texas Theft Liability Act ("Theft Act"), a relatively new statute that has a unique provision compelling the award of reasonable and necessary attorneys fees to a party that successfully defends against a claim under this act, without any prerequisite that the claim be found groundless, frivolous, or brought in bad faith. In this appeal, we review the trial courts determination that the successful parties are required to segregate their proof of attorneys fees for successfully defending against the Theft Act claim from the attorneys fees they incurred in defending against fraud, negligent-misrepresentation, and civil conspiracy claims brought by the same plaintiff. Under the Texas Supreme Courts legal standard in Stewart Title Guar. Co. v. Sterling, 822 S.W.2d 1, 11B12 (Tex. 1991), we conclude the trial court erred in requiring segregation because these claims arose out of the same transaction and because the prosecution or defense of these claims entailed proof or defense of essentially the same facts. Accordingly, we sever and reverse the part of the trial courts judgment awarding zero attorneys fees based on the failure to segregate, and we remand to the trial court for a determination of the amount of reasonable and necessary attorneys fees to be awarded to the parties successfully defending against the Theft Act claim. We affirm the remainder of the trial courts judgment.