Second Court of Appeals | Case Summaries

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of May 8, 2006

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions can be accessed by clicking the cause number then clicking View HTML Version of Opinion.

Sellers v. Foster, No. 02-0005-061 (May 11, 2006) (Livingston, J., joined by Cayce, C.J., and Holman, J.).: Held: The trial court erred by refusing to reinstate the underlying medical malpractice case, which was dismissed for want of prosecution, when the only evidence before the court showed that Sellers and Sellers's counsel never received notice of the dismissal hearing; however, the error was harmless because the evidence supported dismissal of the case for the failure to timely file an expert report under former article 4590i, section 13.01 of the revised civil statutes.
Kinnard v. United Regional Health Care Sys. , No. 02-0005-128 (May 11, 2006) (Cayce, C.J., joined by Dauphinot and McCoy, JJ.).: Held: Appellant’s defamation and tortious interference claims against United Regional and Dr. King, who testified at a peer review hearing on Appellant's reapplication for staff privileges at United Regional, were barred because United Regional and Dr. King were entitled to immunity under section 160.010 of the Texas Occupations Code and they presented sufficient summary judgment evidence to establish that they acted without malice.
Fuller v. State, No. 02-0005-129 (May 11, 2006) (Cayce, C.J., joined by Gardner and Walker, JJ.).: Held: The language of former article 62.01(5) clearly and unambiguously provides that any second conviction for indecent exposure is a reportable conviction for sex-offender registration purposes. Nothing in the statute requires that when two or more convictions occur on the same day, they must occur in sequential order for one of the convictions to qualify as the second conviction.