Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of January 24, 2011

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 (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Faust v. BNSF Ry. Co.,   No. 02-08-00226-CV    (Jan. 27, 2011)   (Meier, J., joined by Walker and McCoy, JJ.).

Held:   The trial court did not abuse its discretion by overruling Appellants' objection to the specific causation instruction because there was evidence of other plausible causes of Linda's gastric cancer; the instruction was an accurate, albeit arguably incomplete, statement of the law, identifying what Appellants had to show to raise a fact issue as to causation; and the instruction assisted the jury by providing it with "the standard it was required by law to apply in making its finding on a hotly-contested issue"—causation.

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