Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of May 7, 2012

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.

Denton Cnty. Electric Coop., Inc. v. Hackett, No. 02-09-00425-CV  (May 10, 2012)  (McCoy, J., joined by Gardner, J.; Walker, J., dissents with opinion).  [Note: both opinions at the same link.]

Held: The trial court improperly granted class certification based on a significant misunderstanding of the law, to-wit:  an electric cooperative owes no statutory or fiduciary duties to its members under the utilities and business organizations codes.

Dissent: Because we do not know if the trial court misconstrued or misapplied the applicable law and because the majority’s holding reaches the viability of the class’s claims, I cannot agree with the majority’s holding—dispositive of the class’s breach-of-statutory-duties and breach-of-fiduciary-duties claims—that the trial court misunderstood the applicable law.

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