Second Court of Appeals | Case Summaries

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of January 8, 2007

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.

Keisling v. Landrum, No. 02-06-00008-CV (Jan. 11, 2007) (Livingston, J., joined by Holman and Walker, JJ.).: Held: The trial court erred by finding the trust’s language ambiguous when the language unambiguously showed the settlor’s intent to provide for Appellant’s support and maintenance without her having to exhaust any assets. Trustee’s discretion to distribute funds, however, is not unbridled; trustee must still exercise discretion to distribute trust income and corpus after considering Appellant's lifestyle needs, age, health, income, and size of the trust estate.
Powell v. State, No. 02-03-00455-CR (Jan. 11, 2007) (Dauphinot, J., joined by Gardner, J; Cayce, C.J., concurs without opinion).: Held: Following the standards of review announced by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, we are compelled to hold that the evidence is factually sufficient to support Appellant’s conviction for burglary of a habitation.