Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of April 29, 2013

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.

New Hampshire Ins. Co. v. Magellan Reins. Co., Ltd., No. 02-12-00196-CV  (May 2, 2013) (op. on reh’g) (Meier, J., joined by Gardner and McCoy, JJ.).

Held: New Hampshire is judicially estopped from compelling arbitration of Magellan’s claims because New Hampshire successfully argued against arbitration of Magellan's claims in both the TCI litigation and the New York proceeding.

Ledet v. State, No. 02-10-00281-CR  (May 2, 2013) (per curiam) (Dauphinot, J., concurs with opinion).

Concurrence: The prosecutor's unobjected-to "Wheel of Fortune" analogy misstated the law on reasonable doubt, but the record does not reveal trial counsel's strategy for not objecting. Additionally, Appellant invoked his right to have counsel present for police questioning and indicated that he wanted his interview to end. Whether he could have prevailed on a motion to suppress his statement had he pursued one is not clear from the record. Consequently, the record is inadequate to show whether trial counsel was ineffective, and we should not reach the second prong of the Strickland test, especially to speculate whether Appellant could have prevailed on a hypothetical motion to suppress had he presented it to the trial court with evidence that we can only guess at.

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