Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of September 14, 2015.

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.

Wise Elec. Coop., Inc. v. Am. Hat Co., No. 02-13-00439-CV (Sept. 17, 2015) (Walker, J., joined by Gardner, J.).

Held: The evidence is sufficient to support the trial court's findings: (1) that Wise Electric was negligent in failing to crimp one end of a Burndy Insulink connector it installed on an overhead service wire and that the uncrimped end of the service wire disconnected and caused a fire; (2) that the smoke from the fire destroyed American Hat's inventory valued at $13,385,969.37; and (3) that American Hat sustained $5,100,379.00 in past lost-profits damages.  Although Wise Electric established its entitlement to some amount of offset for the amount that American Hat had received from its commercial property and casualty policy, the evidence is factually insufficient to support the $2,578,067.00 offset amount awarded to Wise Electric.