Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of April 25, 2016.

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.

Lake v. Cravens, No. 02-11-00464-CV, (Apr. 28, 2016) (op. on reh’g) (Meier, J., joined by Dauphinot, J.; Gabriel, J., concurs without opinion).

Held:  Dr. Cravens has standing to recover in his individual capacity—Appellants improperly conflate the standing requirement that Dr. Cravens suffer a personal injury with his ability or inability to recover damages that were arguably incurred by a different entity—but the jury’s fraud, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment awards cannot be sustained.

Davis v. State, No. 02-13-00468-CR, (Apr. 28, 2016) (Apr. 28, 2016) (Livingston, C.J., joined by Meier, J.; Gabriel, J., concurs without opinion).

Held:  The State’s pleading, the jury’s instructions, and the trial’s proof all focused on obtaining a conviction for Trafficking of Persons under a theory that the penal code explicitly declines to recognize and that a hypothetically correct jury charge would not include. Thus, we conclude that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction.