Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of March 23, 2020.

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.

Love v. State, No. 02-19-00052-CR (Mar. 26, 2020) (Kerr, J., joined by Birdwell and Bassel, JJ.).

Held:  After Appellant’s retained counsel had obtained discovery from the State under the Michael Morton Act and had improperly given his copy of the State’s discovery to Appellant’s wife, the trial court abused its discretion in disqualifying Appellant’s counsel based on the State’s allegations that (1) counsel would have to testify as a witness during Appellant’s trial about how Appellant’s wife had improperly obtained the State’s discovery, (2) the discovery violation would cause counsel’s own interests to conflict with Appellant’s, and (3) not disqualifying counsel would prejudice the State’s ability to present its case.

In re J.P., No. 02-19-00360-CV (Mar. 26, 2020) (Kerr, J., joined by Sudderth, C.J., and Wallach, J.).

Held:  Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, the Texas trial court properly asserted jurisdiction to modify the Michigan trial court’s previous child custody orders. And to the extent the Texas trial court and parties did not follow various other Texas procedures governing the intrastate transferring of exclusive, continuing jurisdiction from one court to another, the UCCJEA provisions controlled.