It was a short orders list today. Two of the entries involved cases that the Court had previously placed into “abated” status, removing them from the active docket.

The Ghazali laser-hair-removal case is done

The Court had set Basith Ghazali, M.D. v. Brown, No. 10-0232 for oral argument in September. The case asked how the Texas medical-malpractice statute applied to laser hair removal — an issue on which the Dallas Court has also weighed in.

When argument day came, the parties asked the Court to postpone the argument pending a possible settlement. Today, the Court granted the parties’ joint request to dismiss the case.

The Severance beachfront-takings case is back from the Fifth Circuit

In July, the Court removed the beachfront takings case, Carol Severance v. Jerry Patterson, et al., No. 09-0387, from its active docket until the Fifth Circuit spoke first about whether the underlying controversy had been mooted by Ms. Severance’s sale of her property. The Fifth Circuit concluded that there was still a live dispute between the parties and thus the dispute was not moot.

Today, the Texas Supreme Court formally returned it to the active docket.