The Texas Supreme Court did not release any opinions with today’s orders list.
The Court did re-set the oral argument in ECOM Real Estate Management v. City of Midlothian, No. 10-0150, which had originally been set for argument last December before being abated. The new argument date is November 9, 2011.
That case is about whether a city can assert immunity against a contract claim (for violating an agreed easement) when that contract originated as a settlement of a possible eminent-domain case. It blends together the hot issue from a few terms back (immunity) with the hot issue of the present (takings). The contractor claims that, because a city cannot be immune from a constitutional takings suit, it cannot be immune from suit over a contract settling such a dispute under the plurality opinion in Lawson v. Texas A&M University—Kingsville, 87 S.W.3d 518 (2002). (( For what it’s worth, I worked on a subsequent appeal in the Lawson case and on a later case raising similar immunity questions, Koseoglu v. Texas A&M University, No. 05-0321. ))