The Fifth Circuit
Argument recaps and opinions from the court that rules Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, read as lawyering, not politics.
Benitez De Chavez v. UPS
A family sued over a death in state court, the case was removed to federal court twice, and a federal judge sent it back on her own motion six days after the second removal because the notice rested on a petition that said only that the family resided in Texas, and residence is not citizenship. The Fifth Circuit vacated the remand: the defect was procedural, not jurisdictional, so a court may not remand for it on its own, and a removing party’s allegation of citizenship on information and belief may be enough at the start of a case. Why it matters to the family: the fight over which courthouse hears a death case is won or lost on words like resides and is a citizen of, and on who moves first.
Liberty Mutual v. North Tarrant
A 130-vehicle pileup on I-35W in Fort Worth in February 2021 produced dozens of lawsuits, among them suits against the companies that had rebuilt that stretch of highway years earlier. Their insurer defended under a reservation of rights, then asked a federal court to declare that it owed no defense, and the Fifth Circuit agreed: under the eight-corners rule the duty to defend is decided from the policy and the petition alone, and the petitions alleged a failure to prepare for the winter weather and to maintain the road, work the construction companies had no part in, so the rebuilt segment was merely the place the crash happened. Why it matters to the people hurt: the defendant’s insurance is usually the recovery, and the petition is what the insurer reads.
DuFour v. BP
A shoreline cleanup worker after the Deepwater Horizon spill said almost three years of crude oil and dispersant made his asthma worse. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the exclusion of both of his causation experts and the summary judgment that followed: a toxic-exposure plaintiff must prove general and specific causation through reliable expert evidence, a study of a different condition in a different population does not carry his case, and a treating doctor who never wrote a causation opinion is not a causation witness. A dissent would have let a factfinder weigh the linear relationship the study found. What the decision asks of every refinery, plant and spill case: the dose, the study that matches, and the expert who says so in writing.
Garcia v. United States
A bound and blindfolded hostage stood up from a couch when an FBI agent broke the window above it, pushed the curtain aside and was shot by a second agent who had not yet identified what he was shooting at. After a three-day bench trial the United States was held liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed over a dissent: the discretionary-function exception did not shield negligent shots at an unidentified figure, the trial court’s choice to believe the eyewitness in the room over the agents was a credibility call owed great deference, and the attorney’s fee must be carved out of the award at 25 percent, never added on top of it.
Payne v. City of Houston
A Houston police officer drove up to 70 in a 35 with his lights and siren off, looking down at his laptop on the way to the station to finish a report, and struck the passenger side of a car turning left across his lanes; the driver died. The Fifth Circuit held for the second time that the City of Houston cannot escape the Tort Claims Act: paperwork is not a 9-1-1 response, an agreed dismissal of the officer’s own suit against the estate is not a judgment against him, and whether his speed was a substantial factor or merely furnished a condition is the jury’s question.
Allemond v. Talos
A welder on a platform off Louisiana lost a fingertip to the moving conductor pipe he was hired to brace, after seven warnings that morning about pinch points. The Fifth Circuit held that the condition was not an unreasonable risk under Louisiana’s risk-utility test, that a plaintiff who proposes a safer method has to prove what it would cost, and that operational control was forfeited because it was never argued in the district court.
Phillips v. Ethicon
A surgical stapler, a leak at the staple line, a death, and a Texas product case that ended on a letter never sent: the implied-warranty claims died for want of presuit notice, a one-sentence request to amend was not enough, and the dismissal with prejudice barred the second suit.
Crane v. Penske
A driver three contracts down the chain jackknifed on the way to Laredo and killed a man. The carrier at the top was his statutory employer under the federal leasing rules, paperwork or not, and after Montgomery the broker that picked the carrier can be sued for picking badly.
Thomas v. Bruss
The Fifth Circuit reversed the denial of qualified immunity to two bystander officers because the 43-second span of a canine bite was, in the panel’s words, a relatively short period of time for a bystander officer to process and react. A published opinion, a durational safety valve, and a rejected-precedent list worth knowing.
Rogers v. Espinoza
The Fifth Circuit reversed the denial of qualified immunity on a failure-to-intervene claim because the plaintiff cited only direct-force precedents. Same event, same officer, same standard, but the cases have to be the right kind.
Barnes v. Felix
The Supreme Court threw out the Fifth Circuit’s ‘moment of threat’ rule: excessive force is judged on the totality of the circumstances. On remand, the officer still got qualified immunity. A better standard, the same result.
Hunter Marine Group v. Gonzalez
A shipowner tried to cap its liability for injured workers under the 1851 Limitation Act. The Fifth Circuit said no: they were passengers for hire, because their employer paid for the ride, and that was enough.
Brown v. Wallace
Before police may strip and body-cavity search someone they will release, they need reasonable suspicion she is hiding weapons or contraband. The Fifth Circuit affirms the denial of immunity. The Fourth Amendment, applied.
Flores v. Perez
Once a person is on the ground and at most passively resisting, officers may not keep escalating force. The Fifth Circuit affirms the denial of qualified immunity. Graham, applied.
Brown v. Burmaster
An officer shot a family’s puppy, and the Fourth Amendment calls that a seizure they can sue over. QI affirmed, and a municipal verdict reversed as a verdict at war with itself.
Thorpe v. Weaver
A detainee in medical distress died in custody, and a jury could have found one officer knew. QI held anyway, because the case that clearly established the duty to help him was decided two years too late.
Degollado v. City of Port Lavaca
A hemp shop was raided on a warrant built from a lab report that showed only that THC was present, not whether it was legal. The Fifth Circuit affirmed qualified immunity and dismissed the Monell claim: negligent is not reckless, and one incident is not a policy.
Thompson v. Richter
A traffic stop cannot be extended to wait for a drug dog without reasonable suspicion. When a cluster of factors supplies it, the extension holds. Rodriguez, applied.
Tippitt v. Iversen
The Fifth Circuit dismissed an officer’s immunity appeal: disputed facts about a police shooting belong to a jury, not an early appeal.
Barrier v. United States
A federal officer struck a pedestrian while off his usual task. Whether the government could be sued was a jury question, not one for summary judgment.
Estate of Parker v. Mississippi DPS
An armed fugitive fired on police with his infant son in his arms. How reasonableness, immunity, and standing played out.
Parker v. Hooper
How high the deliberate-indifference bar sits, and why reform relief must be narrowly drawn.
Hughes v. Garcia
A magistrate's warrant does not protect the officer who built it on a lie. The Franks exception.
Knighton v. Benton County
On an immunity appeal, causation among several causes is the jury's question, and some force is obviously excessive.
Hitt v. Connell
A jury awarded mental anguish. The Fifth Circuit erased it, because the proof was vague and uncorroborated.
The Fifth Circuit: A Field Guide
What the court is, who sits on it, and the doctrines it is quietly rewriting. Start here.
Hill v. Jackson Offshore Holdings
Four quiet words in a post-injury agreement decided who would ever hear the case.
Benavides v. Nunez
A sheriff's deputy appealed a qualified-immunity denial, and lost the appeal before it started.
Wertenbroch v. Hardeman
A defendant can appeal a denied immunity. Here he appealed a court that never ruled at all.
Pigott v. Gintz
Once the appeal reached a clean legal question, qualified immunity had to answer for itself.