In Re Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc.; Silver Star CRE, LLC; Silver Star CRE II, LLC; And Silver Star Delray, LLC v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 18, 2025
Docket15-25-00136-CV
StatusPublished

This text of In Re Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc.; Silver Star CRE, LLC; Silver Star CRE II, LLC; And Silver Star Delray, LLC v. the State of Texas (In Re Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc.; Silver Star CRE, LLC; Silver Star CRE II, LLC; And Silver Star Delray, LLC v. the State of Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc.; Silver Star CRE, LLC; Silver Star CRE II, LLC; And Silver Star Delray, LLC v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

ACCEPTED 15-25-00136-CV FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 8/18/2025 12:00 AM No. 15-25-00136-CV CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE CLERK FILED IN ________________________________ 15th COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 8/18/2025 12:00:00 AM In the Court of Appeals for the CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE Clerk Fifteenth Judicial District ________________________________

In re: Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc., et al., Relators

Original Proceeding from the Texas Business Court, Eighth Division, Fort Worth, Texas, Cause No. 25-BC08B-0016 Hon. Brian Stagner, Judge Presiding

RELATORS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR EMERGENCY STAY

Relators file this Reply in support of their Motion for Emergency Stay of the

proceedings below.

First, a court without subject-matter jurisdiction can only issue void orders or

judgments. See, e.g., In re Panchakarla, 602 S.W.3d 536, 539 (Tex.2020) (orig.

proceeding) (“If a trial court issues an order beyond its jurisdiction…such an order

is void ab initio”). Thus, regardless of whether the Temporary Injunction hearing

scheduled for August 20, 2025, would otherwise go forward, the stay Relators

request is still necessary to prevent the Eighth Division from taking other action that

may potentially result in void orders or judgments. That gives this Court a less rushed

timeline to determine a question extremely important to the jurisprudence of this State in an area of new and rapidly-expanding law – whether the Eighth Division

actually has jurisdiction – and provide proper guidance to this and other Texas

Business Courts likely to face this situation in the future. Relators disclosed the

Temporary Injunction hearing as the next event likely to occur in the Eighth

Division, so the Court would know it did not have to decide the Motion for Stay the

same day it was filed – a decision on Monday or Tuesday would give the parties

time to stand down if needed.

Second, Relators did not see the need initially to drag this Court “down in the

weeds” of the injunctive relief itself, since Relators are not asking the Court to rule

on those merits. However, the Opposition of the Real Parties in Interest grossly omits

key facts that have occurred since the August 4, 2025, TRO was entered. The result

is a distortion the Opposition then uses to impugn Relators’ (and their counsel’s)

integrity, and so Relators will address them briefly here.

As demonstrated by the Declaration of Walter L. Taylor, 1 lead counsel for

Relators, the 48th Judicial District Court of Tarrant County signed and entered the

August 4, 2025, Temporary Restraining Order at 4:35 p.m. Appendix 4. The TRO

expressly requires all funds “currently” in three specifically designated accounts,

plus any rent collections received in such accounts thereafter, to be released to the

1 Exhibit 1 to this Reply. 2 Silver Star Relators to pay operational expenses (up to a cap of $1.5 million). At or

near the time Judge Taylor signed the TRO, Silver Star’s Chief Financial Officer –

Lou T. Fox, III, reviewed all three accounts and determined that at the time the TRO

was signed the accounts held roughly $740,000. Approximately $129,000 in rent

collections reached the account over the next two days.

On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Relators learned roughly $507,000 had

disappeared from their accounts – to which only they and the Real Parties in Interest

had access. In an afternoon Microsoft Teams call Wednesday, August 6, 2025, the

purpose of which to discuss the mechanism for releasing funds under the TRO, Mr.

Lee Hart of Nelson Mullens (at the time merely a partner of lead counsel Jacob

Sparks, now admitted pro hac vice in the Eighth Division) expressly denied orally

that the Real Parties in Interest had made any such withdrawal. The following day,

however, he admitted in an E-mail the withdrawal had occurred and promised the

Real Parties in Interest would return the funds by August 7, 2025 (they didn’t). See

Exhibit 2. Accordingly, Relators made a disbursement request of $869,000 under the

TRO. Exhibit 3.

On August 7, 2025, Mr. Hart revealed that not only had Real Parties in Interest

removed the $507,000, they had actually paid it to third parties, and it would now

“take a couple of days” to get it back. Although roughly $407,000 of the $869,000

did hit Silver Star’s account on August 7, 2025, the balance was not received until 3 August 11, 2025 – a week after the TRO covering funds “currently” in the account

was signed. In short, Relators’ initial prioritization was based on the good faith belief

they would have $869,000 in rent collections for urgent operational expenses.

Relators understandably waited to make sure the Real Parties were actually going to

return the roughly $507,000 taken after the TRO was signed, to ensure Relators

would not have to re-prioritize a smaller amount. The TRO requires Relators to

report payments made for operational expenses within five (5) days, so the

remainder of expenses were accounted for today. Exhibit 4. 2

Finally, with respect to the issue of conferring, when the undersigned notified

Real Parties’ lead counsel of the filing of the Petition for Writ of Mandamus

yesterday and that an emergency motion for stay was coming, he received neither a

reply nor a bounce-back E-mail indicating Mr. Sparks was out of the office. When

the undersigned replied this morning in the same thread, he left the E-mail thread

open so that if Mr. Sparks replied he would see it immediately. Seeing no reply, the

undersigned filed the Emergency Motion this morning. Unfortunately, after filing

the Emergency Motion and closing the E-mail thread, the undersigned did see after

the fact that a bounce back had been received – just not in the same E-mail thread.

2 In his Declaration, Mr. Taylor makes clear he does not impugn the personal integrity of Mr. Brent Buyse, who signed the Affidavit in support of the Real Parties’ Opposition that omits these key facts. To the best of Mr. Taylor’s recollection, Mr. Buyse was not present in the meetings described above, nor does he appear to have been copied on the E-mails attached. 4 Even so, the point is moot because Relators had notice under TRAP 52(10) the

motion was coming, and they were able to file an Opposition twenty-four (24) hours

later, to which the Court has access before deciding the issue. Thus, the conference

on whether they were agreed or opposed is moot. Relators request the stay pending

this Court’s ruling on jurisdiction.

Respectfully submitted,

Walter L. Taylor State Bar No. 19727030 taylorlawfirmdfw@gmail.com TAYLOR LAW FIRM 6630 Colleyville Blvd, Suite 200 Colleyville, Texas 76034 Tel: (817) 770-4343 Tel: (512) 474-6600 Fax: (512) 474-6700 ATTORNEY FOR RELATORS

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify by my signature above that a true and correct copy of the foregoing document has this day been served via certified mail, return receipt requested, electronic service, facsimile or hand delivery in open court, upon the Real Parties in Interest and Respondent on this 16th day of August, 2025: Jacob Sparks Email: Jacob.Sparks@NelsonMullins.com Brent T. Buyse Email: Brent.Buyse@NelsonMullins.com Xenna Davis Email: Xenna.Davis@NelsonMullins.com NELSON MULLINS RILEY &SCARBOROUGH, LLP

5 Hon. Brian Stagner Judge Presiding Texas Business Court Eighth Division 1515 Commerce Street, Ste. 170 Fort Worth, TX 76102 BCDivision8B@txcourts.gov

6 EXHIBIT 1

No. 15-25-00136-CV ________________________________

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Bluebook (online)
In Re Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc.; Silver Star CRE, LLC; Silver Star CRE II, LLC; And Silver Star Delray, LLC v. the State of Texas, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-silver-star-properties-reit-inc-silver-star-cre-llc-silver-star-texapp-2025.