Law Funder, LLC, Baker Brown & Dixon, Pc, and John Baker v. Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 6, 2014
Docket13-12-00375-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Law Funder, LLC, Baker Brown & Dixon, Pc, and John Baker v. Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison (Law Funder, LLC, Baker Brown & Dixon, Pc, and John Baker v. Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison) 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
Law Funder, LLC, Baker Brown & Dixon, Pc, and John Baker v. Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison, (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-12-00375-CV

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG

LAW FUNDER, LLC, BAKER BROWN & DIXON, PC, AND JOHN BAKER, Appellants,

v.

LAW OFFICES OF DOUGLAS A. ALLISON, Appellee.

On appeal from the County Court at Law No. 4 of Nueces County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Rodriguez, Benavides, and Perkes Memorandum Opinion by Justice Benavides Appellants, Law Funder, LLC (“Law Funder”), Baker Brown & Dixon, PC (“BBD”), and John Baker, appeal from an order granting an anti-suit injunction in a dispute over

attorney’s fees. We reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellee, Law Offices of Doug Allison (“Allison”), filed suit against appellants,

Pablo Ruiz Limon and Servicios Legales de Mesoamerica S. de R.L. (“Servicios”) in

County Court at Law Number Four of Nueces County Texas, seeking a declaratory

judgment.1 According to Allison’s first amended petition filed on March 29, 2012, Allison

had concluded its work on four separate legal cases and had received the attorney’s fees

due for its work. Allison sought a declaratory judgment that none of the defendants had

a contractual right to seek a portion of these attorney’s fees.

On March 29, 2012, Allison filed an application for temporary restraining order and

application for preliminary injunction. This application set out the following history

underlying this appeal. According to the application, in summary, in approximately 2005,

Servicios and Limon referred some clients to Allison for representation. Allison paid

Servicos attorney’s fees for the completed cases in which “all parties had performed,” but

did not pay Servicios for those cases where Servicios “had not performed, and for other

reasons.” The completed cases for which Servicios was not paid are the subject of the

attorney’s fees dispute between the parties in this case. In 2007, Servicios assigned the

cases that were the subject of dispute to Baker “and/or” BBD. Thereafter, Servicios,

Baker, and/or BBD purportedly sold their interests in these “contingent attorneys’ fee

1 Limon and Servicios are not parties to this appeal.

2 interests” to Law Funder.

In a separate matter, in 2009, a divorce proceeding was pending between Maria

de Jesus Garcia and Wilfrido Garcia in cause number F-551-05-C in the 139th Judicial

District Court of Hidalgo County, Texas. This suit was ultimately transferred to the 449th

Judicial District Court of Hidalgo County, Texas. In this case, the trial court appointed

receivers for “the purpose of securing an accounting and to seek recovery of all claims,

income and fees received or owed” to Wilfrido, Servicios, BBD, and the Law Funder.

The receivers filed a petition in intervention against Allison and numerous other law firms

seeking an accounting of attorney’s fees allegedly owed to or through Servicios.

In the Hidalgo County divorce suit, the trial court appointed Michael Flanagan, Eloy

Sepulveda, and Sean Callagy as receivers pursuant to the Texas Family Code to provide

an accounting regarding the disputed fees. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 6.502(a)(5)

(West 2006). The accounting was ultimately completed; however, the receivers’ action

did not constitute an “adjudication of the various parties’ interests in the attorneys’ fees in

question.”2

Appellee’s application for temporary restraining order and application for

preliminary injunction alleged that the declaratory action was the “first filed pleading for

an adjudication of the various parties’ interests, if any, in the . . . attorneys’ fees made the

subject of this dispute.” Appellee thus sought a temporary restraining order and

2 In 2012, Wilfrido Garcia, joined by receivers Flanagan, Sepulveda, and Callagy, filed a petition

for writ of mandamus seeking relief from an order disqualifying the trial court judge. See In re Garcia, No. 13-12-00440-CV, 2012 WL 3792112, at **1–3 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi Aug. 31, 2012, orig. proceeding [mand. denied]) (mem. op. per curiam). This Court and the Texas Supreme Court denied the petition. See id.

3 preliminary injunction to prevent any filing, or further filing or action, by any other party of

a competing effort.

The trial court held a hearing on appellee’s application on May 10, 2012. At the

hearing, the trial court stated that it would grant the requested relief, and subsequently,

on May 16, 2012, the trial court entered the injunction subject to appeal. The order

states, in pertinent part, as follows:

On the 10th day of May, 2012, the Court called for hearing Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison’s (“LODA’s”) Application for Preliminary Injunction; and LODA appeared by and through legal counsel; and Law Funder, LLC, John Baker (“Baker”), and Baker Brown & Dixon (“BBD”) appeared by and through counsel, and the Court called the matter for hearing. LODA, Law Funder, Baker, and BBD announced “ready,” and the Court heard opening statements, received evidence, and considered the parties’ closing arguments and legal authorities presented. Based upon the evidence presented, and the legal authorities presented, and considering all possible bases for granting or denying LODA’s Application for Preliminary Injunction, the Court enters the following ruling.

IT IS ORDERED that LODA’s Application for Preliminary Injunction is hereby GRANTED. The Application for Preliminary Injunction is hereby GRANTED for the reasons set forth by this Court’s rulings and findings on the record, and also for each and every other reason as may be supported by the evidence presented on May 10, 2012, and legal authorities related thereto.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Law Funder, Baker, and BBD, and their attorneys (including Ray Thomas, and attorneys with the law firm known as Kittleman, Thomas & Gonzalez, LLP), and Law Funder’s, Baker’s, and BBD’s agents and representatives and ostensible agents and representatives (including Servicios Legales de Mesoamerica (“SLM”), Eloy Sepulveda, Michael Flanagan, and Sean Callagy) are to refrain from and are hereby enjoined from filing any pleadings, seeking collection, deposit, or recovery of, pursuing any legal remedies for, seeking to adjudicate ownership of, and instituting or prosecuting any legal proceeding in any State or United States court, including Cause No. F-551-05-K now pending in the 449th Judicial District Court, Hidalgo County, Texas, relating to any LODA cases or affecting the attorney’s fees involved in this legal action (Cause no. 10-60166-4), until such time as this case (Cause no. 10-601-

4 166-4) is finally resolved.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that bond is set at $100.00; and this Order confirms that such a cash bond has been fully satisfied by proper deposit already on file with the Clerk’s office.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that trial for this case (Cause No. 10- 60166-4) is set for February 4, 2013.

The order effectively restrained proceedings from going forward in the divorce case

pending in trial court cause number F-551-05-K in the 449th District Court of Hidalgo

County, Texas.

This appeal and a related original proceeding ensued.3 By one issue, appellant

contends that the trial court abused its discretion by issuing an anti-suit injunction order

that failed to comply with Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 683 because it failed to set forth

the reasons for its issuance and, to the extent that the order could be construed to set

forth reasons, those reasons fail to justify the order’s issuance.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Newton
146 S.W.3d 648 (Texas Supreme Court, 2004)
Gonzalez v. Reliant Energy, Inc.
159 S.W.3d 615 (Texas Supreme Court, 2005)
In Re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.
166 S.W.3d 732 (Texas Supreme Court, 2005)
Frost National Bank v. Fernandez
315 S.W.3d 494 (Texas Supreme Court, 2010)
Adust Video v. Nueces County
996 S.W.2d 245 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1999)
Yarto v. Gilliland
287 S.W.3d 83 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)
City of McAllen v. McAllen Police Officers Union
221 S.W.3d 885 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Transport Co. of Texas v. Robertson Transports
261 S.W.2d 549 (Texas Supreme Court, 1953)
Big D Properties, Inc. v. Foster
2 S.W.3d 21 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1999)
Sabine Offshore Service, Inc. v. City of Port Arthur
595 S.W.2d 840 (Texas Supreme Court, 1980)
Interfirst Bank San Felipe, N.A. v. Paz Construction Co.
715 S.W.2d 640 (Texas Supreme Court, 1986)
Guajardo v. Conwell
46 S.W.3d 862 (Texas Supreme Court, 2001)
University Interscholastic League v. Torres
616 S.W.2d 355 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)
General Homes, Inc. v. Wingate Civic Ass'n
616 S.W.2d 351 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Millwrights Local Union No. 2484 v. Rust Engineering Co.
433 S.W.2d 683 (Texas Supreme Court, 1968)
Butnaru v. Ford Motor Co.
84 S.W.3d 198 (Texas Supreme Court, 2002)
Independent Capital Management, L.L.C. v. Collins
261 S.W.3d 792 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Qwest Communications Corp. v. AT & T CORP.
24 S.W.3d 334 (Texas Supreme Court, 2000)
Universal Health Services, Inc. v. Thompson
24 S.W.3d 570 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Law Funder, LLC, Baker Brown & Dixon, Pc, and John Baker v. Law Offices of Douglas A. Allison, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/law-funder-llc-baker-brown-dixon-pc-and-john-baker-v-law-offices-of-texapp-2014.