Linda J. Donnie is suing Central United Life, claiming employment discrimination. Donnie filed the lawsuit in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas on October 27.

The lawsuit claims that Donnie was hired as associate manager of the underwriting department of Central United Life. She had 14 years of prior experience. According to the complaint, positions under Donnie were eliminated, leaving her solely responsible for the department. The complaint alleges that after a younger white woman was hired as chief operations officer, Donnie, an African-American, began to have her decisions questioned and overriden. Donnie claims that she was presented in a bad light to the corporation and to customers.

The lawsuit states that after Donnie filed a grievance, she was required to participate in an “improvement plan” and experienced a hostile work environment. She was ultimately dismissed for stated grounds based on an underwriting decision she had made a year earlier. The lawsuit claims age discrimination, racial discrimination, retaliation and harassment. Donnie is seeking damages, front and back pay, reinstatement and an injunction against further discrimination.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

C&D filed the lawsuit against TGW Systems Inc., claiming breach of contract. According to the lawsuit, the two companies entered into a contract calling for C&D to receive a five percent commission on services that TGW provided in the tire industry — including engineering, equipment and installation services.

C&D claims that since the agreement was made in May 2008, TGW has entered into significant business in the tire industry (including a $20 million contract with Goodyear) but has not paid C&D any commissions.

C&D alleges that it sent TGW an invoice in the amount of $715,589 for unpaid commissions, but TGW did not respond. C&D claims that the defendant’s lack of response to the invoice constitutes breach of contract.

C&D Skilled Robotics designs and builds robotic material handling systems for the tire and rubber, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, textile and paper industries. The company has locations in Beaumont, Texas and Schio, Italy.

TGW is a provider of automated material handling equipment and storage systems, headquartered in Spring Lake, Michigan.

The lawsuit seeks at least $715,589 in damages, plus costs.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

Facebook recently purchased Oculus for $2 billion.

In its lawsuit, ZeniMax claims that it directed the development of the Rift software and designed its specifications and functionality. The suit alleges that John Carmack and other ZeniMax employees provided Oculus with confidential programming code and technical expertise that transformed the Rift prototype and made it a commercially viable virtual reality headset. 

ZeniMax is the parent company of Id Software, which Carmack cofounded.

Allegedly, Carmack first encountered the Rift prototype in April 2012, in a “primitive” form that was “little more than a display panel.” The suit argues that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey had not developed a viable display and did not have the technical expertise to do so. The lawsuit further alleges that Carmack and other ZeniMax employees made improvements to prevent distortions and reduce latency of the display’s reaction to movement.

Additionally, the plaintiff claims that ZeniMax employees worked on the Oculus Rift project under a nondisclosure agreement, but that talks broke down on the terms of a formal working relationship. Allegedly, Oculus offered to sell ZeniMax a three percent stake in the company for $1.2 million, but ZeniMax maintained that it should have a much larger equity stake. According to the lawsuit, an agreement was never reached, and Oculus never provided ZeniMax with any compensation. The lawsuit notes that John Carmack left ZeniMax to join Oculus as Chief Technology Officer in August 2013. Five other ZeniMax employees left for Oculus as well.

ZeniMax is seeking an unspecified amount in damages for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, copyright infringement, unjust enrichment, unfair competition, trademark infringement and false designation.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

Torchy’s, with restaurants in Austin, Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth, claims that Texas Taco, a chain of three stores, used Torchy’s “Taco Bible” to create a nearly identical menu. According to the complaint, a former employee of Torchy’s stole the book of detailed recipes. The cook now allegedly works at Texas Taco, where some items with identical descriptions have appeared on the menu.

The plaintiff claims that its recipes constitute trade secrets because they detail start-to-finish processes describing the order in which ingredients are cooked and how they are combined.

According to the lawsuit, a Torchy’s manager viewed security footage that showed an employee hiding the Taco Bible under his shirt and exiting the restaurant. The manager called the employee and demanded he return the book, which he did approximately six hours later. He was then fired.

Two months later, Torchy’s claims that a manager visited Texas Taco Co. and found the ex-employee working there and nearly identical items on the menu.

According to a local news report, some of the descriptions on the menus of the two restaurants are duplicated verbatim.

Torchy’s claims that the ex-employee provided Texas Taco with trade secrets in violation of a nondisclosure agreement he signed.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

According to the driver of the SUV, he never saw the other vehicle before he turned left onto the highway. At the scene, police charged the Nissan Pathfinder driver with failing to yield right-of-way to the motorcyclist. Drivers have a duty to remain alert and aware of all other traffic around them — even more so if they have stopped at an intersection prior to making a turn or decision.

Tragically, not all motorcyclists will survive an accident. But an injured, surviving driver needs the services of experienced legal counsel to help them obtain compensation for their injuries and medical costs. Many drivers insist that bikers cause most accidents by exceeding the speed limit. In reality, automobile drivers are usually at fault; they may drive while distracted or fail to look out for concealed and inconspicuous traffic. In this case, a man lost his life because an SUV driver did not conduct a proper check for all types of traffic coming his way. Such cases often involve negligence and as such, the biker’s estate is fully entitled to file a personal injury lawsuit.

Lee, Gober and Reyna – If you need a personal injury attorney or help with an auto accident, motorcycle accident, wrongful death, or burn injury case, contact Lee, Gober and Reyna by visiting http://www.lgrlawfirm.com or calling 512.478.8080

FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT (ONLY)
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The lawsuit claims that the disk drive makers shared information about prices, production and sales, and agreed to set prices and rig bids for their products sold in the United States. Dell claims that as a result, it was sold disk drives at inflated prices.

According to Dell, the price fixing affected billions of dollars in purchases over a time period from 2004 to 2010. The lawsuit accuses the disk drive makers of breach of contract and violation of U.S. antitrust law. Under the provisions of antitrust law, Dell is seeking triple damages.

In 2011, the Justice Department said that Hitachi-LG pleaded guilty to rigging bids and fixing prices and agreed to pay a $21.1 million fine.

Dell has also named Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, BenQ Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corp., and Toshiba Corp. as defendants in the lawsuit.

Dell is the largest private employer in Central Texas, with about 14,000 workers in the area. The company is the third-largest personal computer manufacturer in the world and is number 38 on the Fortune 500 list of large publicly-traded and closely-held companies. The company was founded by Michael Dell in Austin in 1984 and is one of the world’s largest tech companies.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

Beginning in August 2011, Chesapeake began deducting “post-production costs” from the prices for natural gas used to determine payments to royalty owners. These costs include expenses such as compressing and treating natural gas to prepare it for sale. According to Chesapeake, the company previously had the legal right to charge for those costs but had chosen not to do so. At the time, the company stated that the costs would not be deducted if a royalty owner’s lease prohibited such charges. The Warrens claim that although their lease did prohibit charging for post-production costs, they were charged anyway.

Post production costs can be about 80 cents to $1 per 1,000 cubic feet (mcf) depending on what must be done to the gas, which is significant when natural gas prices drop to around $2 per mcf, as they did in 2012. According to the Warrens, by March 2012 they were being paid as low as 42.4 cents per mcf for the natural gas Chesapeake extracted from their eight wells, and the difference in payments ran to six figures.

Several other lawsuits have been filed by Texas landowners against Chesapeake over the reduced royalty payments. The Warrens’ suit seeks class action status, a rarity for this type of lawsuit.

Chesapeake has scrambled to adjust to falling gas prices, which reached $1.90 per mcf by April 2012, a 10-year low.

Gregory D. Jordan is a business lawyer and business litigation attorney in Austin, TX. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.