Adams v. Starside Custom Builders, LLC (547 S.W.3d 890) will be the Fifth (and last) TSC opinion of 2018 that I’ll cover (in a later blog post). But from a timing perspective it provides a case study on how the Texas Anti-Slapp can extend the life of a dispute.
The lawsuit began on March 20, 2015, was met quickly with a Texas Anti-Slapp motion, which was denied by operation of law (because the trial court did not timely rule) on September 14, 2015. After a timely filed appeal and briefing, the Dallas COA entered an opinion on June 28, 2016. The TSC accepted the petition for review and rendered an opinion on April 20, 2018.
In other words, the Texas Anti-Slapp motion created a 15 month span until the Dallas COA ruled, and a 3 year span from filing of the lawsuit until the TSC ruled. That’s 3 years and one month.
And the Starside battle continues as the Dallas COA recently issued an opinion December 7, 2018, in response to the TSC’s opinion. I’ll leave the excitement of how it came down (at least so far) for your reading pleasure.
