June 6, 2025 in Case Summaries

In a tragic case involving a six-year-old girl who was killed by her school bus as she crossed in front of it, the Texas Supreme Court agreed with the argument of her parents, Levinger PC’s clients, that the bus manufacturer and dealer had no right to take an interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s order denying their challenge to venue in Dallas County.  Despite a previous line of intermediate court decisions upholding interlocutory appeals in all cases involving multiple plaintiffs, the Supreme Court interpreted section 15.003(b) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to permit interlocutory appeals only in cases where a plaintiff’s independent claim to venue is at issue.  Because the parents were asserting identical claims based on identical facts under identical venue grounds, the Court held that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction over the defendants’ interlocutory appeal of the venue ruling.  In so holding, the Court closed a significant loophole that had permitted  piecemeal appeals in any venue case involving multiple plaintiffs, and reinforced the principle that interlocutory appeals are the exception rather than the rule.  Rush Truck Centers of Texas, L.P. v. Sean and Tori Sayre, No. 24-0040, 2025 WL 1599527 (Tex. June 6, 2025).

Courts:  Supreme Court of Texas

Subject Matter:  Procedural & Evidentiary Issues;

Products Liability & Personal Injury