Media & Results

At a time of year when many people think about giving to others, a Harris County probate judge signed an agreed judgment on Nov. 24 in the estate of a Houston real estate developer that provides a total of $6.9 million to 19 non-profits, including several in Houston.

“For some of these charities, particularly the smaller ones, this is a very big deal,” said Houston lawyer Richard Mithoff, who represented most of the non-profits in The Estate of James M. Hill Jr.

Texas Heart Institute drops its suit; Catholic Healthy ups deal

The Texas Heart Institute will partner with the Catholic hospital chain that bought the St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System, ending a contractual dispute tied up in a Harris County district court since May.

Opposition from county judge spurs nonprofit to head to court

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he would not place a 1-cent property tax on the November ballot intended to buoy area preschools, prompting a lawsuit by a local nonprofit that supplied tens of thousands of signatures on a petition asking him to do so.

The Texas Heart Institute, the St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System’s most valuate asset, is asking a Harris County court to declare it a free agent, a potentially huge wrinkle in the pending sale of the system to Catholic Health Initiatives.

Vantage Drilling Co. sued a BP Plc unit over what it claims was a $265.5 million increase in financing costs stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP Plc’s investors can add more claims to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit accusing the company of lying before and after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. judge ruled.

Chevron Corp. executives committed fraud when they told owners of a biodiesel plant in Galveston they would “not let you fail,” but then refused to inject more money into the struggling project, partners in the venture alleged in a court filing.