Shareholder Miles Klaff Secures Appellate Victory in $1.4 Million Oil & Gas Case

Shareholder Miles Klaff recently secured an appellate victory in the Texas Ninth Court of Appeals stemming from a $1.4 million default judgment in an oil and gas dispute. After learning of the default judgment, our client had moved for a new trial and to set aside the judgment, but the trial court denied the Motion for New Trial. Specifically, the trial court concluded that the Motion for New Trial was untimely because the file stamp on the motion indicated that it was filed three days after the deadline. In our appeal, we demonstrated that the motion was, in fact, timely filed under Texas law because it was sent to the electronic filing service provider before the deadline, but that due to a technical error outside of the control of our client, the motion was not received by the court clerk until after the deadline. The court of appeals agreed, noting that the Motion for New Trial was timely filed because it was “transmitted” to the electronic service provider before midnight on the due date. As such, the court of appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling and remanded the case back to the trial court.