On March 3, 2023, in a major victory, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled unanimously in favor of Jackson Walker client Helena Chemical Company, reinstating a summary judgment in a lawsuit alleging that an aerial application of herbicide damaged cotton fields in Mitchell County, Texas. This appeal addressed critical issues of causation and expert testimony and set important precedent.
The case began in 2015 when a group of plaintiffs—who owned 111 distinct fields spread across miles—claimed that the aerial herbicide Sendero, which is primarily used to kill mesquite trees, damaged their crops planted in 2015 and 2016. The farmers blamed Helena, which oversaw the aerial application of the herbicide, for their lower crop yields at harvest. The 32nd District Court in Mitchell County initially granted summary judgment for Helena, but the Eleventh Court of Appeals reversed that ruling.
Drawing on the various team member expertise, Jackson Walker secured a complete victory. Jackson Walker partner Robert Soza handled both the lower court proceedings as well as argument in the Texas Supreme Court. Partner and appellate practice chair Jennifer Caughey, along with esteemed appellate lawyer Danica Milios, took the lead on the briefing in the Texas Supreme Court, including petition-stage, merits, and post-argument briefing.
As Robert Soza explained in argument and the briefs set forth, there were two fundamental reasons that reversal was required:
- The court of appeals’ decision undermined the Texas Supreme Court’s causation jurisprudence by failing to require for each of the 111 cotton fields evidence of injury, specific causation, and evidence linking the defendant to that injury.
- The opinion muddled the abuse of discretion standard used by appellate courts in reviewing trial court’s evaluation of expert testimony before allowing that testimony to appear before a jury.
The Supreme Court agreed. In its opinion, the Texas Supreme Court stated: “Other than the experts’ say-so, the record is silent regarding the extent of the causal connection between the crop damage observed by [Texas Department of Agriculture inspector Cory] Pence and the [plaintiffs] in July and the reduced crop yield several months later. This ’analytical gap’ in the causal chain between the allegedly tortious conduct and the damages suffered requires summary judgment for Helena.”
The Court ruled that the plaintiffs’ evidence of causation failed to raise the genuine issue of material fact necessary to survive summary judgment. The court of appeals’ judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part, and a take-nothing judgment on all claims was rendered.
The Jackson Walker team included Robert L. Soza, Jennifer Caughey, and Danica L. Milios, as well as trial team members Stephen Calhoun and Amanda N. Crouch.
The case is Helena Chemical Company v. Cox et al., case number 20-0881, in the Supreme Court of Texas.
Read more at https://www.jw.com/news/result-helena-sendero-appeal/