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October 4, 2005
Harriet Miers: 3-for-4 in the Texas State Courts
Wrong.
A Westlaw search for cases in which Harriet Miers was an attorney of record reveals four reported cases (in thirty years) in the Texas state courts:
Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Esprit Finance, Inc., 981 S.W.2d 25 (Tex. App. 1998) (contract law, agency law, personal jurisdiction) (won)Microsoft Corp. v. Manning, 914 S.W.2d 602 (Ct. App. Tex. 1995) (class-action certification) (lost)
McClure v. Casa Claire Apartments, Ltd., 560 S.W.2d 457 (Tex. Civ. App. 1977) (mortgage law and dispute about jury verdict) (won)
Perkins Const. Co. v. Ten-Fifteen Corp., 545 S.W.2d 494 (Tex. Civ. App. 1976) (state-law conflict about priority of liens) (won)
Posted by Eric at October 4, 2005 8:13 AM
Comments
I think I figured it out. What if Harriet Miers has been nominated not to be confirmed but to draw fire. Given that she was pre-approved by Harry Reid, if the nomination does go down in flames after an evaluation of "qualified/not-qualified/whaa?", it leaves an opening for an unquestionably qualified candidate who might otherwise have been blocked on policy grounds.
"Sorry Harry - I tried my best, but I couldn't get here through. You remember Janice? Janice, this is Harry".
If this seems unlikely, try coming up with a ruse, scheme, or bright shiny object that you couldn't get the Democratic leadership in the Senate to go for...
Simon
p.s.
Shana Tova v'Metukah, y'all
Posted by: Simon Spero at October 4, 2005 10:37 AM
Not in state court either, huh? How about traffic court?
Posted by: Dean Blobaum at October 4, 2005 1:54 PM
Most lawsuits don't generate a reported appellate decision. I think it is safe to assume that Miers has been doing what most big firm litigators do, trial court motion practice and occasional verdicts. That, by the way, is what the law actually is; what law professors do is kind of a trivial social indulgence.
Posted by: sean at October 4, 2005 3:14 PM
Regarding the Microsoft suit:
Miers filed a brief with the trial court -- which had taken up the class action suit again after an appellate court had refused Microsoft's request to "de-certify" the class-action suit, in other words to deny it class-action status -- and convinced the judge the previous decision was flawed.Amongst other arguments, her brief stated that "the lower courts upheld certification without determining whether the novel theory of the case was proper for a class action suit."
Microsoft's idea, that only those people who had actually lost data, not the millions who had bought MS-DOS 6.0, had a right to sue, was upheld. After that, the class-action plaintiffs withdrew their suit.
It looks like Miers continued to pursue this case and ultimately prevailed.
Source:
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=171203004
Posted by: Thorley Winston at October 5, 2005 12:50 AM
I would think that most of her actions were in trial courts and many settled without reported opinions, so I think this likely understates her experience and success significantly.
That said, I still think she is woefully unqualified.
Posted by: Roach at October 5, 2005 2:24 PM