Texas Business Court Unable to Accept Cases Older Than Itself

Complex business lawsuits that originated before Texas’s new business courts are ineligible to be litigated there, a statewide appeals court ruled Friday.

Removal attempts in pre-existing cases are forbidden because they “did not commence a new civil action but continued the previous one in a different court,” the Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District said in the opinion.

The unanimous decision turns back a longshot bid by lawyers in at least 16 cases who sought to remove litigation pending in traditional courts and bring it to the state’s business courts system. They argued the law that created the courts never says it applies to litigation brought “only” on or after the launch date.

“With perfect hindsight, one can always rewrite a statute to make it more plain,” Chief Justice Scott Brister wrote in the opinion. “But the Legislature is not required to exercise perfect hindsight.”

The decision from the Austin-based appeals court sides with seven business court judges who said they wouldn’t try the old cases. No judge has ruled those cases are eligible for business courts.

Texas opened business courts on Sept. 1, 2024, to streamline high-priced, complex business matters that tend to linger in traditional courts.

The courts are in five major urban areas: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Austin.

The case is In re ETC Field Services, LLC, Tex. App., 15th Dist., No. 15-24-00131-CV, 2/21/25.