July 14th, 2017

US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
July 14, 2017
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BancPass, Inc. v. Highway Toll Administration, LLC

Docket: 16-51073
Opinion Date: July 13, 2017
Judge: Stephen Andrew Higginson
Areas of Law: Civil Procedure

This interlocutory appeal arose out of litigation between rival companies that specialize in highway toll collection technology. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of HTA's motion for summary judgment based on Texas's judicial proceedings privilege. Determining that it had jurisdiction over the appeal, the court proceeded to the merits. The court read Texas caselaw as signaling limits on which communications made prior to the initiation of litigation qualify as sufficiently related to the contemplated judicial proceeding identified by the defendant. In this case, the court agreed with the district court that these limits preclude application of the privilege here, most significantly, because of the disconnect between the purpose of the communications and HTA's later tortious interference litigation, as well as the circumstances of the third-party recipients.