Texas 10th Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Guardianship, Jurisdiction, Probate
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June 27, 2026
The Texas Court of Appeals, Tenth District, vacated a permanent guardianship order because the proposed ward was never personally served with the petitioning party’s guardianship application, holding that a complete absence of service—as opposed to a technical defect—deprives the court of personal jurisdiction and renders any order void, even if the proposed ward was served with a competing application and represented by an attorney ad litem.
Texas 8th Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction, Tax
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June 12, 2026
The Eighth Court of Appeals held that Texas residents cannot file a special appearance under Rule 120a to contest defective service of process, because Texas courts have presumptive personal jurisdiction over all Texas residents. A misspelled name in a citation is a curable service defect, not a jurisdictional flaw, properly raised by a motion to quash — not a special appearance that risks constituting a general appearance.
Business Transactions, Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction
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June 7, 2026
The First Court of Appeals reversed the denial of a special appearance, holding that forum-selection clauses in LLC agreements could not bind a non-signatory entity through direct-benefits estoppel in a multi-layered ownership structure.
Civil Procedure, Family Law, Jurisdiction
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June 7, 2026
The Texas Supreme Court dismissed a parental-termination case for lack of jurisdiction after the trial court failed to enter a written extension order before the Family Code's automatic-dismissal deadline.