Terri Blevins v. Beverly Brown

Summary

The Seventh District Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed dismissal under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 91a of Terri Blevins’s claims for slander and tortious interference with employment. The majority held that Blevins’s amended petition was untimely and that his original petition lacked sufficient factual allegations to support either claim. A dissent would have permitted the slander claim to proceed, concluding that the petition provided adequate notice under Texas fair-notice pleading standards.

Holdings

1. The trial court properly refused to consider Blevins's amended petition because Rule 91a.5 requires an amendment filed in response to a Rule 91a motion to be filed at least three days before the hearing unless otherwise permitted by the rule or agreed to by the parties.
2. The trial court properly dismissed the slander claim because Blevins's petition did not identify the alleged defamatory statement or plead sufficient factual allegations supporting the elements of slander.
3. The trial court properly dismissed Blevins's claim for tortious interference with an employment relationship because the petition did not plead specific facts showing Brown's intentional interference, the action taken, or how the action caused Blevins's injury.
4. Blevins waived his complaints concerning judicial bias, partiality, disparate treatment, and due process because he did not object in the trial court or move to recuse or remove the judge.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to consider Blevins's amended petition filed on the day of the Rule 91a hearing.
2. Whether Blevins's original petition stated claims for slander and tortious interference with an employment relationship sufficient to survive dismissal under Rule 91a.
3. Whether Blevins preserved complaints that the trial court's conduct demonstrated partiality, denied him due process, or treated him disparately as a pro se litigant.

Disposition

affirmed