District Court, N.D. Texas — appointed by John F. Kennedy
United States v. Estes
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1978-02-07 · cited 9×
The case involved the United States seeking personal judgments against Billie Sol Estes and his wife Patsy for unpaid federal income taxes, penalties, and interest assessed for the years 1959 through 1962, arising from income not reported from a large-scale fraudulent scheme. The court considered motions for summary judgment in consolidated actions, noting that the tax liabilities had been previously litigated and determined in Bankruptcy Court for Estes and the Tax Court for his wife, resulting in final judgments. The court reasoned that these prior determinations established the existence of the tax liabilities under the doctrine of res judicata, authorizing the entry of judgments in the present suit based on both the assessments and the existing judgments.
taxesfederal power
Goodspeed v. Estelle
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1977-09-26 · cited 2×
In Goodspeed v. Estelle, petitioner Irvin Goodspeed filed a federal habeas corpus action to vacate his 1962 Texas conviction for robbery with a firearm and resulting life sentence, which had been enhanced under the state's habitual criminal statute based on a prior 1947 murder conviction. The sole remaining claim was that the Texas habitual offender statute was unconstitutional on its face and as applied to him. The court denied relief, holding that the statute was valid, that Goodspeed's many prior claims (including ineffective assistance of counsel, prejudicial publicity, lack of counsel, and illegal extradition) had already been litigated and rejected in earlier proceedings, and that any prison-clothing issue was meritless because no timely objection was made and the clothing was not identifiable as jail garb. The court also noted that Goodspeed's appeal of the robbery conviction had been dismissed at his own request.
criminal lawprocedure
Ex Parte Tammen
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1977-05-02
This case involves Bob Tammen's petition for a writ of habeas corpus seeking release from custody after being held in civil contempt for refusing to comply with an IRS summons requiring production of records and information about his financial dealings with Charles Colley. The court denied the petition, concluding that Tammen had not purged his contempt because his claims that the records disappeared were inconsistent across multiple accounts and he had not provided sufficient information to the IRS agents. The reasoning relied on transcripts of court hearings and agent meetings showing Tammen's ongoing refusal to obey the November 1976 summons order in an investigation of Colley's 1973-1974 tax liability, despite opportunities to comply.
criminal lawfederal powertaxes
Scott v. Abilene Independent School District
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1977-03-02 · cited 1×
Marilyn Scott, a public school teacher in the Abilene Independent School District, resigned her position under the district's written pregnancy policy, which required notification of pregnancy and disqualified teachers from teaching in the semester of expected childbirth. She sued the district for monetary damages, alleging that the policy was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's decision in Cleveland Board of Education v. La Fleur. The court did not address the constitutionality of the policy, concluding instead that it lacked jurisdiction over the action because the suit was brought solely for damages against a school district under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiff had not exhausted available administrative remedies under Texas law and sought no equitable relief, with the pregnancy policy no longer in effect by the time of the suit.
civil rightslabor & employmentprocedure
United States v. Houghton
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1975-03-21 · cited 2×
In United States v. Houghton, the defendant, who had pleaded guilty to wiretapping a telephone in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2511 and received a five-year sentence to run concurrently with prior sentences, filed a motion more than two years later requesting a complete transcript of the proceedings at government expense. The court denied the motion, citing precedents holding that indigent prisoners have no statutory right to free copies of court records for the purpose of searching for possible errors or for prospective litigation. The core reasoning was that such requests amount to fishing expeditions without any pending challenge to the conviction, and the facts of this case illustrated the policy against granting them at taxpayer expense.
criminal lawprocedure
Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n v. United States
District Court, N.D. Texas · 1975-02-15 · cited 3×
This case concerned the Veterans Administration's attempt to recover $144 in medical costs for treating an ex-serviceman's on-the-job injury from the employer's workers' compensation insurer, Texas Employers Insurance Association, based on an assignment from the veteran and a VA regulation. The dispute arose after the Texas Industrial Accident Board awarded the amount to the VA, prompting the insurer to sue to set aside the award in a case originally filed in justice court. Drawing on Supreme Court precedent in United States v. Standard Oil Co. and Fifth Circuit authority in Pennsylvania National Mutual Cas. Ins. Co. v. Barnett, which stressed that Congress alone determines federal fiscal policy on such claims and that no tort or valid assignment existed here, the court addressed whether an administrative regulation could independently create liability in a workers' compensation context. The facts were stipulated, leaving only the legal question of the regulation's validity.
labor & employmentfederal powerhealthcare