Inadmissible

In a Sept. 26 memorandum and order in Jamie Leigh Jones v. Halliburton Corp. d/b/a KBR Inc., et al., U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison of the Southern District of Texas in Houston granted an application filed by the corporate defendants — KBR and several of its subsidiaries — to have Jones pay court costs of $145,000. But Ellison denied the corporate defendants’ motions to have Jones and her lawyer, L. Todd Kelly of Houston’s Kelly Law Firm, pay attorneys’ fees. On July 8, a jury returned a defense verdict in Jones . On Aug. 3, Ellison signed a defense judgment on Jones’ claims of sexual harassment under Title VII and fraudulent inducement to enter into an employment contract by misrepresentation. Jones had been a contract worker for a KBR subsidiary in Iraq. In his Sept. 26 memorandum and order, Ellison wrote that Jones’ claims “were related to her alleged sexual assault” and “the subsequent retaliation allegedly imposed by the KBR Defendants.” Ellison wrote, “While the flaws in Plaintiffs’ testimony may have strengthened KBR’s arguments and lent to its ultimate success in this case, they do not indicate frivolity or bad faith so as to justify the imposition of attorneys’ fees. Indeed, if such flaws were indicative of frivolity, then many unsuccessful rape victims would be subject to attorney’s fees in civil cases, regardless of the merits of their claims.” In an interview, Kelly says he is glad Ellison ruled that Jones’ suit was not frivolous. “I don’t know how he could have ruled otherwise.” Kelly also says Ellison’s ruling regarding the costs was correct since “under Texas law the costs are borne by the losing party.” But overall, Kelly says he is disappointed “in how this came out. I will go to my grave believing Jamie Leigh Jones was raped. In some ways, it feels like a personal failure.” In a statement Kelly emailed to Texas Lawyer, he writes: “It takes a lot of courage to bring a lawsuit against a well-financed corporation like KBR. Jamie Jones displayed that courage, and in the face of the risks and with the full knowledge that she may have to pay KBR’s costs if she lost, she faced them — head on — in the only place where an individual can still try to stand against a corporation like that, a United States Courtroom.” Dan Hedges , a partner in Porter & Hedges in Houston who represents KBR and the other corporate defendants, says of Ellison’s memorandum and order: “I thought it was well reasoned. We thought we had good arguments for attorneys’ fees but we thought [Ellison] acted within his discretion” in denying those.

Already Hard at Work

Sept. 22 was a big day for Nelva Gonzales Ramos : She was sworn in formally as President Barack Obama ‘s latest nominee to a U.S. district court bench in Texas. Ricardo Hinojosa , chief judge of the Southern District of Texas, swore Ramos in before an audience at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Performing Arts Center. “I had so many different people there, friends, family and colleagues. It was special to me but probably a regular investiture,” she says. One of the people watching as she took her oath was Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head of Corpus Christi, the judge she is replacing. “As a young lawyer I was a little afraid of Judge Head. And never did I think I would be in a position to replace him,” Ramos says. Any assumptions that Ramos’ short tenure as a federal judge has been all pomp and circumstance up to now would be mistaken. Ramos says she’s been hard at work in the Corpus Christi federal courthouse since Aug. 8, shortly after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination. Ramos already has written two summary judgment opinions, she says.

New Magistrate Judge