After almost 16 years of service on Texas’s highest court, Justice Paul W. Green will retire Aug. 31 — the end of the current term. Affectionately known at the court as “PWG,” Justice Green will be remembered as a conscientious and fair judge, a caring boss and colleague, and an adventuresome pilot (a passion he looks forward to pursuing more in retirement with his youngest son Ethan, who himself is a burgeoning aviator).
Justice Green says that what he will miss most about the Texas Supreme Court is the “the back and forth” between the justices in conferences. As the second-most senior member of the court, Justice Green has certainly seen his fair share of the “back and forth.” And he has often delivered the final word. Since joining the Court in 2005, Justice Green has authored 99 majority opinions, along with a number of concurrences and dissents, in some of the most important cases in Texas jurisprudence.
Currently, Justice Green’s most cited opinion is Italian Cowboy Partners v. Prudential, which has stood for almost a decade as a critical bulwark to protect victims of fraudulent inducement: If contracting parties intend to disclaim reliance on representations, they must do so clearly and unequivocally. Italian Cowboy held that a generic merger clause in a commercial lease was not a disclaimer of a tenant’s reliance on the property manager’s oral assurances that the building was in perfect condition. The case has been cited in 572 judicial opinions since it was issued in 2011.
Excerpted from The Texas Lawbook. To read the full article, click here. (Subscription required)