Kelsi Piatkowski (Partner-Houston, TX)  and Servando Rivas (Associate-Houston, TX) prevailed on behalf of a Fortune 500 company that is among the nation’s largest hardware retailers. After previously obtaining a summary judgment and dismissal in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The case arose from an allegation that a cart failed, causing injury to one of the plaintiffs. On appeal, plaintiffs argued they had raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding the client's constructive knowledge of the allegedly defective cart. In a per curiam opinion, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order on summary judgment, agreeing that the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient temporal evidence under Texas's “time-notice rule.”