Harriet O'Neill
From Judgepedia
Harriet O'Neill is a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Her term expires on December 31, 2010.
O'Neill was first elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1998. She had previous served as a judge with the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Texas since 1995, when then-Governor George W. Bush appointed her. Prior to that, O'Neill had been a trial judge for the 152nd District Court, located in Houston, to which she was elected in 1992.
Biography
Justice O'Neill earned her undergraduate degree, with honors, from Conserve College, and studied at University College in Oxford, England. In 2001, Converse awarded Justice O'Neill an honorary doctorate degree.
Justice O'Neill and her husband, Kerry Cammack, have three children who are actively involved in sports and school activities. For many years, Justice O’Neill coached her daughters’ basketball teams. They are members of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Austin.
Legal Education and Experience
She received her J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1982 where she was a member of the academic honors society and served as the law school representative to the American Bar Association. Prior to joining the bench, O'Neill was in private practice in Houston. She practiced law with the firms of Porter & Clements, Morris & Campbell, and then opened her own practice. Throughout those ten years, O'Neill practiced mostly complex business and commercial litigation.
Justice O'Neill was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1998 and re-elected to a second term in 2004. Justice O'Neill's judicial career began in 1992, when she was elected to the 152nd District Court in Houston. In 1995, Governor George W. Bush appointed her to the 14th Court of Appeals, and she won election to that seat in 1996. Justice O'Neill left the court of appeals with a 91 percent approval rating (1998 Houston Bar Poll), the highest rating on her nine-member court.[1]
Awards and Associations
Justice O'Neill is a frequent author and speaker. In 2001, she was the First-Prize Winner in the National Law Day Speech Awards for her speech entitled "Protecting the Best Interests of Our Children." She also writes and lectures frequently for continuing legal education programs. In 2002, and again in 2006, the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists named Justice O'Neill the Appellate Justice of the Year. She is a member of the American Law Institute, the Robert W. Calvert Inns of Court, and a Fellow of the Houston and Texas Bar Foundations. Justice O'Neill is an active member of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, which the Supreme Court created to develop and implement initiatives designed to ensure that the court system is available to meet the basic civil legal needs of low-income Texans.
Justice O'Neill returned to the University of South Carolina School of Law in the spring of 2002 as the law school's "Jurist in Residence," and subsequently received the University of South Carolina Distinguished Alumnae Award.
Justice O'Neill was appointed by then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to serve on the National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women. She has a special interest in improving our court system for children and families in foster care and spearheaded the creation in 2007 of the Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families, of which she is chair.
Political Affiliation
Republican
Campaign Contributions
News and Articles
On the Issues
On Contract Enforcement
On Criminal Justice
On the Death Penalty
On Freedom of Expression
On Discrimination and Equal Protection
On Education
On Elections Law
On Employer and Employee Rights
On Family Law
On Government Accountability
On Gun Rights
On Negligence
On Personal Responsibility
Issue: Under the safe harbor provision of the Texas Dram Shope Act, does a provider of alcohol have to prove that he did not directly or indirectly encourage his employees to over-serve alcohol in order to receive immunity from the liability associated with employees over-serving patrons.
Factual and Procedural History: In November 1999, Defendant's employees served Plaintiff ten to fifteen free alcoholic beverages at the opening of their pool hall. After Plaintiff became invloved in an argument with another patron, Defendnat asked Plaintiff to leave. After leaving, Plaintiff was punched by the other patron in the parking lot, which caused Plaintiff to fall and strike his head on the pavement. Plaintiff brought suit for damages, but the trial court granted Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. In response, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that Defendant did not establish that they did not encourage their employees to violate the law. The Supreme Court of Texas granted Defendant's petition of review to explore the contours of the safe harbor provision.
Relevant Rule: The Texas Dram Shop, which imposes liability on alcoholic beverage providers for damages resulting from the provision of alcohol to obviously drunk persons,[3] also contains a section eliminating this liabilitiy if (1)the employer requires its employees to attend certain training classes, (2) the employee in question actually attended these classes, and (3) the provider did not directly or indirectly encourage that employee to violate the law[4].
Summary: Justice Harriet O'Neill concurred with the unanimous opinion, authored by Wallace Jefferson, which ruled that a provider of alcohol does not have the burden of disproving encouragment to over-serve alcohol in oder to realize the benefits of the safe harbor clause of the Texas Dram Shop Act. The court held: (1) the provider bears the burden of establishing the first two elements of the safe harbor provision (2) the plaintiff bears teh burden of establishing direct or indirect encouragement, and (3) encouragement may be shown, at the minimum, by evidence of the provider's negligence.
On Property Rights
On Taxes
On Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
On Term Limits
On Tort Reform
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ Justice O'Neill bio from TX Supreme Court website
- ↑ 249 S.W.3d 392
- ↑ TEX. ALCO. BEV. CODE 2.02(b)
- ↑ TEX. ALCO.BEV. CODE 106.14(a)
