PJC Business

INTRODUCTION 1. P URPOSE OF P UBLICATION

The purpose of this volume, like those of the others in this series, is to assist the bench and bar in preparing the court’s charge in jury cases. It provides definitions, instructions, and questions needed to submit jury charges in the following cases: • contract cases, both common-law and UCC sale of goods, and including construc tion contracts and insurance contracts; • actions under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act (DTPA) and the Texas Insurance Code; • actions against insurers for violation of the duty of good faith and fair dealing; • breach of fiduciary duty; • fraud, both common-law and statutory (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 27.01), negligent misrepresentation, and actions under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act; • tortious interference with existing contracts and prospective contractual relations; • employment actions; • actions to hold shareholders personally liable for the liabilities of a corporation (“piercing the corporate veil”); • civil conspiracy; • defamation, business disparagement, and invasion of privacy; and • misappropriation of trade secrets. It also contains questions and comments pertaining to defenses to the above actions and sections on damages and preservation of charge error. The pattern charges are suggestions and guides to be used by a trial court if they are applicable and proper in a specific case. The Committee hopes that this volume will prove as worthy as have the earlier Texas Pattern Jury Charges volumes. 2. S COPE OF P ATTERN C HARGES The infinite combinations of possible facts in contract, consumer, employment, and other business cases make it impracticable for the Committee to offer questions suitable for every occasion. The Committee has tried to prepare charges to serve as guides for the usual litigation encountered in these types of cases. However, a charge should conform to the pleadings and evidence of a case, and occasions will arise for the use of questions and instructions not specifically addressed here. 3. U SE OF A CCEPTED P RECEDENTS Like its predecessors, this Committee has avoided recommending changes in the law and has based this material on what it perceives the present law to be. It has attempted to

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