Appellate Victory, Reversed and Rendered Take-Nothing Judgment for Private Clients in $22.5 Million Tortious Interference Matter
On June 17, 2025, the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals reversed a Harris County District Court’s denial of (i) personal-jurisdiction challenge and (ii) a challenge under Texas’s anti-SLAPP statute, and rendered a take-nothing judgment in favor of Gibbs & Bruns clients Matthew Van Steenwyk and Matthew Umhofer.
The lawsuit was filed on June 9, 2023 by two California corporations—Applied Technologies Associates, Inc. and ATA Ranches, Inc.—who alleged $22.5 million in damages resulting from Van Steenwyk and Umhofer’s purported tortious interference with the sale of certain California ranches. Immediately after plaintiffs filed their suit, Van Steenwyk and Umhofer specially appeared to challenge the Texas court’s personal jurisdiction over them, and later filed an anti-SLAPP motion seeking to dismiss the suit with prejudice and recover their attorneys’ fees. After a hearing in early 2024, the trial court issued orders denying both motions. Van Steenwyk and Umhofer perfected an immediate appeal.
After holding oral argument in October of 2024, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion reversing the trial court’s orders and rendering judgment that plaintiffs take nothing on their claims against Van Steenwyk and Umhofer. Among other things, the Court held that Umhofer could not be subject to Texas jurisdiction through a forum-selection-clause that he had never signed and dismissed all claims against him. As to Van Steenwyk, the Court held that plaintiffs had failed to establish a prima facie case as to all their claims against him, dismissed those claims with prejudice, and remanded to the trial court for a determination of what attorneys’ fees Van Steenwyk was entitled to.
