# Casso v. Brand

> Texas Supreme Court · May 10, 1989 · 32 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 366

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9681215

## Case

- **Full name:** Ramiro CASSO, M.D., Petitioner, v. Othal E. BRAND, Respondent
- **Court:** Texas Supreme Court
- **Decided:** May 10, 1989
- **Citations:** 32 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 366; 776 S.W.2d 551; 16 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1929; 1989 Tex. LEXIS 39; 1989 WL 47717
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Mauzy
- **Judges:** Spears, Cook, Hightower, Doggett, Gonzalez, Mauzy, Phillips, Ray, Hecht
- **Cited by:** 805 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9681215

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that the court was “reluctant to afford greater constitutional protection to members of the print and broadcast media than to ordinary citizens” and therefore holding that when a public figure sues a private individual, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant made …
- stating that a summary judgment may be granted on the basis of uncontroverted testimonial evidence of an interested witness if that evidence “is clear, positive and direct, otherwise credible and free from contradictions and inconsistencies, and could have been readily controv…
- noting that constitutional implications in defamation claims do not alter our summary judgment standards

## Opinion text

MAUZY, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority today ignores stare decisis and cavalierly overrules the court’s recent decisions in Bessent v. Times-Herald Printing Co., 709 S.W.2d 635 (Tex.1986), and Beaumont Enterprise & Journal v. Smith, 687 S.W.2d 729 (Tex.1985). While stare decisis should remain a flexible doctrine, I see no compelling reason to overturn established Texas summary judgment law in this area of the law.
Nonetheless, the trial court was correct in rendering summary judgment for Casso. For almost five years, Brand had an opportunity to conduct his own discovery to rebut Casso’s allegations of lack of malice in an attempt to raise a fact issue but chose not to do so. Under Channel 4, KGBT v. Briggs, 759 S.W.2d 939 (Tex.1988), considering the evidence presented by the parties on the issue of actual malice, the trial court was correct in rendering summary judgment for Casso. For this reason, the judgment of the court of appeals should be reversed and that of the trial court should be affirmed.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9681215. Public record. Not legal advice.