Aleman v. Ben E. Keith Co

In Aleman v. Ben E. Keith Co., 227 S.W.3d 304, 309-10 (Tex. App.--Houston 1st Dist. 2007, no pet.), an employee appealed the trial court's no-evidence summary judgment in favor of the employer on the employee's negligence claim. Aleman, 227 S.W.3d at 308. On appeal, the employer argued that the employee's response to the motion was "patently inadequate" to address the challenged elements of breach and causation, but the First Court of Appeals, applying Johnson v. Brewer & Pritchard, P.C., 73 S.W.3d 193, 206-08 (Tex. 2002), disagreed. Id. at 309. The court concluded the employee's "response recites a legal proposition followed by selected facts, similar to the response found adequate by the Supreme Court in Brewer." Id. at 310. The court noted that while the employee's response did not "expressly connect any specific fact to the specifically challenged elements," the fact that the motion challenged only two elements of the negligence claim and "the sheer brevity of the evidence cited served to adequately 'connect . . . the facts to the challenged elements of the causes of action.'" Id.