A court of appeals recently issued an opinion rejecting a fiduciary’s claims regarding the excessiveness of the trial court’s judgment that awarded disgorgement and exemplary damages.  In Swinnea v. ERI Consulting Engineers, Inc., Snodgrass and Swinnea owned equal interests in ERI, a small consulting company that managed asbestos abatement projects, for approximately ten years. 

There are several criminal statutes that implicate fiduciary activities in Texas that are not well-known: misappropriation of fiduciary property and financial exploitation of the elderly. Though these may be similar in some ways to a theft charge, they are different criminal charges. Rhinehardt v. State, No. 08-01-00335-CR, 2003 Tex. App. LEXIS 6223 (Tex. App.—El