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Dallas, Texas  ·  Complex Commercial Litigation

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Portrait of Hon. Bill Whitehill

Hon. Bill Whitehill

Judge · Seat 1B

Texas Business Court · First Business Court Division (Dallas)

Biography

Bill Whitehill is an inaugural Judge of the Texas Business Court First Division, Dallas. He came to the Court from Condon Tobin Sladek Thornton Nerenberg PLLC, where he was a member and led the firm’s Appellate Section. Before joining the Business Court, Bill served as a Justice on the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals, where he authored over 600 substantive opinions. Bill was an associate and partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell, LLP, now known as Foley & Lardner, LLP for thirty-three years. At Gardere, he handled commercial, antitrust, securities, intellectual property, and fiduciary trials and appeals. He is a sustaining life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and fellow of the Dallas Bar Foundation. He is a homeless kitchen volunteer for Cornerstone Baptist Church and is a former co-teacher and mentor at Cornerstone Crossroads Academy. Bill received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctor with honors from the SMU Dedman School of Law and an Order of the Coif member.

Source: txcourts.gov

Opinions by Judge Whitehill (1)

Collateral Effects Doctrine ×
2025 Tex. Bus. 12 Jurisdiction & Remand March 28, 2025

Characterization of Natural Gas as Personalty Defeats Plea to Jurisdiction Based on New Mexico Real Property

In Targa Northern Delaware LLC v. Franklin Mountain Energy 2 LLC, Division 1 of the Business Court denied a plea to the jurisdiction in a breach-of-contract dispute over natural gas deliveries, holding that the case concerned severed natural gas (personalty) rather than subsurface mineral interests (realty) in New Mexico. The court concluded that any effect on New Mexico real property ownership was merely incidental and collateral to the core issue of which party first materially breached its contractual delivery obligations.

Mem. Op. Subject-Matter Jurisdiction Oil & Gas Plea to the Jurisdiction Real Property vs. Personalty Material Breach Opinion PDF ↓