Payola Justice: How Texas Supreme Court Justices Raise Money from Court Litigants

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Direct contributions by the PACs and executives of 50 corporations supplied 15 percent ($1.4 million) of the money that the seven justices raised. Houston-based Enron, America's largest natural gas corporation, has been the most lucrative corporate pipeline fueling the justices' war chests. During the period studied, Enron had three cases before the court and its executives gave the seven justices at least $78,700. Two San Antonio firms were the next largest source of contributions. Top executives at H.B. Zachry construction company contributed $61,200, while the top brass at Kinetic Concepts, a manufacturer of high tech hospital beds, gave $57,800.

Executives of two other leading sources of corporate funds, TRT Holdings and H.E.B. Grocery, accounted for more than $50,000 each. Like Enron, HEB had a case before the court during the period studied. HEB now has another case pending before the Supreme Court. HEB Grocery Co. v. Bilotto is a premises liability lawsuit filed by a plaintiff who slipped and fell on an HEB property. Charles Butt still wines and dines the court; on October 21, 1997, he contributed $5,000 to the San Antonio campaign kick-off for Justice Craig Enoch, an event that Butt graciously hosted in his home. Other major corporate contributors that also happen to pop up on the court's docket include: Tenneco, NationsBank, Diamond Shamrock, American General, Southwestern Bell and Shell Oil.

Executive Decisions
The largest individual contributors to the justices also are overwhelmingly drawn from top executives in corporations in which the bottom line is influenced—sometimes directly—by court decisions. The extent to which corporate giving is channeled through top executives is illustrated by the fact that many of these executives listed here are from the same companies mentioned above. Often all—or almost all—of the money that the justices took from a corporation came from its top executives.

^* (Texans for Lawsuit Reform)

A striking characteristic of the top 16 individual families contributing to the justices' political campaigns is that 12 of them are major contributors to Texas' best-financed special-interest group, Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), each having given the group at least $10,000. In fact, only two of the top 15 (the families of David Dewhurst and Tipton Golias) have not contributed to TLR. Many of these top supporters of TLR and the justices make lucrative livings in companies that attract lawsuits.

TLR President Richard Weekley heads a strip mall development company (Weekley Properties) and owns part of David Weekley Homes. The Weekley brothers families contributed $60,000 to court justices in the period studied, making the justices more indebted to them than any other Texas family. At least part of the Weekley family's personal interest in the courts and the weakening of tort laws stems from its business. David Weekley Homes has been sued by dozens of angry customers, who allege, for example, that the company knowingly built inadequate foundations on shifting soils, causing new homes to crack.

After the Weekleys, the justices are most indebted to the San Antonio-based Butt family. The Butt family gave the justices $53,098, with 90 percent coming from HEB grocery chain Chairman Charles Butt. The Butt family's grocery spent four years in a legal fight with Jefferson County, Texas, which said HEB owed more property taxes than the company cared to pay. On May 10, 1996, the Supreme Court ruled for HEB, helping out the justices' second largest individual contributors (see "Twofer Tax Relief,")

Father and son Reese and Robert Rowling gave the justices $52,195. Texaco paid the Rowlings $477 million for their Tana Oil company in 1987. The family's TRT Holdings diversified this money, buying up: one-third of downtown Corpus Christi, control of Corpus Christi National Bank and $500 million worth of Omni Hotels.

The next family willing to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to Supreme Court campaigns is that of James Leininger. This San Antonio-based owner of a high-tech hospital bed manufacturing company, Kinetic Concepts, gave the justices $45,500. Leininger also is a major TLR supporter, as well as a leading funder of numerous conservative candidates and causes. His company has been the target of lawsuits and Food and Drug Administration complaints involving patients who contend that they have been thrown from, crushed or strangled by Kinetic hospital beds.

It is no coincidence that some of the strongest supporters of TLR and the seven justices are executives from companies that have had cases before the court or that confront the kinds of serious liability issues that characterize the chemical, oil and gas, construction and medical device industries. Many of these industries are investing heavily in litigation protection from the claims of injured employees, neighbors and customers.

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