Hewitt v. Biscaro

Biscaro and others (plaintiffs) sued Richard M. Hewitt and his company (defendants) for Texas Securities Act violations, and the parties signed a Settlement Agreement and Release requiring $1.3 million in installment payments; after paying about $400,000, Hewitt stopped, and the plaintiffs amended their complaint to add a breach-of-settlement claim. Hewitt signed an affidavit claiming SEC staff had instructed him to halt payments pending an SEC investigation, and asserted an affirmative defense of impracticability or impossibility of performance based on that instruction; the trial court granted the plaintiffs' summary judgment motion on the breach claim, and Hewitt appealed.