Icon Benefit Administrators II, L.P. v. Abbott

409 S.W.3d 897, 2013 WL 4516059, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 10521
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 22, 2013
DocketNo. 03-11-00459-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 409 S.W.3d 897 (Icon Benefit Administrators II, L.P. v. Abbott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Icon Benefit Administrators II, L.P. v. Abbott, 409 S.W.3d 897, 2013 WL 4516059, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 10521 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

BOB PEMBERTON, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order denying a temporary injunction in a suit challeng-[900]*900mg an Attorney General’s open-records decision. The suit was initiated by appellants ICON Benefit Administrators II, L.P.; American Administrative Group, Inc. (AAG); and HealthSmart Preferred Care, II, L.P. (collectively the “Parker Group”1) and seeks to compel the City of Lubbock and the Attorney General to withhold from public disclosure an “audit report” in the City’s possession that addresses services provided by Parker Group entities to the City. Following an evidentiary hearing, the district court issued an order denying the Parker Group’s application for temporary injunction. The Parker Group filed a notice of appeal and moved for an emergency stay pending this Court’s resolution of its appeal. We granted the stay. For the reasons explained below, we now overrule the Parker Group’s contentions on appeal, affirm the district court’s order, and vacate the stay.

BACKGROUND

From 2004 through 2006, the City of Lubbock contracted with two Parker Group companies — appellants ICON and AAG — to provide third-party administration of the City’s self-funded health-care plan. The City contracted with a third Parker Group company — appellant HealthSmart — to serve as the City’s “preferred provider” organization for that same plan. During the course of the City’s relationship with the Parker Group, disputes arose as to whether ICON and AAG had complied -with their administrator contracts with the City, and the Parker Group ultimately initiated arbitration proceedings to resolve the disputes. The Parker Group also filed a related defamation action in a Dallas County court at law against several of the City’s employees who, according to the Parker Group, had publicly and falsely accused the Parker Group of mishandling the City’s contracts.

In the Dallas defamation case, the City hired an expert, Sally Reaves, to audit the administrative services that ICON and AAG had performed for the City’s healthcare plans. The purpose of the audit was to determine whether the employees’ alleged statements regarding the Parker Group were, in fact, true, and thus not actionable defamation. Thereafter, a discovery dispute arose as to whether Reaves could gain access to certain Parker Group documents and information that were ostensibly necessary for her to conduct her audit. The Dallas County Court at Law ordered the Parker Group to produce certain sensitive materials under a protective order that restricted the use and disclosure of the materials and “all information derived therefrom.” The protective order was later amended to allow the City to use the protected materials in the arbitration proceeding.

Before Reaves finished her audit and report, the parties settled the Dallas defamation case, and it was dismissed. But the arbitration remained ongoing, and the parties to that proceeding disputed whether Reaves’s forthcoming audit could be used in it. The arbitrator ruled that the City could use the audit and issued a protective order that was substantially identical to the one issued in the Dallas lawsuit. The City instructed Reaves to finish her audit. Reaves later submitted to the City a document dated March 18, 2011, and titled “Audit of the Parker Group Administration of Benefit Plans for the City of Lubbock” (Reaves Audit).

In April 2011, shortly after Reaves submitted the Reaves Audit to the City, the City received three requests under the [901]*901Texas Public Information Act (PIA)2 that called for its production. Concluding that the Parker Group’s interests were implicated, the City notified the Parker Group of the requests and requested an opinion from the Attorney General as to whether the PIA required it to produce the Reaves Audit. See Tex. Gov’t Code §§ 552.301 (PIA provision requiring governmental body that receives written request for information it wishes to withhold to ask for decision from attorney general), .305 (requiring governmental body that requests decision to notify affected third parties that they may submit briefing to attorney general). The Attorney General determined that the City was required to release the Reaves Audit because it was subject to mandatory disclosure under the PIA. See Tex. Att’y Gen. OR2011-08928.

Around this same time, the Parker Group had filed a motion in the dismissed Dallas defamation suit seeking enforcement of that court’s protective order to prevent public disclosure of the Reaves Audit. The Parker Group argued that the protective order prohibited public disclosure of the Reaves Audit because it contained protected materials and information derived from them. After a hearing, the Dallas County Court at Law signed an order in July 2011 declaring that public disclosure of the Reaves Audit was not prohibited by the protective order and denying the Parker Group’s motion. The Parker Group appealed the county court at law’s order to the Dallas Court of Appeals. Recently, that court reversed the county court at law’s order, holding that the protective order prohibits public disclosure of the Reaves Audit. See Icon Benefit Admins. II, L.P. v. Mullin, 405 S.W.3d 257, 264 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2013, no pet. h.).

While its appeal to the Dallas Court of Appeals remained pending, the Parker Group filed the underlying suit in the Travis County District Court against the Attorney General and the City, seeking declaratory judgment that the Reaves Audit was protected from public disclosure. See Tex. Gov’t Code §§ 552.3215, .325 (PIA provision authorizing suit for declaratory judgment by party seeking to withhold information from requestor). The Parker Group also requested temporary and permanent injunctions enjoining the public release of the audit. The district court granted the Parker Group’s request for a temporary restraining order, but after discovery and an evidentiary hearing on its application for a temporary injunction, issued an order denying Parker Group’s application and dissolving the temporary restraining order. In its order, the district court stated that the Reaves Audit “is a completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a governmental body” under PIA section 552.022(a), that “there is no other law excepting the Reaves Audit from disclosure,” and that the Parker Group “failed to prove a probable right of recovery to support” its application for temporary injunction. It is from this order that Parker Group now appeals.3

DISCUSSION

The Parker Group brings six issues on appeal. In four of the six issues, it challenges the district court’s decision to deny the temporary injunction, principally arguing that it has shown a probable right to relief. In its remaining two issues, the [902]*902Parker Group challenges evidentiary rulings made by the district court during the temporary-injunction hearing.

Temporary injunction

A temporary injunction is an extraordinary remedy that does not issue as a matter of right. Butnaru v. Ford Motor Co., 84 S.W.3d 198, 204 (Tex.2002). The purpose of a temporary injunction is to preserve the subject matter of the litigation pending a trial on the merits. Id.

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409 S.W.3d 897, 2013 WL 4516059, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 10521, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/icon-benefit-administrators-ii-lp-v-abbott-texapp-2013.