In Re American Home Assurance Co.

88 S.W.3d 370, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 6202, 2002 WL 1969266
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 27, 2002
Docket06-02-00084-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 88 S.W.3d 370 (In Re American Home Assurance Co.) 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
In Re American Home Assurance Co., 88 S.W.3d 370, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 6202, 2002 WL 1969266 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by Justice GRANT.

Relators seek review by mandamus of a discovery order of the trial court in Cause Number 93-0127, R.S.R. Corp., et al. v. A.I.U. Ins. Co., et al., in the 71st Judicial District Court of Harrison County, Texas (“the underlying litigation”). Relators are 1) American Home Assurance Company; 2) Granite State Insurance Company; 3) Insurance Company of the State of Penn *372 sylvania; 4) Lexington Insurance Company; and 5) National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (collectively “American Home”), defendants in the underlying litigation. Also entering an appearance as a Relator, but represented by separate counsel, is Gibraltar Casualty Company (“Gibraltar”), also a defendant in the underlying litigation. Respondent is the Honorable Bonnie Leggat, Judge of the 71st Judicial District Court of Harrison County. The real parties in interest are R.S.R. Corporation, et al. (“RSR”), plaintiffs in the underlying litigation. 1

On May 22, 2002, the trial court issued its “Amended Order,” which pertained to discovery in the underlying litigation. Re-lators’ Petition for Writ of Mandamus and Request for Temporary Relief were filed. In their Request for Temporary Relief, Relators sought to stay enforcement of the Amended Order and to stay further depositions of their representatives by the real parties in interest, pending this court’s determination. Our order granting the requested temporary relief was issued on June 18, 2002. It has been called to this court’s attention that on July 23, 2002, allegedly without notice and an opportunity of Relators to be heard, the trial court issued a Second Amended Order, a copy of which is attached to this opinion as Exhibit A. Relators contend the amended order, designated as “Second Amended Order,” also constitutes an abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court, and they also seek mandamus relief from the second order. In the interest of judicial economy, we shall consider their Petition for Writ of Mandamus as also applicable to the “Second Amended Order.”

The Disputed Discovery

In 2001 RSR served discovery motions on the defendant insurers. On December 3, 2001, RSR moved the trial court to compel the defendants to produce the requested information. Thereafter, on January 9, 2002, RSR served additional discovery which went unanswered. RSR filed an additional Motion to Compel on February 20, 2002. A hearing on this motion was held off the record on March 7, 2002, at which the trial court directed production of requested materials, except for those documents protected by the attorney-client or work-product privilege. On May 1, 2002, the trial court conducted an on-the-record hearing regarding the requested discovery. Thereafter, on May 22, 2002, the trial court issued its “Amended Order.”

In their petition, Relators object both to the language of the Amended Order itself, as well as to the subject matter and scope of the discovery ordered, as irrelevant, unduly burdensome, and privileged.

A discovery order compelling overly-broad discovery well outside the bounds of proper discovery is an abuse of discretion for which mandamus is the proper remedy. The party from whom such overly-broad discovery is ordered has no adequate remedy at law. K Mart Corp. v. Sanderson, 937 S.W.2d 429, 431-32 (Tex.1996).

Proper Scope of Discovery

The Rules of Civil Procedure impose two general limitations on discovery: 1) it must not be privileged; and 2) it must be relevant to the subject matter of the pending action, claim, or defense. The information sought must be reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evi *373 dence. Tex.R. Civ. P. 192.3(a). Discovery does have limitations imposed by the rules. The court may limit discovery if it determines that the discovery requests are: (a) unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or obtainable from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; or (b) the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, taking into account the needs of the case. Tex.R. Civ. P. 192.4(a), (b). The rules also protect from unlimited discovery so-called “work product,” which is defined as: “core work product,” i.e., the work product of an attorney or his or her representative, containing the attorney’s or representative’s “mental impressions, opinions, conclusions, or legal theories,” which are not discoverable; and “other work product,” discoverable only on a showing of substantial need and undue hardship on the part of the party seeking discovery. Tex.R. Civ. P. 192.5(b)(1), (2).

In In re Alford Chevrolet-Geo, 997 S.W.2d 173, 180 (Tex.1999), the Texas Supreme Court set forth a summary of its recent decisions regarding the scope of discovery, and we quote extensively from that opinion and include the caselaw cited by the Court:

The primary objective of discovery is to ensure that lawsuits are “decided by what the facts reveal, not by what facts are concealed.” Jampole v. Touchy, 673 S.W.2d 569, 573 (Tex.1984)....
In practice, however, discovery is not only “a tool for uncovering facts essential to accurate adjudication,” but also “a weapon capable of imposing large and unjustifiable costs on one’s adversary.” Frank H. Easterbrook, Comment, Discovery as Abuse, 69 B.U.L.Rev. 635, 636 (1989). Discovery is often the most significant cost of litigation. See Wayne D. Brazil, Views From the Front Lines: Observations by Chicago Lawyers About the System of Civil Discovery, 1980 Am. B. Found. Res. J. 219-229. Because the costs of compliance are usually borne solely by the replying party, a requesting party improves its bargaining position by maximizing those costs. See Easterbrook, supra, at 636 (“Litigants with weak cases have little use for bringing the facts to light and every reason to heap costs on the adverse party.... The prospect of these higher costs leads the other side to settle on favorable terms. ”)....
First, discovery requests must be reasonably tailored to include only matters relevant to the case. See In re American Optical Corp., 988 S.W.2d 711, 712 (Tex.1998); Texaco, Inc. v. Sanderson, 898 S.W.2d 813, 814 (Tex.1995) [Footnote 1, see, infra]. Second, discovery may not be used as a fishing expedition or to impose unreasonable discovery expenses on the opposing party. See K Mart Corp. v. Sanderson, 937 S.W.2d 429, 431 (Tex.1996); In re Time Warner Inc. Sec. Litig., 9 F.3d 259, 263 (2d Cir.1993).

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Bluebook (online)
88 S.W.3d 370, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 6202, 2002 WL 1969266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-american-home-assurance-co-texapp-2002.