In re Fairway Methanol LLC

515 S.W.3d 480, 2017 WL 422006, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 830
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 31, 2017
DocketNO. 14-16-00884-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 515 S.W.3d 480 (In re Fairway Methanol LLC) 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 Fairway Methanol LLC, 515 S.W.3d 480, 2017 WL 422006, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 830 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

Tracy Christopher, Justice

On November 7, 2016, relators Fairway Methanol LLC and Celanese Ltd. filed a [485]*485petition for -writ of mandamus in this court. See Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 22.221 (West 2004); see also Tex. R. App. P. 52. In the petition, relators ask this court to compel the Honorable Brent Gamble, presiding judge of the 270th District Court of Harris County, to vacate his Order on Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel signed on October 12, 2016 that requires relators to: (1) remove any and all attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege objections to Plaintiffs’ Request for “Any and all incident, accident and/or investigation reports made or filed by you regarding the Occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit, “any and all statements related to this Occurrence” and “all documents related to any interviews conducted by you”, and (2) produce documents responsive to this request.

We conclude many of the documents at issue are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the work product privilege and that the trial court therefore abused its discretion by ordering their production. There is no adequate remedy by appeal for this error. We conditionally grant the petition for writ of mandamus as specified in the conclusion.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Relator Celanese Ltd. (“Celanese”) owns and operates the Clear Lake Facility in Pasadena, Texas. Jose Salazar (“Salazar”) was employed by Celanese as an electrician at the Clear Lake Facility. On November 19, 2014, Salazar was injured when he tripped on an angled iron that was protruding from the floor and fell into charged electrical equipment while working at the Clear Lake Facility.

Celanese asserts that because of the circumstances surrounding the accident and the severe nature of Salazar’s injuries, it believed that there was a substantial likelihood that Salazar would bring personal injury and workers’ compensation claims against Celanese and its related companies. On November 20, 2014, Gary Rowen (“Rowen”), who served as in-house attorney for defendant Celanese Corporation, requested that an investigative team provide the Celanese Law Department with the information needed to assess potential liability in potential litigation and to begin strategizing legal theories and defenses to any claims raised in anticipated legal or regulatory proceedings.

According to Rowen, the primary purpose for the investigation and creation of documents and communications therefrom was to aid Celanese in preparing to defend itself in anticipated litigation. As a secondary concern, the information communicated from the investigative team to the legal department was necessary for the legal department to provide Celanese with business and legal advice with respect to the potential termination of employees involved in the accident.

The team was comprised of Celanese employees, including Gregorio Aguilar, Paresh Bhakta, Linda Blais, Brian Connelly, Duard Franklin, Stuart Hightower, Thomas Mattix, and Doug Wallace. The team was supervised and directed by attorneys in the Celanese legal department with guidance from outside legal counsel. The team members were immediately informed that the investigation was for the purpose of assisting counsel and instructed that all communications and documents generated during their investigation must be kept confidential and marked as “Privileged and Confidential” or “Attorney-Client Privilege-Attorney Work Product.”

The investigative team conducted interviews and site inspections and communicated their findings to the Celanese Law Department. This included a root cause analysis which was necessary for the Cela-nese Law Department to evaluate liability and begin developing a strategy for de[486]*486fending Celanese in likely impending civil and regulatory litigation.

Less than six months after the accident, on April 9, 2015, Salazar and his wife (collectively “Plaintiffs”) filed suit, asserting claims against various entities including relator Fairway Methanol, LLC (“Fairway”). Fairway is a separate joint venture producing methanol at the Clear Lake Facility. Plaintiffs did not sue relator Celanese Ltd., but did sue two related entities, Celanese Corporation and Cela-nese International Corporation.

In May 2015, Plaintiffs served discovery requests on Fairway. Fairway responded and produced over 11,000 pages of documents. Among the category of documents requested from Fairway were “any and all incident accident and/or investigation reports made or filed by you regarding the Occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit,” “any and all statements related to this Occurrence,” and “all documents related to any interviews conducted by you, related to and following the Occurrence.” Fairway objected to the request to the extent it sought attorney-client and work-product privileged documents, but because it did not participate in any investigation of the accident, it responded that it had no responsive documents or information in its possession, custody, or control.

Plaintiffs then served a deposition on written question with subpoena duces te-cum on Celanese, with eighty-five separate requests for production. Celanese responded and produced over 42,000 pages of documents. In response to Plaintiffs’ request for “any and all incident accident and/or investigation reports made or filed by you regarding the Occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit,” “any and all statements related to this Occurrence,” and “all documents related to any interviews conducted by you, related to and following the Occurrence”, Celanese asserted the attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege and stated that it was withholding documents pursuant to these privileges.

On July 12, 2016, Plaintiffs filed a motion to compel the production of the documents that Celanese had withheld as privileged. Plaintiffs also sought to compel production of these same documents from Fairway.

On September 23, 2016, the trial court held a non-evidentiary hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion to compel. At the hearing, the trial court requested Celanese to provide all documents it withheld for in camera inspection and Celanese did so. On October 12, 2016, the trial court signed an order granting the motion to compel and ordering the production of all of the documents:

Defendant Fairway Methanol, LLC and Celanese Ltd. must remove any and all attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege objections to Plaintiffs’ Request for ‘Any and all incident, accident and/or investigation reports made or filed by you regarding the Occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit,’ ‘any and all statements related to this Occurrence’ and ‘all documents related to any interviews conducted by you’ respectively. Defendant Fairway Methanol and/or Celanese Ltd. must produce responsive documents to this Request no later than ten days after the signing of this Order.

In its petition for writ of mandamus, Celanese argues that the responsive documents that it withheld are protected by the attorney-client and work product privileges and that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering their production.

II. Mandamus Standard

To obtain mandamus relief, a relator generally must show both that the trial court clearly abused its discretion and that [487]*487the relator has no adequate remedy by appeal. In re Prudential Ins. Co.,

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Bluebook (online)
515 S.W.3d 480, 2017 WL 422006, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-fairway-methanol-llc-texapp-2017.