in Re Liberty Insurance Corporation

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: October 6, 2004
• Docket: 04-04-00551-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION No. 04-04-00551-CV IN RE LIBERTY INSURANCE COMPANY Original Mandamus Proceeding ⁽¹⁾

PER CURIAM

Sitting: Alma L. López, Chief Justice

Catherine Stone, Justice

Paul W. Green, Justice

Delivered and Filed: October 6, 2004

PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS DENIED

Liberty Insurance Company ("Liberty") seeks mandamus relief from the trial court's order requiring it to produce several pages of its Procedures Manual for Personal Market Claims ("Procedures Manual"). Liberty filed its petition with a motion requesting emergency relief on August 2, 2004. Based on the court's cursory review of the motion and petition, the court was of the tentative opinion that Liberty was entitled to the relief sought. Accordingly, the court granted the temporary relief on the same day the petition was filed and requested a response to the petition.

"[M]andamus will issue to correct a discovery order if the order constitutes a clear abuse of discretion and there is no adequate remedy by appeal." In re Colonial Pipeline Co., 968 S.W.2d 938, 941 (Tex. 1998). The burden of establishing an abuse of discretion is on the party resisting discovery, and this burden is a heavy one. In re CSX Corp., 124 S.W.3d 149, 151 (Tex. 2003). "A clear abuse of discretion occurs when an action is 'so arbitrary and unreasonable as to amount to a clear and prejudicial error of law.'" Id. (quoting CSR Ltd. v. Link, 925 S.W.2d 591, 596 (Tex. 1996)). In Walker v. Packer, the Texas Supreme Court indicated that mandamus relief would be appropriate when "a discovery order compels the production of patently irrelevant or duplicative documents, such that it clearly constitutes harassment or imposes a burden on the producing party far out of proportion to any benefit that may obtain to the requesting party." 827 S.W.2d 833, 843 (Tex. 1992). Having reviewed the trial court's order and the pages ordered to be produced at greater length, we conclude that the relator has not met the heavy burden of establishing a clear abuse of discretion. Accordingly, relator's petition for writ of mandamus is denied.

1. This proceeding arises out of Cause No. 279645, styled Marilyn Kulesza v. Liberty Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company and Mary Hamilton, pending in the County Court at Law No. 2, Bexar County, Texas, the Honorable David J. Rodriguez presiding.