Lifeguard Benefit Services, Inc. v. Direct Medical Network Solutions, Inc.

308 S.W.3d 102, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 1013, 2010 WL 520795
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 2010
Docket2-09-267-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 308 S.W.3d 102 (Lifeguard Benefit Services, Inc. v. Direct Medical Network Solutions, Inc.) 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
Lifeguard Benefit Services, Inc. v. Direct Medical Network Solutions, Inc., 308 S.W.3d 102, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 1013, 2010 WL 520795 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

BILL MEIER, Justice.

I. Introduction

Appellants Lifeguard Benefit Services, Inc. and The Amacore Group, Inc. bring this accelerated, interlocutory appeal from the imposition of a temporary injunction (1) enjoining Appellants from denying Ap-pellees Direct Medical Network Solutions, Inc. (“DirectMed”) and Consumer Assistance Services Association (“CASA”) access to and possession of data and information regarding Appellees’ members and customers, (2) requiring Appellants to turn over to Appellees data and information regarding Appellees’ members and customers, and (3) requiring Appellants to turn over to a third party data and information regarding individuals whom Appellants contend are their customers only. In one issue, divided into three subissues, Appellants argue that the trial court abused its discretion by entering the injunction because Appellees did not demonstrate an extreme hardship and prove an imminent threat of irreparable harm, the injunction alters the status quo and provides Appel-lees the ultimate relief sought in the suit, and the order granting the injunction is vague and overly broad. We will modify the temporary injunction and affirm it as modified.

II. Factual and PRocedural Background

Ty Bruggemann founded CASA, DirectMed, and Lifeguard. Bruggemann is the president of CASA and DirectMed. Lifeguard merged with Amacore in 2007; Amacore is Lifeguard’s parent company. Lifeguard terminated Bruggemann’s employment in 2008.

CASA is a not-for-profit association organized under the laws of the State of Illinois. Consumers who purchase a membership in CASA qualify to purchase benefit plans marketed by DirectMed and other retailers. DirectMed is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware. It is a third-party retailer of health and lifestyle benefit plans that provides its members discounts on medical services and lifestyle benefits. All DirectMed customers are members of CASA, but all CASA members are not customers of DirectMed; CASA members qualify to purchase plans from retailers other than DirectMed. CASA has approximately 10,-000 members, “over 35% of which have purchased DirectMed plans.”

Lifeguard engages in a number of business activities, including packaging lifestyle and benefit plans that are sold through third-party marketers and providing back-office administrative services for private label clients like DirectMed. The back-office support includes managing customer accounts.

Lifeguard contracted with CASA to sell CASA memberships and to provide CASA with back-office administrative support. Lifeguard’s packages do not always include CASA benefits. Lifeguard also entered into an agreement with DirectMed to market and service DirectMed’s products. According to Appellees’ original petition, the agreements between Lifeguard and CASA and between Lifeguard and DirectMed are the only reason that Lifeguard and Amacore have possession of *107 data concerning DirectMed’s and CASA’s members. According to Bruggemann, “Under the Contracts between Lifeguard and DirectMed and CASA, the data concerning its members, their claims, and benefits belongs to DirectMed and CASA.”

On or about June 24 or 25, 2009, DirectMed received a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Minnesota. The CID states in part that “the Attorney General has received complaints alleging that Direct Medical Network Solutions, Inc. engages in deceptive and fraudulent misrepresentations in the sale of its services to Minnesota consumers, in violation of Minnesota law.” It also required DirectMed to answer interrogatories and to deliver documents requested for production.

On June 24, 2009, Scott Smith, Ama-core’s chief operating officer and Lifeguard’s operations officer, notified Brug-gemann that effective immediately, all DirectMed data could be accessed via a web-based portal to Lifeguard’s software system referred to as L.I.S.A. (Lifeguard Integrated Software Application). 1 According to Appellees, the data that DirectMed was able to access through the portal was “very limited” and insufficient to fully respond to the CID.

On June 25, 2009, Bruggemann requested that he be given access to all of the DirectMed and CASA data and records under the control of Lifeguard and Ama-core. 2 Several DirectMed representatives visited Lifeguard’s offices the next day but were told that the data was not ready. On June 30, 2009, Smith responded to Brug-gemann’s request and said that the agreements between Lifeguard and DirectMed and between Lifeguard and CASA “govern the data, materials, etc. to which you are entitled”; that DirectMed has access “to a ■wide range of data through the web portal access provided to you by Lifeguard”; that Lifeguard was assembling the requested data and information; and that “Lifeguard is committed to assisting in any way possible and practicable to help meet the requests of the” Minnesota Attorney General. Smith also indicated that “[t]o the extent we determine that we are not contractually required to produce one or more categories of requested documents, we will notify you of the basis for our objection.”

On July 1, 2009, Bruggemann sent Smith an itemized list of information that DirectMed was requesting from Lifeguard. Lifeguard responded to the data request a few days later, providing responses to the requests, objecting to certain requests, and stating that Lifeguard will produce certain documents. In an attached letter, Lifeguard indicated that some of DirectMed’s requests exceeded the scope of the information requested by the CID and that much of the information requested is “readily available” to Bruggemann and “entirely under [his] control as the President of DirectMed and through ... access to the LISA system.” At the hearing on Appellees’ motion for the temporary injunction, when asked about Lifeguard’s response to DirectMed’s request for information, Bruggemann testified that Lifeguard refused to provide the data and information that DirectMed was seeking pursuant to the information request.

*108 Appellees filed their original petition and application for a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief on July 9, 2009. They alleged that Lifeguard provides back-office administrative support for each of them, that Lifeguard maintains possession of all of the data and information concerning their members and customers, that they had demanded full access to all of their customer and member data being held by Lifeguard in order to prepare responses to the CID, and that Appellants had refused to turn over the member and customer data and information. In addition to seeking injunctive relief, Appellants alleged claims for a declaratory judgment, breach of contract, and conversion.

On July 10, 2009, Appellants and Appel-lees entered into a rule 11 agreement providing in part as follows:

• Appellants shall provide Appellees possession of and unfettered access to all data, information, and records regarding DirectMed and CASA members in their health and wellness plan and their full access to all data which is Appellants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
308 S.W.3d 102, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 1013, 2010 WL 520795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lifeguard-benefit-services-inc-v-direct-medical-network-solutions-inc-texapp-2010.