The State of Texas v. Nonparty Patient No. 1, Nonparty Patient No. 2, Nonparty Patient No. 3, Nonparty Patient No. 4, Nonparty Patient No. 5, Nonparty Patient No. 6, Nonparty Patient No. 7, and Nonparty Patient No. 8, Nonparty Patient No. 9, Nonparty Patient No. 10, and Nonparty Patient No. 11

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 11, 2025·No. 15-25-00023-CV·Published

Opinion

ACCEPTED

15-25-00023-CV

FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS

3/11/2025 4:08 PM

No. 15-25-00023-CV CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE CLERK

FILED IN

IN THE FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS 15th COURT OF APPEALS

AUSTIN, TEXAS

AUSTIN, TEXAS

3/11/2025 4:08:43 PM

CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE

Clerk

State of Texas,

Appellant,

v.

Nonparty Patient No. 1, Nonparty Patient No. 2, Nonparty Patient No. 3, Nonparty Patient No. 4, Nonparty Patient No. 5, Nonparty Patient No. 6, Nonparty Patient No. 7, Nonparty Patient No. 8, Nonparty Patient No. 9, Nonparty Patient No. 10, and Nonparty Patient No. 11, Appellees.

On Appeal from the 95th Judicial District Court, Dallas County, Texas Cause No. DC-25-01823, The Honorable Monica McCoy Purdy presiding

NONPARTY PATIENTS’ EMERGENCY MOTION TO STAY DISCOVERY PENDING INTERLOCUTORY APPEAL

Jervonne D. Newsome (Lead Counsel) William M. Logan Texas Bar No. 24094869 Texas Bar No. 24106214 jnewsome@winston.com wlogan@winston.com Thanh D. Nguyen Evan D. Lewis Texas Bar No. 24126931 Texas Bar No. 24116670 tdnguyen@winston.com edlewis@winston.com WINSTON & STRAWN LLP Olivia A. Wogon 2121 N. Pearl St., 9th Floor Texas Bar No. 24137299 Dallas, TX 75201 oawogon@winston.com Telephone: (214) 453-6500 WINSTON & STRAWN LLP 800 Capitol Street, Suite 2400 Houston, TX 77002

Telephone: (713) 651-2600

I. SUMMARY OF THE MOTION The Appellees (“Nonparty Patients”) respectfully move the Court to maintain the status quo during the pendency this appeal. Specifically, the Nonparty Patients ask that the Court stay any discovery obligations under the subpoenas served by State of Texas on Children’s Health System of Texas (“Children’s”) and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (“UT Southwestern”) (collectively, the “Subpoenas”).1 In the proceedings below, the State served the Subpoenas in Dallas County.

The Subpoenas improperly demand that Children’s and UT Southwestern produce all the Nonparty Patients’ private medical records. In turn, the Nonparty Patients invoked Tex. R. Civ. P. 176.6(e); cited their privileges under Tex. R. Evid. 509 and Tex. R. Evid. 510; and sought a protective order in Dallas County.

During a hearing, before the Dallas County Court could rule on the Nonparty Patients’ requests for protection, it first determined that it had jurisdiction over the Nonparty Patients’ action. The State then filed notice of this interlocutory appeal mid hearing—before the Dallas County Court could reach the merits of the Nonparty Patients’ request for protection, including their assertions of privileges against disclosing private medical records sought in the Subpoenas.

1 Pursuant to the Collin County District Court’s Protective Order § III(F), the Nonparty Patients have filed this Motion using a generic reference to avoid disclosing their identities as patients related to that litigation. Consistent with the Protective Order, the Nonparty Patients may be identified in camera or as otherwise ordered by the Court.

Since filing its notice interlocutory appeal, the State has insisted that Children’s and UT Southwestern must begin producing materials responsive to the Subpoenas. That insistence is improper. The State’s position eviscerates both the Nonparty Patients’ procedural rights under Tex. R. Civ. P. 176(e) to be heard where the subpoenas were served and their substantive rights under Tex. R. Evid. 509 and 510 to withhold, or limit access to, their private health information.

The Nonparty Patients accordingly request an order from this Court that maintains the status quo and ensures that the automatic stay trigged by the State’s interlocutory appeal does not have the unintended effect of substantively denying the Nonparty Patients’ relief sought below.

II. BASES FOR RELIEF Pursuant to Tex. R. App. P. Rule 29.3, “[w]hen an appeal from an interlocutory order is perfected, the appellate court may make any temporary orders necessary to preserve the parties’ rights until disposition of the appeal.” Likewise, Tex. R. App. P. Rule 52.10 provides for “a motion to stay any underlying proceedings or for any other temporary relief.” These rules offer “a way to ‘preserve the status quo’ while the appeal proceeds.” In re State, 2024 WL 2983176, at *2 (Tex. June 14, 2024). These rules, and their purposes, support the Nonparty Patients’ Motion.

III. THE PROCEEDINGS BELOW The only substantive issues pending below are the Nonparty Patients’

requests for protection from the State’s Subpoenas to Children’s and UT Southwestern. App. A (2d Am. Pet.). The Subpoenas arise from the State’s civil lawsuit against Dr. May C. Lau in Collin County’s 493rd Judicial District, Cause No. 493-07677-2024, alleging, inter alia, violations of SB14 and deceptive billing practices. The Nonparty Patients are not parties to that lawsuit. The State’s Subpoenas target the Nonparty Patients’ medical records under color of that lawsuit, but the Subpoenas’ requests are not tailored to the underlying dispute in any meaningful way. Instead, the Subpoenas request all the Nonparty Patients’ medical records for at least the past four years, for all providers (not just Dr. Lau) at two of the largest hospital systems in Texas. App. B (Children’s Subpoena); App. C (UT Southwestern Subpoena).

The Subpoenas are thus overly broad and facially demand the production of materials privileged under Tex. R. Evid. 509 and Tex. R. Evid 510—without focusing on any condition that is a fact of consequence in the Collin County lawsuit, as required under the litigation exceptions to those privileges. See, e.g., App. B at 6 (“1. Produce documents relating to the care and treatment of [redacted] (DOB: [redacted]), including medical and billing records, psychotherapy notes, and correspondence from January 1, 2021, through the

present.”); App. C at 6; see also R.K. v. Ramirez, 887 S.W.2d 836, 843 (Tex. 1994) (“To summarize, the exceptions to the medical and mental health privileges apply when (1) the records sought to be discovered are relevant to the condition at issue, and (2) the condition is relied upon as a part of a party's claim or defense, meaning that the condition itself is a fact that carries some legal significance. Both parts of the test must be met before the exception will apply.”).

The State served both Subpoenas in Dallas County. See, e.g., App. A ¶ 3.

Consistent with Tex. R. Civ. P. 176.6(e), the Nonparty Patients—many of whom live in Dallas County, and whose responsive medical records are maintained in Dallas County—filed a petition moving for protection “in the county where the subpoena[s] [were] served” (i.e., in Dallas County). App. A ¶ 3. The State subsequently filed pleas to the jurisdiction and in abatement, contending (1) that in the State’s role as a voluntary civil plaintiff, sovereign immunity precludes using Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 176.6(e) to challenge its subpoenas, and (2) that petitions seeking protection under Tex. R. Civ. P. 176.6(e) must be abated in favor of the originating trial court, effectively rendering the choice of challenging a subpoena in the county where it was served meaningless.

The Dallas County District Court set a hearing on the Nonparty Patients’

request for protection for March 6, 2025. During that hearing, the Dallas County Court heard the State’s pleas to the jurisdiction and in abatement, and, after

extensive argument, rejected them. The Dallas County District Court then began hearing the Nonparty Patients’ motion for protection from the Subpoenas. During argument, the State interrupted the proceedings by announcing that it had filed a notice of interlocutory appeal challenging the Court’s jurisdictional rulings and the matter was automatically stayed. See App. F at 1 (email from Stone, J.); App. G at 1 (notice of interlocutory appeal). The State thereafter refused to participate in the Dallas County hearing and the Nonparty Patients were unable to have their motion for protection from the Subpoenas adjudicated.

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The State of Texas v. Nonparty Patient No. 1, Nonparty Patient No. 2, Nonparty Patient No. 3, Nonparty Patient No. 4, Nonparty Patient No. 5, Nonparty Patient No. 6, Nonparty Patient No. 7, and Nonparty Patient No. 8, Nonparty Patient No. 9, Nonparty Patient No. 10, and Nonparty Patient No. 11, (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

The State of Texas v. Nonparty Patient No. 1, Nonparty Patient No. 2, Nonparty Patient No. 3, Nonparty Patient No. 4, Nonparty Patient No. 5, Nonparty Patient No. 6, Nonparty Patient No. 7, and Nonparty Patient No. 8, Nonparty Patient No. 9, Nonparty Patient No. 10, and Nonparty Patient No. 11 (The State of Texas v. Nonparty Patient No. 1, Nonparty Patient No. 2, Nonparty Patient No. 3, Nonparty Patient No. 4, Nonparty Patient No. 5, Nonparty Patient No. 6, Nonparty Patient No. 7, and Nonparty Patient No. 8, Nonparty Patient No. 9, Nonparty Patient No. 10, and Nonparty Patient No. 11) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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