in Re: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., and Toyota Motor Corporation

Full text

Opinions in this case

ACCEPTED 05-18-00582-CV FIFTH COURT OF APPEALS DALLAS, TEXAS 5/21/2018 8:55 AM LISA MATZ CLERK

No. 05-18-00582-CV FILED IN IN THE FIFTH COURT OF APPEALS 5th COURT OF APPEALS DALLAS, TEXAS DALLAS, TEXAS 5/21/2018 8:55:25 AM LISA MATZ IN RE TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, U.S.A., INC., Clerk AND TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION Relators.

Original Proceeding from the 134th District Court Dallas County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. DC-16-15296, Honorable Dale Tillery, Presiding

EMERGENCY MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF

James W. Halbrooks, Jr. Allyson N. Ho Texas Bar No. 24045354 Texas Bar No. 24033667 James.Halbrooks@bowmanandbrooke.com MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP Suzanne H. Swaner 1717 Main Street, Suite 3200 Texas Bar No. 90001631 Dallas, Texas 75201 Suzanne.Swaner@bowmanandbrooke.com allyson.ho@morganlewis.com BOWMAN AND BROOKE LLP 5830 Granite Park, Suite 1000 T. 214.466.4000 F. 214.466.4001 Plano, Texas 75024 T. 972.616.1700 F. 972.616.1701 Winstol D. Carter, Jr. Texas Bar No. 03932950 Victor Vital winn.carter@morganlewis.com Texas Bar No. 00794798 Claire Swift Kugler victor.vital@btlaw.com Texas Bar No. 00797530 Elizabeth Brandon claire.kugler@morganlewis.com Texas Bar No. 24049580 MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP ebrandon@btlaw.com 1000 Louisiana, Suite 4000 BARNES & THORNBURG LLP Houston, Texas 77002 2100 McKinney Ave, Suite 1250 T. 713.890.5000 F. 713.890.5001 Dallas, Texas 75201-6908 T. 214.258.4200 F. 214.258.4199

Counsel for Relators

IDENTITIES OF PARTIES AND COUNSEL The following constitutes a list of all parties to the cause below and the names and addresses of all counsel:

Relators (Defendants in the Trial Court): Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation Counsel for Relators:

James W. Halbrooks, Jr. Allyson N. Ho Texas Bar No. 24045354 Texas Bar No. 24033667 James.Halbrooks@bowmanandbrooke.com MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP Suzanne H. Swaner 1717 Main Street, Suite 3200 Texas Bar No. 90001631 Dallas, Texas 75201 Suzanne.Swaner@bowmanandbrooke.com allyson.ho@morganlewis.com BOWMAN AND BROOKE LLP T. 214.466.4000 F. 214.466.4001 5830 Granite Park, Suite 1000 Plano, Texas 75024 Winstol D. Carter, Jr. T. 972.616.1700 F. 972.616.1701 Texas Bar No. 03932950 winn.carter@morganlewis.com Victor Vital Claire Swift Kugler Texas Bar No. 00794798 Texas Bar No. 00797530 victor.vital@btlaw.com claire.kugler@morganlewis.com Elizabeth Brandon MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP Texas Bar No. 24049580 1000 Louisiana, Suite 4000 ebrandon@btlaw.com Houston, Texas 77002 BARNES & THORNBURG LLP T. 713.890.5000 F. 713.890.5001 2100 McKinney Ave, Suite 1250 Dallas, Texas 75201-6908 T. 214.258.4200 F. 214.258.4199

Respondent:

Honorable Dale Tillery Judge, 134th District Court Dallas County, Texas

— 2 —

Real Parties In Interest (Plaintiffs in the Trial Court):

Benjamin Thomas Reavis and Kristi Carol Reavis, individually and as next friends of E.R. and O.R., minor children

Counsel For Real Parties In Interest:

Frank L. Branson Texas Bar No. 02899000 Eric T. Stahl Texas Bar No. 00794685 Eugene A. “Chip” Brooker, Jr. Texas Bar No. 24045558 THE LAW OFFICES OF FRANK L. BRANSON, P.C. Highland Park Place 4514 Cole Avenue, 18th Floor Dallas, Texas 75205 T. 214.522.0200 F. 214.521.5485

Other Parties (Defendants in the Trial Court):

Michael Steven Mummaw Mark Howell

Counsel For Defendant Michael Steven Mummaw and Mark Howell:

Jonathan Manning Texas Bar No. 12947200 LAW OFFICES OF GALLERSON & YATES 2110 Walnut Hill Lane, Suite 200 Irving, Texas 75038 T. 972.580.1249 F. 855.614.6695

— 3 —

Relators Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation (together, “Toyota”) move for emergency temporary relief pending this Court’s disposition of their Petition for Writ of Mandamus. TEX. R. APP. P. 52.10. Emergency relief is immediately necessary because the trial court has refused to extend its stay of the discovery order at issue beyond today, May 18, 2018. MR574.

The discovery order provides that, after conducting a search using “Plaintiffs’ proposed formulation,” “Toyota shall have seven days in which to review the responsive documents to determine whether any materials should be withheld from production because they are privileged. . . .” MR386. Toyota must therefore seek emergency temporary relief to avoid responding to invasive, overbroad discovery requests. TEX. R. APP. P. 10.3(a)(3) (requiring court of appeals to determine motion at least ten days after filing unless “the motion is an emergency”).

Toyota respectfully requests that this Court stay Respondent’s* order requiring Toyota to give Plaintiffs:

• Direct access to its electronic database systems without first making the evidentiary showing required by In re Weekley Homes, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2005) (orig. proceeding);
• Discovery that exceeds what is permitted by the rules of procedure by requiring Toyota to translate documents normally maintained in Japanese into English, contrary to the rule that parties need only produce documents as kept “in the usual course of business,” In re Colonial Pipeline Co., 968 S.W.2d 938, 942

* Respondent is the Honorable Dale Tillery of the 134th District Court of Dallas County, Texas.

— 4 —

(Tex. 1998) (orig. proceeding); and

• Discovery that is irrelevant, overbroad, and disproportional because it is unlimited in scope, time, and subject matter, contrary to the rule that “overbroad requests for irrelevant information are improper whether they are burdensome or not, In re Nat’l Lloyds Ins. Co., 449 S.W.3d 486, 488 (Tex. 2014) (per curiam) (orig. proceeding).

Respondent signed the order—which was unilaterally submitted by the Real Parties in Interest and entered in its entirety by Respondent—on May 4, 2018, denied reconsideration of the order on May 14, 2018, and declined to extend the stay requested by Toyota beyond today, May 18, 2018. MR380-386, 565, 574.

Toyota respectfully requests that this Court enter a stay until this original proceeding is finally decided. See TEX. R. APP. P. 52.10(a). Toyota attaches a proposed order to this Motion.

The temporary relief requested by Toyota is necessary to preserve this Court’s jurisdiction to address the important issues raised in Toyota’s mandamus petition, which is being filed concurrently with this motion. This case involves the discovery of electronically stored information—an area the Texas Supreme Court has warned is particularly susceptible to invasive, overbroad discovery requests. Weekley Homes, 295 S.W.3d at 316, 317. In particular, it involves ordering the producing party to allow the requesting party direct access to its information databases—a drastic measure the Texas Supreme Court has held cannot be allowed unless the requesting party makes an evidentiary showing that the producing party “defaulted *5 in its obligations to search its own records.” Weekley Homes, 295 S.W.3d at 309.

Emergency relief is needed because without it, Plaintiffs will gain what is tantamount to direct access to Toyota’s information databases—a grave intrusion that will be impossible to undo once it occurs and would effectively insulate the trial court’s order from meaningful appellate review. MR586. Emergency relief is therefore necessary and appropriate not only to prevent irreparable harm to Toyota, but also to protect this Court’s jurisdiction to review the order at issue. At the same time, the requested stay will cause little, if any, harm to the Real Parties in Interest.

This Court entered a stay on virtually indistinguishable facts in In re VERP Inv., LLC, 457 S.W.3d 255 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2015, orig. proceeding), when it granted VERP’s emergency motion to stay an order that was entered by the Respondent here and similarly allowed direct access in violation of Weekley Homes. In re VERP, No. 05-15-00023-CV, Tex. App.—Dallas 2015, orig. proceeding, (Jan. 9, 2015 Order). The Court later conditionally granted VERP’s petition. 457 S.W.3d at 260. Just as it was in VERP, a stay is warranted here, as well.

For all these reasons, Relators pray that this Court grant their Emergency Motion for Temporary Relief and stay Respondent’s order until Toyota’s mandamus petition is resolved. *6 Dated: May 21, 2018 Respectfully submitted,

MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP

/s/ Allyson N. Ho James W. Halbrooks, Jr. Allyson N. Ho Texas Bar No. 24045354 Texas Bar No. 24033667 James.Halbrooks@bowmanand MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP brooke.com 1717 Main Street, Suite 3200 Suzanne H. Swaner Dallas, Texas 75201 Texas Bar No. 90001631 allyson.ho@morganlewis.com Suzanne.Swaner@bowmanand T. 214.466.4000 brooke.com F. 214.466.4001 BOWMAN AND BROOKE LLP 5830 Granite Park, Suite 1000 Winstol D. Carter, Jr. Plano, Texas 75024 Texas Bar No. 03932950 T. 972.616.1700 winn.carter@morganlewis.com F. 972.616.1701 Claire Swift Kugler Texas Bar No. 00797530 Victor Vital claire.kugler@morganlewis.com Texas Bar No. 00794798 MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP victor.vital@btlaw.com 1000 Louisiana, Suite 4000 Elizabeth Brandon Houston, Texas 77002 Texas Bar No. 24049580 T. 713.890.5000 ebrandon@btlaw.com F. 713.890.5001 BARNES & THORNBURG LLP 2100 McKinney Ave, Suite 1250 T. 214.258.4200 F. 214.258.4199

— 7 —

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE As required by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 52.10(a), I certify that I have notified counsel for all parties that the foregoing motion would be filed by expedited means—i.e., by email or telephone, on May 21, 2018.

/s/ Allyson N. Ho Allyson N. Ho

— 8 —

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE As required by Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 6.3 and 9.5(b), (d), (e), and 52.7(c), I certify that a copy of the foregoing motion was served on all parties and counsel by email or fax on May 21, 2018:

Frank L. Branson Jonathan Manning Texas Bar No. 02899000 Texas Bar No. 12947200 Eric T. Stahl LAW OFFICES OF GALLERSON & YATES Texas Bar No. 00794685 2110 Walnut Hill Lane, Suite 200 Eugene A. “Chip” Brooker, Jr. Irving, Texas 75038 Texas Bar No. 24045558 T. 972.580.1249 F. 855.614.6695 THE LAW OFFICES OF FRANK L. Liberty Mutual BRANSON, P.C. Highland Park Place Counsel for Defendants Michael 4514 Cole Avenue, 18th Floor Steven Mummaw and Mark Howell Dallas, Texas 75205 T. 214.522.0200 F. 214.521.5485 The Honorable Dale Tillery Judge, 134th District Court of Dallas Counsel for Plaintiffs/Real County, Texas Parties in Interest George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Bdg. 600 Commerce Street Dallas, Texas 75202

Respondent

/s/ Allyson N. Ho Allyson N. Ho