In re: READYONE INDUSTRIES, INC.
No. 08-12-00120-CV.
Court of Appeals of Texas, El Paso.
Dec. 21, 2012.
Rehearing Overruled Feb. 13, 2013.
394 S.W.3d 697 | 2012 WL 6643414
In light of the foregoing, we hold that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering discovery on Carreon‘s defensive claim of mental incapacity.
2. Inadequate Remedy by Appeal
Carreon‘s failure to prove that the discovery he sought would be material in helping him establish his defense to arbitration did not provide the trial court with the basis required to order pre-arbitration discovery. Because the trial court had no basis to compel ReadyOne to рroduce the information sought by Carreon, the trial court‘s discovery order was unjustifiably harassing and unduly burdensome. Such an error cannot be cured by ordinary appeal. See Walker, 827 S.W.2d at 843. Accordingly, we hold that ReadyOne has no adequate remedy by appeal.
CONCLUSION
We conditionally grant ReadyOne‘s petition for writ of mandamus. We hereby direct the trial court to vacate its discovery order. Mandamus will issue only if the trial court fails to act within ten days from the date of this opinion.
In re: READYONE INDUSTRIES, INC.
No. 08-12-00120-CV.
Court of Appeals of Texas, El Paso.
Dec. 21, 2012.
394 S.W.3d 699
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Alleging that she sustained an on-the-job injury, Torres sued ReadyOne for negligence. After filing an answer, ReadyOne moved to compel arbitration pursuant to an agreement requiring that claims of on-the-job injuries be submitted to binding arbitrаtion. In her response to the motion, Torres asserted, among other bases, that her negligence claims were not arbitrable because the Franken Amendment prevents federal contractors from enforcing agreements to arbitrate torts related to or arising оut of negligent hiring, supervision, or retention in a personal injury suit.
At the hearing on the motion to compel, Torres argued that allowing limited discovery on the issue of whether the Franken Amendment was applicable would determine the arbitrability of her claims. ReadyOne argued that the Amendment, on its face, was not applicable to torts related to or arising out of negligent hiring, supervision, or retention in a personal injury suit because the Amendment applies only to title VII claims or torts related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment. After taking the issue under advisement, the trial court ordered discovery concerning the applicability of the Amendment. Specifically, Torres was permitted to discover if ReadyOne has federal contracts in excess of $1 million and if ReadyOne manufactures items commercially available off-the-shelf.
Alex Acosta, Scherr & Legate, PLLC, El Paso, TX, for Real Parties in Interest.
Steven L. Hughes, Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi, Paxson & Galatzan, El Paso, TX, for Relator.
Before McCLURE, C.J., RIVERA, and ANTCLIFF, JJ.
OPINION
CHRISTOPHER ANTCLIFF, Justice.
In this original proceeding, ReadyOne Industries, Inc. seeks mandamus relief from the trial court‘s order permitting discovery on the arbitrability of an agreement between ReadyOne and its employee, M. Estella Torres ( “Torres“), governing work-related injuries. The narrow issue before this Court is one of first impression. We are asked to determine whether the Franken Amendment1 is relevant in determining the arbitrability of a plaintiff‘s
To obtain mandamus relief from the trial court‘s discovery order, ReadyOne must meet two requirements. ReadyOne must show that the trial court cleаrly abused its discretion and that it has no adequate remedy by appeal. In re Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 148 S.W.3d 124, 135-36 (Tex.2004).
A trial court abuses its discretion if it reaches a decision so arbitrary and unreasonable as to amount to a clear and prejudicial error of law, or if it clearly fails to analyze or aрply the law correctly. In re Cerberus Capital Mgmt., L.P., 164 S.W.3d 379, 382 (Tex.2005). Although the scope of discovery is within the trial court‘s discretion, the trial court must make an effort to impose reasonable discovery limits. In re CSX Corp., 124 S.W.3d 149, 152 (Tex.2003). Discovery requests must be reasonably tailored to include only matters relevant to the case. In re Am. Optical Corp., 988 S.W.2d 711, 713 (Tex.1998). Becаuse discovery is limited to matters that are relevant to the case, requests for information that are not reasonably tailored as to time, place, or subject matter amount to impermissible “fishing expeditions.” See CSX Corp., 124 S.W.3d at 152. Accordingly, an order that compels production of patently irrelevant matters is an abuse of discretion. Id. at 153.
A relator has no adequate remedy by appeal if the appellate court is unable to cure the trial court‘s discovery error. Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 843 (Tex.1992). This occurs when the trial court erroneously “compels the production оf patently irrelevant ... 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.” Id. In such a situation, mandamus is the proper remedy. Id.
THE FRANKEN AMENDMENT
In a single issue, ReadyOne argues that the trial court erred by ordering discovery regarding the applicability of the Franken Amendment in this case because the Amendment is inapplicable, and even if applicable, does not bar enforcement of the arbitration agreement. ReadyOne thus insists that the trial court abused its discretion by requiring discovery into patently irrelevant matters. We agree.
Applicable Law
Our analysis of whether the Franken Amendment applies in this case turns on a question of statutory construction. A question of statutory construction is a legal one that we review de novo. Entergy Gulf States, Inc. v. Summers, 282 S.W.3d 433, 437 (Tex.2009). When construing statutes, we ascertain and give effect to thе legislature‘s intent. Id. We do so by looking first and foremost at the statutory text, reading the words and phrases in context and construing them according to the rules of grammar and common usage. Id.; Lexington Ins. Co. v. Strayhorn, 209 S.W.3d 83, 85 (Tex.2006);
Several canons of statutory construction are helpful in guiding our analysis. Under the doctrine of ejusdem generis, when general words in a statute follow specific examples, the general words are to be restricted in their meaning to a sense anаlogous to the same kind or class as those expressly mentioned. City of San Antonio v. City of Boerne, 111 S.W.3d 22, 29 (Tex.2003). Likewise, according to the
Discussion
1. Abuse of Discretion
With these principlеs in mind, we have scrutinized the Franken Amendment to determine whether personal injury claims related to or arising out of negligent hiring, supervision, or retention fall within its parameters. We conclude that they do not.
In relevant part, the Franken Amendment provides:
(a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be expended for any Federal contract for an amount in excess of $1,000,000 that is awarded more than 60 days after the effective date of this Act, unless the contractor agrees not to:
...
(2) take any action to enforce any provision of an existing agreement with an employee or independent contractor that mandates that the employee or independent contractor resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.
The dispute herе centers on the meaning of the clause “any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.” [Emphasis added]. ReadyOne asserts that “the list of generic torts following ‘including’ are not additional torts to which the arbitration prohibition would apply,” but are “simply a descriptive list of some of the type of torts that could arise out of sexual assault or harassment.” Torres, on the other hand, posits that, when read in the disjunctive, the conjunctions “or” serve to identify the types of claims to which the Amendment applies and to cast them as claims independent of each other. Thus, according to Torres, the phrase “or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention” is indeрendent of and does not modify the phrase “any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including ....” We disagree.
When identifying the types of claims not subject to arbitration, the Amendment begins by listing title VII claims, followed by the clause “or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment,” which in turn is followed by the adjectival phrase “including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment ....” The concluding phrase “or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention” immediately follows the beginning of the adjectival phrase identifying
As noted above, Torres argues that because the various types of claims and torts identified in the disputed clause are separated by the disjunctive “or,” they should be construed as alternative claims, separate from and independent of one another. However, the structure and composition of the statutory text belie this argument and compel the conclusion that “negligent hiring, supervision, or retention” are not claims separate from and independent of the other non-arbitrable claims identified in the statute. If Torres is correct that the phrase “or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention” identifies the third element in a list of three items, then a comma would have been placed between the conjunction “or” separating the phrases “any claim under title VII” and “any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment” to identify each of the three members in the series. The fact that the conjunction “or” between the phrases identifying title VII claims and sexual assault claims is not separated by a comma indicates that there are no more than two elements identified in the list of claims not subject to arbitration. Indeed, the use of the comma before the conjunction “or” to separate the phrase “assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment” from “negligent hiring, supervision, or retention” denotes that the drafters of the Amendment used it as a serial comma to identify the disputed phrase as the final item in the list of the torts encompassing sexual assault and harassment. According to the Oxford Style Manual, “[t]he [use of a serial comma] serves ... to resolve ambiguity, particularly when any of the items are compound terms joined by a conjunction.” OXFORD STYLE MANUAL, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 122 [Emphasis added].
Because the Franken Amendment does not apply to personal injury claims related to or arising out of negligent hiring, supervision, or retention, we hold that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering discovery concerning the applicability of the Franken Amendment to the arbitrability of Torres‘s personal injury claims.
2. Inadequate Remedy by Appeal
As established above, Torres seeks documents from ReadyOne to determine if it hаs federal contracts in excess of $1 million and if it manufactures items commercially available off-the-shelf. This information is targeted to discover if ReadyOne is bound by the requirements of
CONCLUSION
We conditionally grant ReadyOne‘s petition for writ of mandamus. We hereby direct the trial cоurt to vacate its discovery order. Mandamus will issue only if the trial court fails to act within ten days from the date of this opinion.