HOUSTON - The Texas Supreme Court has agreed with Kuraray America’s argument that an order requiring five employees to produce cell phone data in litigation over a chemical release was impermissibly overbroad.
Kuraray operates an ethylene vinyl-alcohol copolymer plant in Pasadena. In May 2018, a chemical reactor became over-pressurized and released ethylene vapor that caught on fire, resulting in multiple injuries and lawsuits, which were transferred to a MDL, according to the high court’s Dec. 9 opinion.
The opinion states that a trial court ordered Kuraray to produce cell-phone data from the employer-issued phones of five employees. Two of the employees are supervisors and for them the trial court ordered production of cell-phone data for the six-week period before the chemical release. The three other employees were control-room board operators. For them, the trial court ordered production of cell-phone data for the four-month period before the release.
On April 6, 2020, Kuraray filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Texas Supreme Court, challenging the order, court records show.
The high court concluded Kuraray lacks an adequate remedy by appeal because its compliance with the discovery orders would require the production of information that has not been shown to be relevant.
“Relator challenges the trial court’s orders regarding production of all five employees’ cell-phone data on the ground the orders require production of information as to which relevance has not been established and thus are impermissibly overbroad,” states the opinion. “We agree and conditionally grant the writ.”
Supreme Court case No. 20-0268