In re Mobile Mini, Inc.

• Decision Date: 13 March 2020
• Docket Number: NO. 18-1200,18-1200
• Citation: 596 S.W.3d 781
• Parties: IN RE MOBILE MINI, INC., Relator
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

596 S.W.3d 781

IN RE MOBILE MINI, INC., Relator

NO. 18-1200

Supreme Court of Texas.

OPINION DELIVERED: March 13, 2020

Bobby R. Garcia, Keith C. Livesay, Covarrubias, Luis, McAllen TX, David E. Brothers Jr., Nolana Self Storage, LLC, Houston TX, Dennis Longoria Jr., Anar Construction Specialists, LLC, McAllen TX, for Real Party in Interest.

Robert Barrett Ray, Scott T. Clark, Mobile Mini, Inc., Harlingen TX, for Relator.

Per Curiam

Mobile Mini, Inc. seeks mandamus relief compelling the trial court to grant its timely filed motion to designate a responsible third party in a construction worker's personal-injury suit. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 33.004. Although the motion was filed after the statute of limitations had expired on the worker's claims against the third party, Mobile Mini argues the trial court was obligated to grant it because (1) the motion was filed more than sixty days before a trial setting, (2) the responsible third party was timely disclosed in response to the worker's discovery requests, and (3) the worker did not challenge the sufficiency of the factual allegations concerning the third party's alleged responsibility. Id. § 33.004(a), (d), (g). We agree and therefore conditionally grant Mobile Mini's petition for writ of mandamus.

Luis Covarrubias's pinky finger was injured when a wind gust blew the door of a construction trailer closed on his hand. Mobile Mini owned the trailer, but had leased it to Nolana Self Storage, LLC, the owner of the construction site. When Covarrubias was injured, the trailer was under the exclusive control of Nolana's contractor, Anar Construction Specialists, LLC.

Nineteen days before the statute of limitations expired on his tort claims, Covarrubias sued Anar and Mobile Mini, but not Nolana. Covarrubias served requests for disclosure along with the original petition. Mobile Mini timely filed an answer and timely served its discovery responses, both of which were due after the limitations period had expired. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 99 (deadline to file written answer); 194.3 (deadline to respond to requests for disclosure). Mobile Mini's discovery responses identified Nolana as a potentially responsible third party, see TEX. R. CIV. P. 194.2(l ), and within a week's time, Covarrubias amended his petition to add Nolana as a defendant. The following day, Mobile Mini filed a motion to designate Nolana as a responsible third party so a jury could determine whether Nolana caused or contributed to Covarrubias's injury. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE §§ 33.003 -.004. No party opposed the motion to designate, but it sat dormant for nearly two years.

In the interim, the trial court ruled that Covarrubias's tort claims against Nolana were time-barred and, based on that ruling, rendered summary judgment in Nolana's favor on those claims and Mobile Mini's derivative cross-claim for contribution. After the tort claims against Nolana were dismissed with prejudice, Covarrubias and Nolana filed written objections to Mobile Mini's motion to designate, asserting the designation was not proper because Nolana could not be a responsible party once the limitations period had expired. Nolana ultimately secured summary judgment on all claims and was no longer a party to the proceedings when the trial court denied Mobile Mini's request to designate Nolana as a responsible third party.

The court of appeals denied Mobile Mini's mandamus petition without substantive comment, but we hold that Mobile Mini is entitled to mandamus relief because the trial court abused its discretion in denying Mobile Mini's motion and Mobile Mini lacks an adequate appellate remedy. See In re Coppola., 535 S.W.3d 506, 509-10 (Tex. 2017) (appeal is not an adequate remedy for improper denial of a Chapter 33 motion to designate).

Subject to an exception not applicable here, a "responsible third party" is "any person who is alleged to have caused or contributed to causing in any way the harm for which recovery of damages is sought[.]" TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 33.011(6). Section 33.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code authorizes a tort defendant to seek leave of court to designate a person as a responsible third party by filing a motion for leave "on or before the 60th day before the trial[.]" Id. §§ 33.002, .004(a). Mobile Mini's motion was filed 626 days before the first trial setting and was therefore timely.

Even so, when the defendant's motion is timely but filed "after the applicable limitations period on the cause of action has expired with respect to the responsible third party," the defendant may not designate the person as a responsible third party "if the defendant has failed to comply with its obligations, if any, to timely disclose that the person may be designated as a responsible third party under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure." Id. § 33.004(d). Designation of a responsible third party may also be denied "[i]f an objection to the motion for leave is timely filed," "the objecting party establishes ... the defendant did not plead sufficient facts concerning the alleged responsibility of the person ...," and the defendant fails to cure the pleading defect. Id. § 33.004(f), (g). These constraints exist even though neither designating a person as a responsible third party, nor a finding of fault against the person, imposes liability on that person or provides a basis to impose liability on the person in any other proceeding. Id. § 33.004(i).

The crux of the dispute here is whether Mobile Mini's discovery response disclosing Nolana as a potentially responsible third party was "timely" even though served after the statute of limitations had expired on Covarrubias's tort claims. Covarrubias argues the disclosure of Nolana as a responsible third party was not timely for section 33.004(d) purposes, even though Mobile Mini served its discovery responses within the time required by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, because Mobile Mini could have made the disclosure earlier than the due date. We reject this argument as contrary to the statute's plain language. Mobile Mini's disclosure was timely because under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, it was not obligated to disclose potentially responsible third parties until its discovery responses were due.¹

We recently struck down a trial court order granting leave to designate a responsible third party after the statute of limitations expired, but the circumstances in that case were materially different. Unlike here, the defendant's discovery responses in In re Dawson were due before the plaintiff's claims against the third party were time-barred. 550 S.W.3d 625, 627 (Tex. 2018).

In Dawson , the plaintiff was injured when a television fell from a wall in a restaurant. Shortly after the limitations period expired, the defendant sought to designate the television installer as a responsible third party. Id. The plaintiff opposed the designation on the basis that the defendant had not complied with discovery rules requiring timely identification of "any person who may be designated as a responsible third party." See id. (citing TEX. R. CIV. P. 194.2(l ) ).

In timely served initial disclosures, the defendant stated that (1) no other potential parties existed, (2) the injuries were caused by persons beyond the defendant's control, and (3) the defendant would supplement its response with the name, address, and phone number of any potentially responsible third party. Id. However, the defendant failed to disclose the installer as a responsible third party until after the limitations period had expired and, even then, failed to provide the installer's address as required. Id. at 627, 629.

When the plaintiff was no longer in a position to sue the person the defendant had belatedly identified as causing or contributing to the plaintiff's injuries, the defendant sought to ameliorate or reduce its own liability by shifting responsibility to an "empty chair." The plaintiff complained that section 33.004(d) is designed to prevent this type of procedural gamesmanship, but the trial court allowed the designation, and the court of appeals denied the plaintiff's request for mandamus relief. Id. at 628.

We held the defendant's incomplete responses, failure to supplement before limitations expired, and failure to adequately supplement after limitations had expired did not satisfy section 33.004(d)'s timely disclosure requirement or Rule 194.2(l )'s requirement that the responding party disclose the name, address, and telephone number of any potentially responsible third party. Id. at 629-30 ; TEX. R. CIV. P. 194.2(l ). Holding the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the designation, we conditionally granted mandamus relief. Dawson, 550 S.W.3d at 631.

Unlike Dawson, the circumstances presented here do not invoke the gamesmanship concerns section 33.004(d) operates to prevent. Mobile Mini identified Nolana as a responsible third party in its initial response to Covarrubias's initial request for disclosures and that response was timely under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Because Covarrubias waited almost two years to sue Mobile Mini, the response deadline for the disclosures fell after limitations expired. Mobile Mini did not engage in any dilatory or stall tactics to game the system, but instead filed the discovery response when it was due, and Covarrubias does not contend the response was inadequate. Mobile Mini's failure to disclose Nolana's identity before limitations expired was the natural consequence of Covarubbias's decision to wait to file suit until limitations were nearing terminus. See Dawson, 550 S.W.3d at 629 ; In re CVR Energy, Inc., 500 S.W.3d 67, 73 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2016, orig. proceeding) (construing section 33.004(d) as providing " ‘procedural safeguard[s]’ that prevent a defendant from undercutting ‘the plaintiff's case by belatedly pointing its finger at a time-barred responsible third party against whom the plaintiff has...