In re YRC Inc.
| Decision Date | 17 June 2022 |
| Docket Number | 21-0846 |
| Citation | 646 S.W.3d 805 |
| Parties | IN RE YRC INC. d/b/a YRC Freight, Relator |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Katie Cigarroa, John W. Weber Jr., Steven David Jansma, San Antonio,, Michael Brendan McTaggart, Kenneth Cory Meixelsperger, Warren Szutse Huang, for Relator.
Timothy A. Hootman, Brian H. Crockett, Houston, for Real Party in Interest.
Section 33.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code provides that a defendant in a tort action may designate a responsible third party by filing a motion for leave on or before the 60th day before the trial date, but the defendant may not do so after the limitations period on the plaintiff's cause of action has expired with respect to the third party. In this workplace injury case, defendants sought to designate the plaintiff's employer as a responsible third party 62 days before the suit's third trial setting and more than five years after the injury. The trial court denied the motion on the grounds that it was untimely and did not plead sufficient facts regarding the third party's responsibility. One of the defendants filed a mandamus petition in the court of appeals, which denied relief in a non-substantive opinion. ––– S.W.3d ––––, 2021 WL 3828465 (Tex. App.—Dallas Aug. 27, 2021).
Under our recent decision in In re Coppola , 535 S.W.3d 506 (Tex. 2017), the motion was timely filed more than sixty days before the then-pending trial date, and we conclude it pleads sufficient facts. In addition, we hold there was no applicable limitations period for the plaintiff to join the third-party employer as a defendant on his tort cause of action because his exclusive remedy—which he successfully pursued—was workers’ compensation. For these reasons, the trial court's ruling was a clear abuse of discretion. Because the defendant lacks an adequate remedy by appeal, we conditionally grant mandamus relief and direct the trial court to vacate its order denying defendants’ motion for leave to designate a third party and to grant the motion.
In 2015, plaintiff and real party in interest James Curry was loading a trailer parked at a freight dock owned by his employer, Eaton Corporation. Eaton authorized defendant-relator YRC, Inc. d/b/a YRC Freight, the operating freight carrier, to move the trailer. According to Curry, YRC's driver began to pull the trailer away while Curry was still actively loading it, causing him to fall out. Curry was injured and filed a successful workers’ compensation claim.
A year after the incident, Curry filed this suit, alleging negligence by YRC and its driver (named in the suit as John Doe). YRC first identified Eaton as a potential responsible third party in a supplemental discovery response in May 2019. On January 5, 2021, YRC (together with John Doe) filed a motion to designate Eaton as a responsible third party pursuant to Section 33.004. When YRC filed its motion, trial was set for March 8, 2021—62 days later. YRC's motion detailed the circumstances of Curry's injury. It also described the relationship between YRC, Eaton, and Curry and the duty that Eaton owed Curry to provide a safe workplace, comply with all relevant OSHA standards, and warn or make safe any dangerous conditions. The motion alleged that Curry's injuries stemmed from Eaton's activities on the dock and that Eaton's negligence proximately caused the incident.
Curry objected to the motion. He contended that YRC did not plead sufficient facts supporting Eaton's responsibility for his injuries. Additionally, he argued that YRC's motion was untimely because it was filed less than 60 days before the original trial date and because the statute of limitations for any of Curry's claims against Eaton had expired.
The trial court agreed with Curry and denied YRC's motion to designate Eaton a potential responsible third party. The court based its ruling on three grounds: (1) YRC failed to establish good cause for its delay in filing its motion for leave before the original two trial settings; (2) the motion was untimely because it was filed "five years after the subject injury" and thus after the statute of limitations on a claim against the third party had expired; and (3) YRC failed to plead sufficient facts to support the motion.
Mandamus relief is warranted when a trial court clearly abuses its discretion and the relator has no adequate remedy by appeal. In re Prudential Ins. Co. of Am. , 148 S.W.3d 124, 135-36 (Tex. 2004). We conclude that the trial court clearly abused its discretion on each ground.
First , YRC's motion was timely. Section 33.004(a) provides that a motion for leave to designate a responsible third party must be filed "on or before the 60th day before the trial date unless the court finds good cause to allow the motion to be filed at a later date." TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 33.004(a). We held in Coppola that "nothing in the proportionate-responsibility statute support[s] a construction of section 33.004(a) as limiting the phrase ‘the trial date’ to an initial trial setting rather than the trial date at the time the motion to designate is filed." 535 S.W.3d at 508.
Here, YRC filed its motion on January 5, 2021. The operative docket control order at the time of YRC's motion set the case for trial on March 8, 2021. Thus, YRC's motion was filed 62 days before the trial setting at the time, making it timely under Coppola and Section 33.004(a).
Second , the trial court was incorrect in concluding that the motion was filed after the applicable limitations period had expired. Section 33.004(d) provides that "a defendant may not designate a person as a responsible third party with respect to a claimant's cause of action after the applicable limitations period on the cause of action has expired with respect to the responsible third party" unless the possible designation was timely disclosed. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 33.004(d). Curry contends that this section prohibits YRC's designation of Eaton because the statute of limitations on his tort cause of action had expired with respect to Eaton before YRC moved to designate Eaton as a responsible third party.
We disagree because the statute of limitations for "the cause of action" in this suit does not apply "with respect to the responsible third party." Curry has alleged a cause of action for common-law negligence against YRC and John Doe to recover damages for his personal injuries. But there is no "applicable limitations period on th[is] cause of action ... with respect to" third party Eaton because the Legislature has eliminated the cause of action by statute. Eaton is a subscriber to workers’ compensation insurance, and Curry's negligence cause of action seeks recovery for work-related injury. As a matter of law, therefore, recovery of workers’ compensation is Curry's exclusive remedy against Eaton. See TEX. LAB. CODE § 408.001(a) (). The record contains no allegations or evidence that could arguably bring Curry's cause of action within any exception to the exclusive statutory remedy. See, e.g. , id. § 408.001(b) (); Mo-Vac Serv. Co. v. Escobedo , 603 S.W.3d 119, 124-30 (Tex. 2020) ().1
This interpretation of Section 33.004(d) is compatible with the Legislature's goal—evident from the statutory text—of preventing a defendant from delaying a third-party designation beyond the limitations period in order to deprive the plaintiff of an opportunity to sue the third party.2 Here, the timing of YRC's motion did not deprive Curry of the opportunity to join Eaton as a defendant, which the Labor Code independently prohibited. Indeed, Curry had already exercised his exclusive remedy against Eaton via his workers’ compensation claim. Furthermore, there is less risk of gamesmanship in the designation of employer third parties. There is no indication here that Curry, an employee of Eaton, was surprised to learn of YRC's allegations...
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