Mohawk Rubber Co., In re, 06-98-00114-CV

• Decision Date: 04 December 1998
• Docket Number: No. 06-98-00114-CV,06-98-00114-CV
• Citation: 982 S.W.2d 494
• Parties: In re MOHAWK RUBBER COMPANY.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 494

982 S.W.2d 494

In re MOHAWK RUBBER COMPANY.

No. 06-98-00114-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Texarkana.

Submitted Sept. 14, 1998.

Decided Oct. 6, 1998.

Rehearing Overruled Dec. 4, 1998.

Joe Michael Russell, Smith, Ralston, Russell, Dallas, for IHS, Inc.

C. Victor Haley, Fairchild, Price, Thomas & Haley, Nacogdoches, for Standard Products Co.

Hubert A. Crouch, III, Crouch & Hallett, Dallas, for relator Mohawk Rubber Co.

John R. Robinson, Patterson Lamberty Stanford & Walls, Dallas, for Lord Corp.

Kurt D. Groten, Phillips & Akers, Houston, for Uniroyal Tire Co., Inc. Nelson James Roach, Nix, Patterson & Roach, Daingerfield, for Real Parties in Interest James Edward Aaron, et al.

Before CORNELIUS, C.J., and GRANT and ROSS, JJ.

OPINION

CORNELIUS, Chief Justice.

Mohawk Rubber Company has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus ordering the Honorable Jimmy White, Judge of the 76th Judicial District of Texas, to (1) properly consider and rule on its no-evidence motion for summary judgment, (2) rescind the court's order that abated discovery as to all plaintiffs not yet set for trial and abated the filing of no-evidence summary judgment motions as to each group of plaintiffs until that group is set for trial, and (3) rescind the court's scheduling order and enter a proper case management order.

This lawsuit was filed on June 24, 1988. There are 205 plaintiffs who allege generally that they suffered actual or potential injuries because of their exposure to rubber products manufactured by some defendants and to rubber fumes created by the use of machines built by other defendants. There are currently four defendants remaining after others have settled.

Mohawk filed its motion for summary judgment under TEX.R. CIV. P. 166a(i) based on its contention that there was no evidence that it had in any way caused injury to the plaintiffs. The motion, commonly known as a no-evidence summary judgment motion, alleged that adequate time for discovery had elapsed and that plaintiffs had no evidence of causation. ¹ The trial court signed an order overruling the motion for summary judgment, but Mohawk contends that the court did not properly interpret Rule 166a(i) and that, in reality, the court failed to rule on the merits of the summary judgment motion.

Mohawk also filed a motion asking the court to enter a Lone Pine-type case management order directing the plaintiffs to provide individualized information specifying their claimed injuries and to state in what manner Mohawk's activities caused such injuries. The court overruled the motion, and instead entered an order for generalized discovery that does not require the plaintiffs to provide proof of causation.

There are two separate and, in some respects, overlapping orders that are the subject of our review. We first address Mohawk's motion for summary judgment.

On June 5, 1998, the trial court issued an order denying Mohawk's motion for summary judgment. In the order the trial court acknowledged that there currently is no evidence that any defendant caused any injury to any plaintiff. The trial court further stated that there had not been adequate time for discovery and that plaintiffs had "provided adequate evidence to indicate that further discovery may lead to discovery of factual evidence needed to prove causation in these cases" (emphasis added).

The court also noted that it had, after the motion for summary judgment was filed, issued a case management scheduling order setting various deadlines and giving plaintiffs "a reasonable opportunity to complete discovery...." ²

In the final paragraph of the order, the court expressly stated that the denial was without prejudice and went on to state that "Mohawk may reassert a specific no evidence motion for summary judgment relating to 'a single, fine point concerning one element of a cause of action' after discovery relating to the causation issues are (sic) completed."

Thus, the trial court denied the motion for summary judgment and ordered that the deadline on further discovery be directed to the sequential groups as they become ready for trial and that additional no-evidence summary judgment motions on each group could not be filed until that time. The court further concluded that causation was not an element of the causes of action, but rather that there are several separate components of causation, each of which is an "element" of plaintiffs' causes of action and which must be attacked by separate no-evidence summary judgment motions. The court thus ordered that the defendants not file any additional motions based on a failure to submit evidence of causation, but instead file any new motions for summary judgment based on a failure to provide proof of some subdivision of causation, such as duration of exposure.

Ordinarily, mandamus is not available to review an order denying a motion for summary judgment. Mohawk, however, asserts first that mandamus is appropriate here because the trial court did not actually rule on its motion for summary judgment. This is incorrect. Although the order signed contains a large amount of extraneous material, it also contains the necessary decretal language denying the motion.

Second, Mohawk argues that the trial court improperly analyzed and improperly applied the no-evidence summary judgment rule. TEX.R. CIV. P. 166a(i). We agree. We conclude that we cannot order the court to rescind its order overruling the summary judgment motion because, in the circumstances here, that order is not reviewable on mandamus. But for the guidance of the trial court in ruling on future motions for summary judgment (which under our ruling may now be filed at any time), we set out the proper application and interpretation of the no-evidence summary judgment rule in the context of this case.

The main basis that the trial court used to overrule Mohawk's motion for summary judgment was that the motion was too general because it only alleged there was no evidence of causation. The court concluded that causation in toxic tort cases is not a single element of the cause of action, but is a combination of several specific facts (plaintiffs suggested eight) that together make up causation, and that each of these factual components must be attacked in a specific summary judgment motion. This view misinterprets the element of causation as well as the requirements of the summary judgment rule.

In tort cases, the elements of the cause of action are (1) a duty to the plaintiff, (2) a breach of that duty, and (3) proximate cause of damages. Greater Houston Transp. Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523 (Tex.1990); W. Page Keeton, Causation, 28 S. TEX. L.REV. 231 (1986).

In product liability cases, causation is called producing cause. Rourke v. Garza, 530 S.W.2d 794 (Tex.1975). In both negligence and strict liability cases, proximate cause or producing cause is an essential element of recovery. Greater Houston Transp. v. Phillips, supra; Technical Chemical Co. v. Jacobs, 480 S.W.2d 602 (Tex.1972). Although causation is made up of several evidentiary components, causation itself is a single essential element of tort liability.

The plaintiffs here alleged repeatedly in their petition that their injuries were "proximately caused" by the products manufactured by the defendants. Mohawk had a right to move for summary judgment on the causation alleged by the plaintiffs, and it did so in its motion by alleging that the plaintiffs had no evidence of "causation."

We believe the plaintiffs and the learned trial court have also misinterpreted the intent of the no-evidence summary judgment rule and the comments that have been written and stated about it. The rule requires a motion to be specific in alleging a lack of evidence on an essential element of the plaintiffs' alleged cause of action, but it does not require that the motion specifically attack the evidentiary components that may prove an element of the cause of action. The specificity requirement is designed to avoid conclusory no-evidence challenges to an opponent's cause of action. The rule requires a specific challenge to the evidentiary support for an element of a claim or defense. Causation is a specific element of tort liability.

The plaintiffs also argued, and the trial court found, that Mohawk's motion would require plaintiffs to "marshal all of their evidence" to resist it, a result that the official comment to Rule 166a(i) forbids. But this argument misunderstands the term "marshal the evidence." To marshal one's evidence is to arrange all of the evidence in the order that it will be presented at trial. See Stern v. State ex rel. Ansel, 869 S.W.2d 614 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, writ denied); BRYAN A. GARNER, A DICTIONARY OF MODERN LEGAL USAGE 353 (1987). A party is not required to present or arrange all of its evidence in response to a summary judgment motion. But Rule 166a(i) explicitly provides that, in response to a no-evidence summary judgment motion, the respondent must present some summary judgment evidence raising a genuine issue of material fact on the element attacked, or the motion must be granted.

The trial court also found that the motion for summary judgment should be overruled because adequate time for discovery had not been allowed and because further discovery might lead to additional discovery. The court also found that discovery had not been completed. The rule, however, does not require that discovery must have been completed. It provides that a no-evidence...