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In re Deere & Co.

In this discovery dispute, the trial court's order compelling production of documents was overly broad because the order neglected to limit discovery to a reasonable time period. The court conditionally granted the petition for writ of mandamus. Texas Supreme Court, No. 08-1076, 12-18-2009

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ON PETITION FOR MANDAMUS

In this discovery dispute, we consider whether a trial court’s order compelling production of documents was overly broad. Because the order neglected to limit discovery to a reasonable time period, we find that it was. Accordingly, we conditionally grant the relator’s petition for writ of mandamus and direct the trial court to vacate that part of the order.

Arturo Martinez suffered severe injuries when he fell under a John Deere 410D backhoe loader. Allegedly, the step on which Martinez was standing failed, breaking off under his weight while the backhoe was moving. In the ensuing suit, Martinez alleged several legal theories, including products liability. Martinez served requests for production on Deere, including a request seeking “all [non-governmental] documents of customer complaints received by [Deere] relative to the sidestep on any model backhoe.” Deere objected to the request as overly broad, and Martinez moved to compel production. The trial court conducted a hearing, and the parties agreed to limit production to documents relating to models with similar handles and step assemblies, and only going back approximately 12 to 15 years (when production began on the 410D).*fn1 At the trial court’s request, Martinez then filed a proposed order. The proposed order included more than 30 product lines such as backhoes, tractors, and other loaders and did not include a time limit.

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