J.K. and Susie L. Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank v. Mark Whittington

Relator J.K. and Susie L. Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank seeks a writ of mandamus against respondent the Honorable Mark Whittington, Judge of the 160th District Court of Dallas County, Texas. Wadley argues that the trial court abused its discretion by compelling the production of certain documents and by not restricting the private investigative activities of the real parties in interest, the immediate family members of decedent Ruth Perkins, The 160th Court signed two orders on March 30, 1992, containing the discovery rulings about which Wadley complains. The court also, however, gave Wadley thirty days to produce the documents at issue and stayed the Perkins family from conducting any private investigation for thirty days. The thirty days ended on April 29. At about 4:15 p.m. on April 29, Wadley filed its motion for leave to file its petition for writ of mandamus and tendered the petition itself. We issued a temporary stay against any further discovery proceedings, to give us a chance to examine the petition. The next morning, on April 30, we summarily denied leave to file the petition for writ of mandamus with respect to some of the 160th Courts discovery rulings and, reserving ruling on the remainder of the motion for leave with respect to one discovery ruling by the 160th Court, we requested the Perkins family to respond. We have reviewed the response. For the reasons given below, we now deny the remainder of Wadleys motion for leave and vacate the stay that we had earlier granted.