A proceeding too far

A hard-fought forum dispute between two shoe businesses led to an unusual forum dispute in In re ASCIS Am. Corp.

Dueling lawsuits between ASCIS (the plaintiff in a California case) and Shoebacca (the plaintiff in a Dallas case) led to a decision by a Dallas district court to stay proceedings in deference to the California one.

ASCIS then served a subpoena on a Dallas-based attorney who had previously represented Shoebacca. Unsatisfied with the attorney’s responsiveness, ASCIS filed an ancillary proceeding in Dallas to enforce the subpoena. Shoebacca then intervened in that case, raising claims that ASCIS had already been stayed by a Dallas court in favor of their resolution in California.

The Fifth Court sided with ASCIS and granted mandamus relief to require the dismissal of the intervention. No. 05-22-00994-CV (Jan. 20, 2023) (mem. op.).