Responsible Third Party Via Mandamus

The Court of Appeals has reiterated that mandamus relief is available when the trial court erroneously denies a defendant’s motion for leave to designate a responsible third party. In this instance, the trial court had denied Greyhound’s attempt to join the owner of a crane truck that had been involved in a collision with a bus. The plaintiff was a passenger in the crane truck, and Greyhound alleged that the truck’s poor condition had proximately caused the accident. Following its own precedent of In re Oncor Elec. Delivery Co., 355 S.W.3d 304, 306 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2011, no pet.), the Court held that Greyhound had met its pleading requirements for naming the responsible third party, and that the improper denial of leave could not be adequately addressed by appeal. Permitting the case to be tried without the third party “would skew the proceedings, potentially affect the outcome of the litigation, and compromise the presentation of Relators’ defense in ways unlikely to be apparent in the appellate record.” The Court therefore conditionally granted mandamus.

In re Greyhound Lines, Inc., No. 05-13-01646-CV