in Re Elephant Insurance Company ( 2021 )

In the
Court of Appeals
Second Appellate District of Texas
at Fort Worth
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No. 02-21-00067-CV
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IN RE ELEPHANT INSURANCE COMPANY, Relator
Original Proceeding
342nd District Court of Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 342-321069-20
Before Bassel, Birdwell, and Wallach, JJ.
Per Curiam Memorandum Opinion
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Real party in interest Amber Savala sued her insurance carrier, relator Elephant
Insurance Company, to recover benefits under an uninsured/underinsured motorist
(UIM) policy. The trial court compelled the deposition of relator’s corporate
representative on six topics, and relator seeks mandamus relief from that order. We
express no opinion on the trial court’s order because we believe that the trial court
should have the opportunity to reconsider it in light of the Texas Supreme Court’s
recent opinion addressing the taking of an insurer’s corporate representative’s
deposition in a suit seeking UIM benefits and the relevance, proportionality, and
deposition scope analyses that the supreme court applied to determine permissible
topics for such a deposition. See In re USAA Gen. Indem. Co., No. 20-0281, 2021 WL
2483767, at *5–8 (Tex. June 18, 2021) (orig. proceeding). Accordingly, to give the trial
court that opportunity, we deny the petition for writ of mandamus without prejudice,
and we release this court’s March 16, 2021 stay. See In re Liberty Cty. Mut. Ins. Co., No.
20-0983, 2021 WL 2483764 (Tex. June 18, 2021) (orig. proceeding).
Per Curiam
Delivered: June 24, 2021
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