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In re Stern

In this petition for writ of mandamus, the relator requests that Houston's 1st Court of Appeals direct the trial court to vacate its order requiring him to produce his computer hard drive to a special master for forensic examination. In his first of five issues, he contends that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering his surrender of his hard drive even though he is a non-resident defendant with a special appearance pending. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 120a governs special appearances. Rule 120a(3) by its plain language authorizes discovery prior to ruling on the special appearance only with respect to facts essential to establish jurisdiction. The rule also prescribes the procedure to be followed to obtain discovery of jurisdictional facts. Houston's 1st Court of Appeals, No. 01-09-00438-CV, 07-14-2010

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Original Proceeding on Petition for Writ of Mandamus

OPINION

In this petition for writ of mandamus, relator, Howard K. Stern, requests that we direct the trial court to vacate its May 11, 2009 order requiring Stern to produce his computer hard drive to a special master for forensic examination.*fn1 In five issues, Stern contends that the trial court abused its discretion by (1) ordering Stern’s surrender of his hard drive even though Stern is a non-resident defendant with a special appearance pending, (2) ordering the surrender of Stern’s hard drive to a special master when there has been no showing that Stern was noncompliant with responding to discovery or responded in bad faith, (3) authorizing a forensic examiner to determine the relevancy of the documents on Stern’s hard drive, (4) authorizing a forensic examiner for discovery requests that are overbroad and irrelevant to the issue of personal jurisdiction, and (5) ordering Stern to comply with an overbroad order for which there is no adequate remedy by appeal.

 
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