Net Worth Discovery - Dallas Court of Appeals Restricts Discovery

Today, the Dallas Court of Appeals, in an opinion written by Justice FitzGerald, granted mandamus relief with regard to an order of the trial court compelling the production of documents purporting to reflect the defendant's net worth. See In re Ameriplan Corp., No. 05-09-01407-CV (Tex. App.-Dallas Jan. 5, 2009, orig. proceeding). What is notable about this case is that it restricts the production of net worth information - at least as far as its relevance to a claim for punitive damages - to only current net worth, not the company's historical net worth. Specifically, the trial court compelled production of the defendant's 2006, 2007, 2008 balance sheets and 2006, 2007, and 2008 income statements. The court of appeals determined that this was too much. Instead, it allowed production of ONLY the 2008 balance sheet (the defendant's most recent one), and refused to allow anything further, concluding that any earlier balance sheets would not show current net worth, and that the income statements would not show net income.