In Re Van Waters & Rogers, Inc.

The fifteen relators in this original mandamus proceeding are defendants in a seven-year-old mass-tort suit involving 448 plaintiffs. 1 Relators seek relief from the trial court’s orders abating almost all discovery and allowing the plaintiffs’ counsel to pick which plaintiffs’ claims will be tried first. Many of the relators and other defendants who have since settled sought the same relief more than three years ago in mandamus petitions first to the court of appeals, which denied relief without opinion, 2 and then to this Court. We denied relief “without prejudice” to give the trial court…