GTE Communications Systems Corp. v. Curry

OPINION

BIERY, Justice.

This is an original proceeding in which relator, defendant below (GTE), asks this Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to rescind its sanctions order which struck GTE’s pleadings and imposed a fine of $150,000 as attorney fees to be paid on entry of final judgment.

The suit arises out of a fatal accident. A pay telephone was affixed to the outside wall of Bud’s Foodliner. Larry Bluethman allegedly stretched the metal cord of the telephone handset, normally about eighteen inches long, to over three feet across a sidewalk and tied the handset end to a…