TribBlog: Mostyn Wins a Round

A Galveston County judge has granted a temporary restraining order to stop the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, or TWIA, from giving out information about each of the settlements it reached with 2,400 homeowners who lost their property during Hurricane Ike.

State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, said last Friday he requested the information on behalf of the TWIA oversight panel he co-chairs. He's seeking numbers on those settlements in advance of its committee report, which is due Nov. 15. Steve Mostyn, the attorney whose firm estimated that it could have earned $86 million in legal fees had all those cases gone to court, argues that the information is being sought to damage him politically (he's a prolific Democratic donor) and that the information requested crosses into personal information about homeowners in the original suits, and should be protected.

"TWIA had all that information ready to go," Mostyn said. But the court ruling found "there is evidence that harm is imminent to Plaintiffs," and until there's a hearing — scheduled for Sept. 27 at 9 a.m. — TWIA is legally prevented from issuing the information pursuant to Taylor's request. I've included the full court documents for your perusal.