American International Specialty Lines Insurance v. NWI-I, Inc.

240 F.R.D. 401, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3025, 2007 WL 98312
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJanuary 16, 2007
DocketNo. 05 C 6386
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 240 F.R.D. 401 (American International Specialty Lines Insurance v. NWI-I, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American International Specialty Lines Insurance v. NWI-I, Inc., 240 F.R.D. 401, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3025, 2007 WL 98312 (N.D. Ill. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MASON, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on two discovery motions. Plaintiff, American In[403]*403ternational Specialty Lines Insurance Company (“AISLIC”), filed a motion to compel responses to plaintiffs first set of document requests and interrogatories. Defendants, NWI-I, LePetomane II, Inc., as Trustee of the Fruit of the Loom Successor Liquidation Trust (“SLT”) and LePetomane III, Inc., as Trustee of the Fruit of the Loom Custodial Trust (“CT”), filed a motion for protective order and to determine the attorney-client privilege. For the reasons set forth below, defendants’ motion for protective order and to determine the attorney-client privilege is granted in part and denied in part and plaintiffs motion to compel is granted in part and denied in part.

Background

This case involves a $100,000,000 pollution legal liability insurance policy (“the Policy”) issued by AISLIC to Fruit of the Loom, Inc. (“Old FTL”) in 1998. The Policy covers seven contaminated properties (the “Seven Properties”) formerly owned by Old FTL or other affiliated corporations that have gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Plaintiff seeks a declaration that defendants are not entitled to coverage under the Policy. Defendants filed a counterclaim alleging that plaintiff is obligated to pay the full policy limit for remediation costs associated with the Seven Properties.

On December 29, 1999, Old FTL, NWI Land Management Corp. (“NWI”) and thirty affiliates (collectively, “the FTL debtors”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (“the FTL Bankruptcy”). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and several state environmental agencies filed proofs of claim in the bankruptcy proceedings, alleging that Old FTL owed them money for clean-up work conducted at several sites covered by the Policy.

The defendants in this action are among several successors of Old FTL to emerge from the FTL Bankruptcy. On March 19, 2002, the bankruptcy court confirmed the Third Amended Plan of Joint Reorganization (“the Joint Plan”). According to the Joint Plan, the successors of Old FTL after bankruptcy were: (1) the FTL Liquidation Trust, a/k/a the FOL Liquidation Trust; (2) the Unsecured Creditors Trust; (3) the NWI Successor, now known as the Successor Liquidation Trust (“SLT”); (4) the Custodial Trust (“CT”); (5) Reorganized Fruit of the Loom, which consisted of Reorganized Debtors, Newco and any successor; and (6) New-co, to which the Apparel Business Assets were transferred (referred to herein as “New FTL”).1

In or around April 2002, Old FTL and NWI entered into a settlement agreement (“the Environmental Settlement Agreement”) in the FTL Bankruptcy that resolved certain environmental claims. The Environmental Settlement Agreement provided that the Seven Properties would be transferred to the CT. The CT was created pursuant to the Joint Plan and the Custodial Trust Agreement to own the Seven Properties, carry out administrative functions regarding the Seven Properties and to manage and/or fund remedial actions on those properties. The SLT was created pursuant to the Joint Plan and the Successor Liquidation Trust Agreement to hold certain assets of NWI and Old FTL and to distribute its assets to provide funding to the CT. Old FTL changed its name to NWI-I and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SLT. The assets currently held by NWI-I consist of equity interests in NWI and certain insurance policies, including the Policy at issue in this litigation.

According to the Environmental Settlement Agreement, the SLT is the legal successor in interest to certain rights under the Policy. Furthermore, pursuant to the Successor Liquidation Trust Agreement, the assets transferred to the SLT include both the stock of NWI-I and the rights, claims, or interests of Old FTL or NWI under the contracts to be assumed and/or assumed and assigned by NWI and Old FTL to the SLT [404]*404(consisting of, among other insurance policies, the Policy at issue here).

Both the Custodial Trust Agreement and the Successor Liquidation Trust Agreement include a section entitled “Preservation of Privilege.” This section provides:

In connection with the rights, claims and causes of action that constitute the [Successor Liquidation Trust Assets or the Custodial Trust Assets], any attorney-client privilege, work-product privilege, or other privilege or immunity attaching to any documents or communications (whether written or oral) transferred to the [SLT or CT] shall vest in the [SLT or CT] and its representatives, and the Parties are authorized to take all necessary actions to effectuate the transfer of such privileges.

During the FTL Bankruptcy, the FTL debtors were represented by Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP (“Milbank”). Saul Ewing LLP (“Saul Ewing”) served as local counsel. After confirmation, Milbank represented the FOL Liquidation Trust. Milbank did not represent NWI-I or the SLT, except for a brief engagement representing the SLT, with permission of its client, for the limited purpose of clarifying a portion of the Joint Plan that Milbank had drafted.

Motion for Protective Order

In June 2006, plaintiff served subpoenas on the law firms that represented the FTL debtors in the bankruptcy proceedings. The subpoenas requested thirty-eight categories of documents. In early August 2006, Mil-bank contacted counsel for defendant NWI-I to advise her that Milbank had already produced some documents in response to plaintiffs subpoena but that it had withheld others on attorney-client privilege grounds. Counsel for NWI-I instructed Milbank to continue to assert all applicable privileges on behalf of NWI-I.

Counsel for defendants subsequently informed Milbank that based on the terms of the Joint Plan and the minimal assets that were transferred to NWI-I, she did not believe that NWI-I had “succeeded” to the attorney-client privilege between the FTL debtors and Milbank. However, while defense counsel did not believe that the preconfirmation attorney-client privilege between Milbank and the FTL debtors belonged to NWI-I after confirmation, she advised that it was possible that a privilege may belong to the SLT and the CT with respect to the assets transferred to them under the Successor Liquidation Trust Agreement and the Custodial Trust Agreement. Accordingly, defense counsel requested that Milbank continue to assert all applicable privileges for any documents that relate to Successor Liquidation Trust Assets and Custodial Trust Assets.

Defendants argue that it is unclear what attorney-client privilege, if any, exists between any of the defendants and Old FTL’s attorneys, both pre-bankruptcy and during the bankruptcy, specifically with respect to the Policy, the Seven Properties, the Environmental Settlement Agreement and the August 9, 2002 Order that are at issue in this litigation.2 Furthermore, defendants contend that it is not clear who holds the attorney-client privilege when, as was the case in the FTL Bankruptcy, a debtor’s assets are transferred to multiple successor entities. Therefore, defendants ask this Court to determine the extent of any attorney-client privilege held by the defendants, individually or collectively.

Defendants argue that this determination is pivotal to a proper evaluation of their ongoing obligations to respond to plaintiffs other discovery requests.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
240 F.R.D. 401, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3025, 2007 WL 98312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-international-specialty-lines-insurance-v-nwi-i-inc-ilnd-2007.