Anderson v. Torrington Co.

120 F.R.D. 82, 10 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1252, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13377, 46 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,998, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 935, 1987 WL 45818
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedNovember 24, 1987
DocketNo. S85-483
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 120 F.R.D. 82 (Anderson v. Torrington Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Torrington Co., 120 F.R.D. 82, 10 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1252, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13377, 46 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,998, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 935, 1987 WL 45818 (N.D. Ind. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MILLER, District Judge.

This cause comes before the court on Irving Vinson’s motion to quash portions of the subpoena duces tecum served upon him, a non-party, by defendant The Torrington Company. For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the attorney-client protects most, and the work-product privilege protects all, of the documents sought by the subpoena. Accordingly, the court grants the motion for a protective order.

I.

This litigation arises from Torrington's April 30, 1984 closing of its South Bend plant. The plaintiffs are former Torrington employees. Some of the plaintiffs were members of Local 590, the bargaining representative, at the Torrington plant. Local 590 is affiliated with the International Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW. The law firm of Segal & Macy of Indianapolis represents the plaintiffs in this action and also represents the UAW. The UAW is not a party to this action.

In Count I of their amended complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Torrington closed the South Bend plant because of the plant’s disproportionately older work force, in order to create a younger work force and greatly reduce the number of older workers in its total work place, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. In Count II, the plaintiffs allege that by the closing of the South Bend plant and terminating the plaintiffs’ employment, Torrington deprived the plaintiffs of the pension and benefit plans contained in prior collective bargaining agreements in violatipn of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461. Class certification as to Count II was granted on September 23, 1987.

Torrington served upon Irving Vinson, the UAW’s subregional representative, a notice of records deposition and subpoena duces tecum on August 19, 1987. The provision in dispute is paragraph 3 of the subpoena duces tecum that requests the following:

All correspondence between the UAW, including its agents and employees, and employees or members of the law firm of Segal & Macy ... which correspondence includes communications dealing with or discussing that law firm’s representation of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Mr. Vinson moves to partially quash the subpoena duces tecum or, in the alternative, to issue a protective order with respect to production of certain documents requested in paragraph 3.

II.

Mr. Vinson raises two issues in his motion to quash or, in the alternative, for the issuance of a protective order:

A. Whether the documents sought to be discovered fall within the parameters of the attorney-client privilege making the items immune from discovery; and
B. Whether the requested documents constitute an attorney’s work product thereby requiring the party requesting discovery to demonstrate substantial need and undue hardship.

Mr. Vinson contends that paragraph 3 requests privileged attorney-client communication that is exempt from discovery. [85]*85The UAW is the international union of which all plaintiffs were members. The firm of Segal & Macy represents the UAW and, through that representation, also has represented the plaintiffs in other litigation arising from the South Bend plant’s closing. For these reasons, Mr. Vinson argues that a “community of interest” exists between the plaintiffs and the UAW. The documents requested resulted from communications between Segal & Macy and the UAW concerning the representation of, the plaintiffs, and accordingly, Mr. Vinson maintains, are privileged and exempt from discovery due to the attorney-client privilege.

Mr. Vinson also argues that the work-product provisions of Rule 26(b)(3) protect the communications between Segal & Macy and the UAW. He argues that Torrington has not put forth the requisite showing of substantial need and undue hardship to meet the burden established in Rule 26(b)(3).

Torrington argues that Mr. Vinson failed to meet the burden of identifying each document which he claims to be privileged or protected by the work-product doctrine and specifying the bases of the objection for each document. Without this prima facie showing that the materials sought fall within the protection of the attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, discovery should be granted.

A.

Mr. Vinson claims protection of the attorney-client privilege under Rule 26(b)(1). The parties agree that “privilege” under Rule 26 means privilege as determined by the Federal Rules of Evidence. United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 6, 73 S.Ct. 528, 531, 97 L.Ed. 727 (1953). At least when federal law provides the rule of decision, the contours and exceptions of such privileges contained in Federal Rule of Evidence 501 are a matter of federal common law. In re Pebsworth, 705 F.2d 261, 262 (7th Cir.1983), citing United States v. Craig, 528 F.2d 773, 776 (7th Cir.1976), aff'd en banc per curiam 537 F.2d 957 (7th Cir.1976). The plaintiffs’ complaint raises issues under ADEA and ERISA and therefore as federal questions demand analysis under federal common law.

Mr. Vinson first makes a blanket claim of privilege as to all documents requested in paragraph 3 of the subpoena duces tecum. He relies upon the community interest the UAW shares with the plaintiffs in this litigation. This community of interest, he argues, arises from the plaintiffs’ membership in the UAW while employed by Torrington: the UAW represented the plaintiffs’ interests in administrative and other judicial matters arising from the closing of Torrington’s South Bend plant, and asserts a vital interest in protecting its members’ right with respect to their former employment with Torrington.

The attorney-client privilege is to be confined strictly within the narrowest possible limits consistent with the logic of its principle. United States v. Weger, 709 F.2d 1151, 1154 (7th Cir.1983). In this circuit, one claiming the attorney-client privilege may not proffer blanket assertions to protect an entire file:

The limitation surrounding any information sought must be determined for each document separately considered on a case by case basis.

Hamed v. General Acc. Ins. Co., 112 F.R.D. 213, 215 (N.D.Ind.1986), citing Federal Trade Commission v. Shaffner, 626 F.2d 32, 37 (7th Cir.1980); Radiant Burners, Inc. v. American Gas Ass’n,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Gumbaytay
276 F.R.D. 671 (M.D. Alabama, 2011)
United States v. Johnson
378 F. Supp. 2d 1041 (N.D. Iowa, 2005)
Basf Aktiengesellschaft v. Reilly Industries, Inc.
224 F.R.D. 438 (S.D. Indiana, 2004)
Robinson v. Texas Automobile Dealers Ass'n
214 F.R.D. 432 (E.D. Texas, 2003)
Draus v. Healthtrust, Inc.
172 F.R.D. 384 (S.D. Indiana, 1997)
National Tank Co. v. Brotherton
851 S.W.2d 193 (Texas Supreme Court, 1993)
Data General Corp. v. Grumman Systems Support Corp.
139 F.R.D. 556 (D. Massachusetts, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 F.R.D. 82, 10 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1252, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13377, 46 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,998, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 935, 1987 WL 45818, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-torrington-co-innd-1987.