Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal Associates

154 F.R.D. 97, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8766, 1994 WL 141051
District Court, D. New Jersey·Decided March 30, 1994·No. Civ. No. 91-3529 (SSB)·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ROSEN, United States Magistrate Judge.

Presently before this court is the motion of Richard G. Phillips, Esquire, attorney for the plaintiffs Dorothea A Arcuri, et al. (the “Arcuri plaintiffs”) for an order compelling discovery from and for the imposition of sanctions upon the defendant Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (“Local 54”) for failing to either produce witnesses for noticed depositions, or to seek a protective order preventing their attendance. These two consolidated actions concern the transfer of beverage serving employees to the newly-opening Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey (The “Taj”) in early 1990, from the existing Trump Castle, Plaza and Regency Casinos, and the ensuing seniority disputes which developed between various groups of employees, the employer, and Local 54.1 Local 54 represents all the beverage serving employees employed at the Trump casinos.

I. Facts and Procedural History.

The complaint in Polonsky v. Trump Taj Mahal was filed on June 10, 1991 in the [99]*99Atlantic County Superior Court, and subsequently removed to the District Court. A second amended complaint was filed in Polonsky on June 2, 1992. The complaint in Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal was filed on August 7, 1991, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent Local 54 from seeking the reopening of a December 8, 1990 arbitration award (the “arbitration” or “arbitration award”). On August 9, 1991 the court granted a temporary restraint, but dismissed the motion following a hearing on August 23, 1991. On December 28, 1992, the Polonsky and Arcuri matters were consolidated for all purposes.

Following the May 1990 opening of the Taj, plaintiffs have alleged, it refused to recognize the seniority status of the employees transferred from the Trump Regency, and placed them behind employees transferred from the other Trump casinos.2 In these actions, Local 54 is accused of “breaching the duty of fair representation that [it] owed” to the plaintiffs. The seniority issue of the employees was the subject of arbitration in September 1990 before Richard J. Kasher (the “arbitrator”), who in. his December 8, 1990 award, sustained Local 54’s grievance, and found that Trump “failed to give proper recognition to the past service credit” of the transferred Regency employees. Defendant’s Memorandum of Law in Opposition (“Defendant’s Memo”), at 3. The reception to and the acceptability of the arbitration award to the various parties in this matter is disputed, but it appears that there existed certain disagreements. See Defendant’s Memo, at 3.

What occurred subsequent to the December 8,1990 arbitration award, with respect to its implementation, or the failure to implement the award, is seriously in dispute. It is this dispute which provides the foundation for the instant controversies, and the current motion to compel discovery. On December 19, 1990, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil action under the RICO statute against Local 54, its local officials, and officials of its international. United States v. Hanley, et al., Civil No. 90-5017 (D.N.J.). A consent decree between the parties to the DOJ suit was approved by Judge Garrett E. Brown, Jr. on April 12, 1991, and on April 19, 1991, pursuant to the decree, James F. Flanagan, III, Esquire, was appointed to act as monitor for Local 54.

Flanagan subsequently retained Howard S. Simonoff, Esquire, and Robert F. O’Brien, of Tomar, Simonoff, Andourian & O’Brien, as counsel for Local 54.

Central to the dispute in this matter, and to the deposition testimony sought by plaintiffs in this motion to compel, are the questions of whether and when Local 54 and/or its representatives sought to reopen the arbitrator’s award, whether Local 54 breached a duty of fair representation to its members, and whether Local 54 sought to prevent or delay the “rebid” of jobs.

The instant motion to compel discovery and for sanctions was filed by the Arcuri plaintiffs on December 22, 1993, seeking the continued deposition of Flanagan, and the depositions of Simonoff and O’Brien. In its opposition filed on January 12,1994, Local 54 made application for a protective order barring the discovery sought by the plaintiffs.

II. The Motion to Compel Discovery from Local 54.

The Arcuri plaintiffs have filed this discovery motion in order to compel further deposition testimony from James Flanagan, III, objected to and prevented by counsel at the original Flanagan deposition, and to compel the depositions of Howard Simonoff, Esquire, and Robert O’Brien, Esquire. The plaintiffs seek, in summary, to secure deposition testimony as follows:

From Howard S. Simonoff, Esquire: Concerning “his conversations with the Taj employees, officers and agents concerning the Union’s request that the Taj refrain from conducting a rebid and the factual and legal basis the Union had for making such requests.” Plaintiffs Motion to Compel, at 6.

[100]*100From Robert F. O’Brien, Esquire: Concerning “the nature of his investigation into the arbitration, the results of his investigation into the arbitration, the information that he relayed to Flanagan relating either to the nature or the results of his investigation into the arbitration and any doubts that he expressed, to anyone, including, but not limited to, Flanagan, as to the merits of the claims which were causing the Union to reopen the arbitration and/or the doubts expressed by him that if the arbitration was reopened the award would change.” Plaintiffs Motion, at 6.

From James F. Flanagan, III, Esquire: Concerning “the meaning and/or intent of his April 6, 1992 letter, and to respond to questions about any of the areas” to be inquired into of Simonoff and O’Brien “to which he has knowledge.” Plaintiffs Motion, at 6.

In summary, the defendant has objected to the sought deposition testimony on three grounds:

(1) that it is covered by the attorney-client privilege and thus non-discoverable;

(2) that, to the extent any information sought is not privileged, the plaintiff has failed to make the required showing to justify deposition of an adverse counsel, as articulated by the Hon. Jerome B. Simandle in Johnston Development Group, Inc. v. Carpenters Local Union No. 1578, 130 F.R.D. 348 (D.N.J.1990); and

(3) that Flanagan’s status as court-appointed monitor, and his “adjudicative” efforts as a “quasi-judicial” officer to work out the Arcuri-Polonsky dispute, forbids any inquiry into his “thought processes.”

III. Analysis.

The primacy of defendant’s objections to the production of Flanagan, Simonoff and O’Brien, upon the indicated subject matter, is the attorney-client privilege. Additionally, defendant objects on the grounds that plaintiff has not satisfied the requirements articulated in Johnston Development to warrant the “extraordinary step of deposing adversary counsel” as to any non-privileged areas of inquiry, and that Flanagan’s thought processes may not be inquired into as he was acting as a “quasi-judicial” officer.

A. The Attorney-Client Privilege.

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Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal Associates, 154 F.R.D. 97, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8766, 1994 WL 141051 (D.N.J. 1994).

154 F.R.D. 97 (Arcuri v. Trump Taj Mahal Associates) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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