Bloomingburg Jewish Education Center v. Village of Bloomingburg

171 F. Supp. 3d 136, 2016 WL 1069956, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35192
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 18, 2016
Docket14-cv-7250 (KBF)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 171 F. Supp. 3d 136 (Bloomingburg Jewish Education Center v. Village of Bloomingburg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bloomingburg Jewish Education Center v. Village of Bloomingburg, 171 F. Supp. 3d 136, 2016 WL 1069956, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35192 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

KATHERINE B. FORREST, District Judge:

This action involves allegations that Ha-sidic Jews who have been moving into the Village of Bloomingburg, Sullivan County, New York, have been met with determined and concerted resistance by the local governments and public officials of the Village of Bloomingburg and the Town of Mama-kating. Plaintiffs assert claims for violation of their rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the Fair Housing Act, and New York state law. This action was initiated in September 2014, and discovery is set to close on May 31, 2016. Trial is scheduled to commence on September 6, 2016. This decision assumes familiarity with the parties, the underlying facts, and the procedural history of this case.

On February 23, 2016, plaintiffs filed a letter motion seeking to overrule the Town Defendants’ blanket objections to a subpoena that plaintiffs served upon non-party West End Strategy (“West End”), a public relations and communications strategy firm hired at the behest of the Town Defendants’ counsel in a related action, and to compel West End and/or the Town Defendants to produce responsive non-privileged documents and a privilege log. (Pis.’ Ltr., ECF No. 199.) Plaintiffs argue that, because defendants’ motivations are directly at issue in this case, materials reflecting the Town Defendants’ actions, public relations strategy and any factual basis for the Town Defendants’ now-dismissed RICO suit, see Town of Mamakating v. Lamm (“Lamm”), 15-cv-2865 (KBF) (S.D.N.Y.), are relevant to plaintiffs’ claims here.

The Town Defendants responded to plaintiffs’ letter on March 3, 2016, standing by their broad objections to production of any communications in response to the subpoena (Defs.’ Ltr. Resp., ECF No. 202); that same day, West End submitted its own response objecting to the subpoena on grounds of undue burden (West End’s Ltr. Resp., ECF No. 203). The Town Defendants’ letter asserts that the requested documents and communications are protected by the attorney-client and work-product privileges because West End was hired at the behest of the Town Defendants’ counsel in the Lamm action to assist in litigation strategy for the purpose of conveying legal advice and planning litigation. While the Town Defendants agree to produce non-privileged documents that are not “communications,” they argue that they should not even be required to collect, review, or create a privilege log for'communications among West End, the Town and Village, and their counsel based on their view that the vast majority of communications are privileged and, as a result, the burden of reviewing and logging such records greatly outweighs any potential benefit.

The Town Defendants’ position is sweeping and rather brazen. They ask plaintiffs and this Court to rely on their broad rep[140]*140resentations that the attorney-client and work-product privileges apply to communications with an outside public relations consultant without doing any of the necessary basic work to show that the privileges apply to particular documents on the facts and circumstances presented here. They concede that they have not collected, reviewed or logged the communications at issue, and thus have failed to meet their burden of showing that any of the documents or communications are entitled to protection under the attorney-client or work-product privileges. Beyond the fact that no principle of law supports the Town Defendants’ blanket invocation of privilege as to all communications with an outside public relations firm, and in the absence of any competent evidence sufficient to meet the Town Defendants’ burden of showing that either privilege applies, the Court is left without any basis to find that the Town Defendants have made the compelling case necessary to warrant quashing plaintiffs’ subpoena.

For the reasons set forth below, plaintiffs’ motion is GRANTED. The Town Defendants’ objections are overruled, and the Town Defendants and/or West End are hereby ordered to immediately produce all documents responsive to plaintiffs’ subpoena. As to the issues of burden and expense, the parties shall proceed in the manner set forth in the body of this decision.

I. LEGAL STANDARDS

A. Attorney-Client Privilege

“The attorney-client privilege protects communications (1) between a client and his or her attorney (2) that are intended to be, and in fact were, kept confidential (3) for the purpose of obtaining or providing legal advice.” United States v. Mejia, 655 F.3d 126, 132 (2d Cir.2011). The purpose of the privilege “is to encourage full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote broader public interests in the observance of law and administration of justice.” Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 389, 101 S.Ct. 677, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981). “In order to balance this protection of confidentiality with the competing value of public disclosure, however, courts apply the privilege only where necessary to achieve its purpose and construe the privilege narrowly because it renders relevant information undiseovera-ble.” Mejia, 655 F.3d at 132 (quotation marks and alterations omitted). Because the privilege “stands in derogation of the search for truth so essential to the effective operation of any system for justice ... the privilege must be narrowly construed.” Calvin Klein Trademark Trust v. Wachner, 198 F.R.D, 53, 55 (S.D.N.Y.2000) (citing United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 710, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974)). “The party asserting the privilege ... bears the burden of establishing its essential elements.” Mejia, 655 F.3d at 132; see also Wultz v. Bank of China Ltd., 304 F.R.D. 384, 391 (S.D.N.Y.2015) (“The party invoking the privilege also has the burden to show that the privilege has not been waived.”).

As a general matter, “[a] party that shares otherwise privileged communications with an outsider is deemed to waive the privilege by disabling itself from claiming that the communications were intended to be confidential.” Schaeffler v. United States, 806 F.3d 34, 40 (2d Cir.2015). “Under certain circumstances, however, the privilege for communication with attorneys can extend to shield communications to others when the purpose of the communication is to assist the attorney in rendering advice to the client.” United States v. Adlman, 68 F.3d 1495, 1499 (2d Cir.1995); see also Green v. Beer, No. 06 Civ. 4156 (KMWXJCF), 2010 WL 3422723, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 24, 2010) (stating [141]*141that the exception to waiver rule requires the party asserting the privilege to establish that disclosure to a third party “was necessary for the client to obtain informed legal advice,” which “requires that the involvement of the third party be nearly indispensable or serve some specialized purpose in facilitating the attorney-client communication”). The privilege may be extended when it is the lawyer himself who “needs outside help” to convey legal advice. In re Grand Jury Subpoenas Dated March 24, 2003, 265 F.Supp.2d 321, 326 (S.D.N.Y.2003). For instance, in United States v.

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171 F. Supp. 3d 136, 2016 WL 1069956, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bloomingburg-jewish-education-center-v-village-of-bloomingburg-nysd-2016.