Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Concrete Sales & Services

174 F.R.D. 506, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 43, 45 ERC (BNA) 1439, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11636, 1997 WL 450816
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 5, 1997
DocketNo. 5:95-cv-525-1 (WDO)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 174 F.R.D. 506 (Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Concrete Sales & Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Concrete Sales & Services, 174 F.R.D. 506, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 43, 45 ERC (BNA) 1439, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11636, 1997 WL 450816 (M.D. Ga. 1997).

Opinion

ORDER

OWENS, District Judge.

Defendant Frances M. Coody and Timothy A. McCord, as Trustees for the irrevocable Trust of T.A. McCord, Jr. (“the Trustees”), have filed a motion to compel plaintiff-Briggs & Stratton Corporation (“Briggs”) to disclose and produce documents and other tangible items. The Trustees served plaintiff with a request for production of documents requesting all correspondence and documentation to and from the environmental consultants used at the Peach Metal Industries (“PMI”) site and Briggs or its attorneys, as well as the supporting documentation for the legal bills and services performed by Briggs’ attorneys or its engineers.

Briggs & Stratton have filed a response in opposition, asserting that the documents are protected by the privilege against disclosure of work product. It has produced two privilege logs which provide a subject matter description of each of the withheld items and describe the reason for the claimed privilege as to each item. Part A of the privilege log relates to documents from the files of Briggs’ legal counsel, Quarles & Brady and Trout-man Sanders, while Part B relates to documents obtained from the files of its environmental consultant, the Radian Corporation.

A telephone conference was conducted in this matter, and it was determined that discovery would be stayed pending the court’s in camera review of the documents in question. On August 4, 1997, this court signed a consent order and stipulation of counsel concerning defendants’ motion “to compel, in which it was ordered and agreed that Briggs would produce certain documents identified in Exhibit A and Exhibit B with the stipulation that said production shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any of the remaining documents to which Briggs claims privilege. The court has now reviewed each of the remaining documents for which Briggs claims it is entitled to the work product privilege. Based upon such review, the Court finds that the remaining withheld documents are work product generated in anticipation of litigation and that Briggs is consequently entitled to shield them from discovery.

The work product exception as set out in Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(3) provides:

A party may obtain discovery of documents and tangible things otherwise discoverable ... and prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial by or for another party or by or for that other party’s representative (including the other party’s attorney, consultant, surety, indemnitor, insurer or agent) only upon a showing that the party seeking discovery has substantial need of the materials in the preparation of the party’s case and that the party is unable to obtain the substantial equivalent of the materials by other means.

The work product doctrine originated in the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947), and was subsequently codified in the Rule. The protection from discovery of documents classified as work product is only a qualified immunity. Lott v. Seaboard Systems Railroad, Inc., 109 F.R.D. 554, 557 (S.D.Ga.1985). In order to come within the protection of Rule 26(b)(3) the materials must have been prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial. The materials need not have been prepared by an attorney, however: work product protection extends to materials prepared by or for a representative of a party, including his agent or consultants, so long as they are prepared in anticipation of litigation. Id. at 556. In claiming the protection of the rule against disclosure of work product, it is sufficient that the materials have been produced in preparation for likely litigation, whether or not a trial ultimately takes place. United States v. Davis, 636 F.2d 1028, 1040 (5th Cir. Feb.12, 1981); McMahon v. Eastern Steam[509]*509ship Lines, Inc., 129 F.R.D. 197, 198 (S.D.Fla.1989). However, materials produced in the ordinary course of business and without contemplation of litigation are not privileged. Id.

The Trustees assert that the withheld documents are discoverable because they were prepared in the ordinary course of business. They argue that since the withheld documents relate to actions taken by Briggs’ environmental consultants to clean up the PMI site pursuant to a Section 106 Order issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the documents were not produced in contemplation of litigation. The Trustees also argue that some of the withheld documents are not confidential because the Section 106 Order issued by the EPA required Briggs & Stratton to preserve all records developed pursuant to the implementation of the order for at least six years. Additionally, the Trustees claim that Briggs waived any privilege by entering into the “Phase I Agreement” between Briggs and the Trust, which required Briggs to make available to the Trustees all sampling results, test results, inventories, survey work, and other data generated during the implementation of the work plan.

Briggs & Stratton argues that because of the nature of actions under CERCLA all the withheld documents were generated in contemplation of litigation. In situations involving environmental cleanups the strong prospect of future litigation arises at the time potentially responsible parties are identified. For example, in Bituminous Casualty Corporation v. Tonka Corporation, 140 F.R.D. 381 (D.Minn.1992), the court upheld the assertion of work product privilege, finding that any documents which were generated after the state pollution control agency requested an initial investigation were generated in anticipation of litigation with the agency. The Tonka court reasoned that “any action that a company takes in response to the [agency’s] requests before and after designation of responsible party status are ... made under the strong prospect of future litigation over issues such as the propriety of the designation of responsible party status, the scope of the clean up and the adequacy of the clean up.” Tonka, 140 F.R.D. at 389. This reasoning is persuasive. The documents in the instant case were generated by Briggs’ personnel, consultants, and attorneys during the course of responding to the EPA Order requiring cleanup of the PMI site. The documents were not produced voluntarily or for any business purpose which existed apart from the EPA order. Briggs and its agents were faced with the threat of daily fines and possible recovery of several times costs if the EPA ultimately undertook to clean up the site itself. Because of the extensive costs involved in the clean-up and the possibility of identifying other potentially responsible parties to share in the costs, it is reasonable to conclude that litigation was contemplated against any other potentially responsible party from the time of issuance of the EPA order.

Neither the Phase I Agreement with the Trustees nor the EPA’s requirement of preservation of all documents relating to the clean-up for six years defeats the confidentiality of the withheld documents. As to the Phase I clean-up agreement, Briggs does not claim privilege with respect to the factual information contained in the withheld documents.

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174 F.R.D. 506, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 43, 45 ERC (BNA) 1439, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11636, 1997 WL 450816, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/briggs-stratton-corp-v-concrete-sales-services-gamd-1997.