Brown v. St. Joseph County

148 F.R.D. 246, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5283, 1993 WL 125151
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedApril 12, 1993
DocketNo. S90-221 (P)
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 148 F.R.D. 246 (Brown v. St. Joseph County) 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
Brown v. St. Joseph County, 148 F.R.D. 246, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5283, 1993 WL 125151 (N.D. Ind. 1993).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

PIERCE, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff, James Leslie Brown, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging, among other things, that the defendants violated his constitutional rights by failing to provide him with adequate medical care while he was a pre-trial detainee at the St. Joseph County Jail (“the Jail”). The defendants include St. Joseph County; Joseph F. Nagy, the County Sheriff; Frank Canarecci, Assistant Chief of the St. Joseph County Police Department; John Dombrowski, former Sergeant of the Department; Dr. Hansel O. Foley, a contract physician at the Jail (collectively the “County defendants”); Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Inc. d/b/a Memorial Staffing and Home Care Services (“Memorial”), which contracted with the County to provide nursing and healthcare services for Jail inmates; and “Nurse [Iris] Van Deventer,” Memorial’s head nurse at the Jail. Before the court are two motions by Memorial. The first, which has been joined in by the County defendants, seeks to suppress an affidavit obtained by one of Mr. Brown’s attorneys from a former Memorial employee, Mary Grabe Podemski, and to bar her testimony. The second, joined in only by Dr. Foley, asks that Mr. Brown’s counsel be disqualified for alleged ethical violations. [248]*248Also before the court is a combined petition by plaintiff seeking reconsideration of this court’s Order of October 7, 1992, which prohibited plaintiffs counsel from engaging in ex parte contacts with former or present Memorial employees. For the reasons which follow, Memorial’s motions will be denied, and the court’s previous Order concerning ex parte contacts will be vacated.

Background

Mr. Brown was incarcerated at the Jail from July 26, 1989 through January 5, 1990, although his present action is primarily concerned with events occurring over the seven-day period from July 26 through August 2, 1989. During that time, Mrs. Podemski, a licensed practical nurse employed by Memorial, was assigned to the Jail pursuant to Memorial’s contract to provide healthcare services for Jail inmates. She terminated her employment with Memorial on May 27, 1990.

Mr. Brown’s original pro se complaint, filed on May 18, 1990, named only St. Joseph County and Sheriff Nagy as defendants. Counsel later appeared for Mr. Brown and, on August 31, 1990, he was granted leave to file an amended complaint expanding his claims against St. Joseph County and Sheriff Nagy, but adding no new defendants.

In late 1990 or early 1991, after Mrs. Po-demski had terminated her employment with Memorial, one of Mr. Brown’s attorneys, Lance Wittry, contacted her by telephone. Mr. Wittry subsequently interviewed Mrs. Podemski in South Bend on February 1, 1991. On June 24, 1991, Mr. Brown was granted leave to file a second amended complaint which added defendants Canarecci, Dombrowski, Memorial, Foley and Van De-venter.

On September 11, 1992, Mr. Wittry contacted and made arrangements to meet with Karen Molnar, a nurse formerly employed by Memorial, who worked at the Jail in July, 1989. He later received a letter dated September 11, 1992, from Memorial’s Attorney, D. Andrew Spalding, objecting to his contact with Ms. Molnar, asserting that his actions violated Rule 4.2 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and indicating that Ms. Molnar had been advised not to speak to him under any circumstances.

Mr. Wittry subsequently forwarded a proposed affidavit to Mrs. Podemski, along with a cover letter dated September 14, 1992, asking that she sign the affidavit if she found it to be true and complete, and return it to Mr. Wittry as soon as possible. On September 16, 1992, Mr. Wittry, on behalf of the plaintiff, filed a motion seeking court permission to engage in informal, ex parte contacts with Ms. Molnar, and another motion on September 28, 1992, requesting court authorization to have similar contacts with present Memorial employees. Memorial responded to Mr. Wittry’s motions on October 5, 1992, asserting that it would be improper for Mr. Wittry to contact any of its past or present employees. According to Memorial, all such employees were considered “parties” for purposes of Rule 4.2, and were also “represented by counsel,” by virtue of the fact that Memorial’s liability insurer had retained Mr. Spald-ing’s law firm to represent all former and present Memorial employees insured under its policy. On the strength of these representations, the court denied Mr. Wittry’s motions on October 7, 1992, and barred him from engaging in ex parte communications with any past or present Memorial employees whose employment included the treatment of persons at the Jail.

The parties later agreed to schedule the depositions of current and past Memorial employees, including Mrs. Podemski. On November 10, 1992, Mr. Spalding met with Mrs. Podemski to discuss her upcoming deposition. During their conversation, she informed him that she had previously met with Mr. Wittry and that he had asked her questions about the nursing policies, procedures and practices at the Jail. On or about November 11, 1992, Mr. Spalding contacted Mr. Wittry, advised him that he was concerned about Mr. Wittry’s ex parte contact with Mrs. Podemski, and requested that he voluntarily withdraw from the case. Mr. Wittry confirmed that he had met with Mrs. Podem-ski, but disagreed that his contact was improper or that there were any grounds for his disqualification.

[249]*249Between November 11 and November 16, 1992, Mr. Spalding and Mr. Wittry discussed a proposed stipulation whereby Mr. Brown would agree to forego any claim that Memorial’s practices and customs resulted in a violation of his constitutional rights. Mr. Spalding claims that during one of their conversations he asked Mr. Wittry if he had any statements from Mary Podemski, and that Mr. Wittry responded: “No. All I have are a few notes and I can’t find them right now.” (Spalding Affidavit of Dec. 30, 1992, p. 3.) Mr. Wittry recalls no such inquiry by Mr. Spalding and therefore concludes that the conversation did not occur. (Wittry Affidavit of Jan. 14, 1993, p. 24.) The stipulation was signed prior to the commencement of Mrs. Podemski’s deposition on November 17, 1992.

During the course of Mrs. Podemski’s deposition, Mr. Wittry produced her affidavit. At that point, Mr. Spalding advised Mr. Wit-try that he never would have agreed to the deposition if he had known of the existence of the affidavit, stated that the stipulation which had been signed earlier was no longer in effect, and indicated that he was reserving his right to seek disqualification of both Mr. Wittry and Mrs. Podemski. The present motions followed.

Discussion

In accordance with Local Rule DE-IV, this court must apply the Rules of Professional Conduct adopted by the Supreme Court of Indiana. Effective January 1, 1987, the Supreme Court of Indiana adopted Rule 4.2 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, as Rule 4.2 of the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct.1 That Rule provides:

In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a party the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized by law to do so.

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Bluebook (online)
148 F.R.D. 246, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5283, 1993 WL 125151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-st-joseph-county-innd-1993.