Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

177 F.R.D. 491, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21232, 1997 WL 812480
District Court, D. Kansas·Decided December 23, 1997·No. No. 94-2202-JWL·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LUNGSTRUM, District Judge.

This matter is presently before the court on a motion by defendant R.J. Reynolds (RJR) for review of the orders by which Magistrate Judge Ronald C. Newman ruled on plaintiff’s motion to compel (Doc. 286). Plaintiff originally moved to compel production by RJR of 33 documents related to Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) special projects (Doc. 214). By Memorandum and Order filed May 1, 1996, this court ordered an in camera review of the documents pursuant to the attorney-client privilege and work-product immunity doctrines, and it referred the motion to compel to Magistrate Judge Newman (Doc. 245). Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 167 F.R.D. 134 (D.Kan. 1996). On February 3,1997, Judge Newman issued a Memorandum and Order finding that only one of the documents, Tab 4, was privileged and ordering production of the remaining documents (Doc. 263). Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 170 F.R.D. 481 (D.Kan.1997). On August 15, 1997, Judge Newman denied RJR’s motion for reconsideration (Doc. 283). Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 175 F.R.D. 321 (D.Kan.1997).

RJR now moves this court for review of Judge Newman’s orders with respect to 30 of the documents.1 For the reasons set forth below, the court grants the motion for review in part and denies it in part. The motion is granted with respect to the redacted portion of Tab 9, which the court finds is protected by the attorney-client privilege. The motion is denied with respect to the other documents at issue, and the court orders that those documents be produced.2

I. Standard of Review

A district court’s review of a magistrate’s orders as to non-dispositive pretrial matters is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A). Under that provision, the district court does not conduct a de novo review; rather, the court applies a more deferential standard by which the moving party must show that the magistrate’s order is “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.” Id.; Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(a); Hutchinson v. Pfeil, 105 F.3d 562, 566 (10th Cir.), cert, denied, — U.S. —, 118 S.Ct. 298, 139 L.Ed.2d 230 (1997); Ocelot Oil Corp. v. Sparrow Indus., 847 F.2d 1458, 1462 (10th Cir. 1988). The clearly erroneous standard “requires that the reviewing court affirm unless it on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” Ocelot Oil, 847 F.2d at 1464 (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 541-42, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)); see also Smith v. MCI Telecommunications Corp., 137 F.R.D. 25, 27 (D.Kan.1991) (“Because a magistrate is afforded broad discretion in the resolution of nondispositive discovery disputes, the court will generally grant the magistrate great deference and overrule the magistrate’s determination only if this discretion is clearly abused.”)3

[495]*495II. Scope of Referral

RJR first argues that Judge Newman’s orders improperly exceeded the scope of the referral from this court. Specifically, RJR contends that the magistrate should not have considered whether the documents were protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product immunity, and that his review was confined to the crime-fraud issue and determining whether the documents contain evidence that RJR had knowledge that nicotine was addictive and failed to disclose such information. RJR argues that this court has already ruled, by way of its May 1, 1996 order, that the documents are privileged.

RJR is mistaken with respect to the scope of the referral. In its prior order, the court referred the entire motion to compel to the magistrate to determine whether the documents should be produced. The court did not irrevocably determine that the documents are privileged. The court only rejected plaintiffs general argument that the documents were not privileged because scientists and scientific issues were involved. The court specifically rejected that argument “based on evidence available at [that] time.” The court had not reviewed the particular documents, and it was therefore forced to rely on the representations of RJR’s counsel concerning the nature of the documents.

The court acknowledges that its prior order was not especially clear in this regard. Specifically, the court stated:

As a result [of the court’s finding of a prima facie ease of fraud], the court deems it necessary to conduct an in camera review of Defendant Reynolds’ 33 allegedly privileged CTR Documents to determine whether any of them indicate that the defendants knew during the relevant time period that nicotine was addictive and failed to disclose that information despite the CTR’s public representation that it would make such disclosures to the public.

RJR relies on this passage in arguing that the in camera review of the documents — and thus, the scope of the court’s referral to the magistrate — was limited. The court cleared up any possible confusion about the scope of the referral, however, at a telephone conference on RJR’s motion for reconsideration of the court’s May 1, 1996 order. The conference was conducted on the record on June 17, 1996. In that conference, the court explained that the magistrate would determine the manner in which the parties could present additional argument. The court then clarified that the entire motion to compel, including the issue of the privileged status of the documents, was before the magistrate. The court stated:

[A]gain, the issues of whether the documents were privileged at all, that is, whether they actually constituted advice to a client, for example, or whether they constituted work-product type information, was dealt with [in the prior order] only in generalities, in terms of accepting the representation of [RJR] that that’s what these documents were and rejecting, the Plaintiffs position that, for example, law and science don’t mix or the fact that lawyers were somehow involved automatically disqualifies these documents from protection. At this stage, the motion is in front of the Magistrate____

In addressing the scope of the referral in his second order, Judge Newman noted the court’s statements in the telephone conference, the court’s referral of the entire motion, and the court’s having ruled only generally on the issue of privilege without having seen the documents and relying solely on counsel’s representations. The magistrate correctly concluded that this court did not intend to foreclose consideration of whether the documents were protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product immunity in the first place.

RJR also argues that the magistrate’s consideration of the existence of the privilege or immunity went beyond the issues raised by plaintiff in his motion to compel.

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Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 177 F.R.D. 491, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21232, 1997 WL 812480 (D. Kan. 1997).

177 F.R.D. 491 (Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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