Campero USA Corp. v. ADS Foodservice, LLC

916 F. Supp. 2d 1284, 2012 WL 6838937, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184497
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedDecember 13, 2012
DocketCase No. 12-20571-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 916 F. Supp. 2d 1284 (Campero USA Corp. v. ADS Foodservice, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Campero USA Corp. v. ADS Foodservice, LLC, 916 F. Supp. 2d 1284, 2012 WL 6838937, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184497 (S.D. Fla. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION

CHRIS McALILEY, United States Magistrate Judge.

On November 7, 2012, I held a hearing on a motion to compel filed by Defendants ADS Foodservice LLC and its principal Aaron Spencer (collectively “Defendants”), and thereafter entered an Order that granted in part ADS’s motion. [DE 100]. At the hearing, - and later in the Order, I found that Plaintiff had failed to meet its obligation to establish that 19 emails, that are responsive to some of ADS’s discovery requests, are protected from disclosure by the attorney-client and/or the work product privileges. Accordingly, I ordered Plaintiff to produce those documents to Defendants. [Id. at ¶¶ 1(a) and (D ].

Plaintiff now asks that I reconsider and vacate that Order, and find that the documents in question are protected by privilege and therefore from discovery by Defendants. [See DE 103, Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration of Portions of the No[1286]*1286vember 18, 2012 [sic] Order Requiring Disclosure of Privileged Communications and/or for In Camera Inspection ]. The motion is fully briefed. [DE 107, 112]. For the following reasons, the motion is denied.

1. Background

a. The Complaint

Plaintiff Campero USA Corp. (“Campero”), the franchisor for Polio Campero restaurants, entered into a franchise agreement with Defendants, pursuant to which Defendants operated a Polio Campero restaurant. Defendants allegedly closed that restaurant in violation of the parties’ agreement and opened, in the same location, a competing restaurant. Plaintiff now sues Defendants for breach of the franchise agreement, and for infringing Plaintiffs trademarks, in violation of the Lanham Act; it additionally asserts claims against the Defendants for common law trademark infringement and unfair competition, and sues Spencer for breach of a personal guaranty. Plaintiff sues another defendant, Sonic (the franchisor for the allegedly competing restaurant), for tortious interference with the contractual relationship between Plaintiff and Defendants. As for jurisdiction, Plaintiff asserts federal question jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1338(b), supplemental jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367, and diversity jurisdiction, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. [See DE 50, Second Amended Complaint ].

b. Defendants’ motion to compel

On September 20, 2012, Defendants filed their Amended Motion to Compel Documents from Plaintiff. [DE 79], In that motion, Defendants challenged various objections Plaintiff made to Defendants’ document requests, including Plaintiffs objection that some of the responsive documents were protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine. In their motion, Defendants noted that Plaintiff had not provided Defendants with a privilege log, as required by S.D. Fla. Local Rule 26.1(g)(3)(C).

c.Plaintiffs response, and my two orders directing Plaintiff to meet its burden of proof to establish its privilege claims

On September 25, 2012, I issued an Order that directed the parties to meet and confer about the motion, and directed Plaintiff, thereafter, to file a response to the motion. [DE 80]. Noting that it appeared that Plaintiff would be asserting claims of privilege, I wrote this in my Order:

This Court notes that Plaintiff has raised the issues of attorney-client and work product privilege in response to many of Defendants’ document requests and that Defendants indicate Plaintiff has not produced a privilege log. Counsel is reminded that the party raising privilege has the burden of proving its applicability. See Bridgewater v. Carnival Corp., [286 F.R.D. 636] No. 10-CV-22241, 2011 WL 4383312 (S.D.Fla. Sept. 20, 2011). Plaintiff shall produce to Defendants its privilege log one business day in advance of the meet and confer. Counsel are ordered to fully discuss the scope of Defendants’ document requests, Plaintiffs objections to those requests including its claims of privilege, and the content of Plaintiffs privilege log. Plaintiff should attempt to satisfy Defendants’ questions about the claims of privilege, including providing additional information, which may include declarations and legal authority, to support and justify those claims.

[Id., p. 2, ¶ 1] (footnote and emphasis in original omitted). At the end of that Order, where I directed Plaintiff to file a response to the motion, I added the follow[1287]*1287ing: “I expect that Plaintiff in its response will fully meet its burden to support its claims of privilege. See Bridgewater, supra.” [DE 80, p. 3, ¶ 2] (hereafter, “September 25th Order”).1

The Bridgewater decision that I cited in my Order, is an opinion I wrote. In that opinion I surveyed, in considerable detail, the law that governs the burden of proof that a party must meet when it asserts a claim of privilege. Specifically, I wrote the following:

The party claiming a privilege has the burden of proving its applicability. Adelman v. BSA, 276 F.R.D. 681, 689-90 (S.D.Fla.2011). Federal courts have consistently recognized the well settled proposition that the party seeking the privilege has the burden of establishing all of its essential elements. In re Air Crash Near Cali, Colombia, 959 F.Supp. 1529, 1532 (S.D.Fla.1997) (quoting In re Air Crash Disaster at Sioux City, Iowa, 133 F.R.D. 515, 518 (N.D.Ill. 1990)). See also, United States v. Construction Prods., Research, Inc., 73 F.3d 464, 473-74 (2nd Cir.1996) (rejecting attorney-client and work product claims where the party claiming those privileges failed to establish the essential elements); In re Grand Jury Subpoenas, 318 F.3d 379, 384 (2nd Cir.2003) (collecting cases).

“A failure of proof as to any element causes the claim of privilege to fail.” North Carolina Elec. Membership Corp. v. Carolina Power & Light Co., 110 F.R.D. 511, 515 (M.D.N.C.1986). “That burden is not, of course, discharged by mere conclusory or ipse dixit assertions, for any such rule would foreclose meaningful inquiry into the existence of the relationship, and any spurious claims could never be exposed.” In re Bonanno, 344 F.2d 830, 833 (2nd Cir.1965). The party claiming the privilege must provide the court with underlying facts demonstrating the existence of the privilege, which may be accomplished by affidavit. United States v. Osborn, 561 F.2d 1334, 1339 (9th Cir.1977). “Unless the affidavit is precise to bring the document within the rule, the Court has no basis on which to weigh the applicability of the claim of privilege. An improperly asserted claim of privilege is no claim of privilege at all.”

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916 F. Supp. 2d 1284, 2012 WL 6838937, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campero-usa-corp-v-ads-foodservice-llc-flsd-2012.