Cedrone v. Unity Savings Ass'n

103 F.R.D. 423, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22028
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 14, 1984
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 82-811, 82-2838
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 103 F.R.D. 423 (Cedrone v. Unity Savings Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cedrone v. Unity Savings Ass'n, 103 F.R.D. 423, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22028 (E.D. Pa. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

CLIFFORD SCOTT GREEN, District Judge.

This multiparty litigation concerns an aborted real estate transaction involving, inter alia, plaintiff Frank Cedrone, trading as Sugarloaf Associates, a limited partnership (“Cedrone”), and defendant Unity Savings and Loan Association (“Unity”).1 Plaintiff has alleged breach of agreements to convey land and fund a construction loan.

Defendant was represented at the time of the events giving rise to the action by the Philadelphia law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath (“Drinker”), through John W. Fischer, Esq., Robert J. Hoelscher, Esq., Bonnie Levy Shuman, Esq. and Ralph Rodak, Esq. Upon request, all four Drinker lawyers agreed to, and did, appear voluntarily to have their depositions taken. Objections to certain questions were interposed by counsel for Unity invoking the work-product doctrine and/or the attorney-client privilege. Pending before the court is plaintiffs motion to compel answers to questions propounded at depositions pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a).2 The question presented herein, is whether the information sought is protected from discovery by either the work-product-doctrine or the attorney-client privilege.

Plaintiff seeks the production of certain written materials most prominently referred to in the deposition of Ms. Shuman. He seeks discovery of a closing checklist which might have been used by Drinker attorneys in connection with the real estate transaction. Also sought are notes taken by Ms. Shuman which summarized telephone conversations she had with her client regarding the underlying transaction. Finally, plaintiff seeks discovery of a memorandum written by Ms. Shuman either to Mr. Fischer or to the file before her departure on vacation.

With regard to the checklist, defendant maintains, after a search of its files, that no such checklist exists. If no such list exists, then the request to compel its production is moot. For this reason, that part of plaintiffs motion which seeks production of such checklist will be denied as moot.

As to the notes and the memorandum, the defendant claims that these documents are protected from discovery by the work-product doctrine. It relies on the “strong public policy” underlying the doctrine endorsed by the Supreme Court in Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 397-399, 101 S.Ct. 677, 686-687, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981) and Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 511, 67 S.Ct. 385, 393, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947). Defendant’s reliance on the public policy underlying the work-product doctrine is misplaced in a case where, as here, the information it seeks to protect does not meet the requisite standard for protection under the doctrine.

I.

The work-product doctrine, recognized initially in Hickman v. Taylor, su[426]*426pra, protects from discovery materials prepared or collected by an attorney “in the course of preparation for possible litigation.” 329 U.S. at 505, 67 S.Ct. at 390. See also Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(3).3 Of course, protection extends to material prepared or collected before litigation actually commences. However, some possibility of litigation must exist. In Re Grand Jury Investigation, 599 F.2d 1224, 1229 (3d Cir. 1979).

The burden of demonstrating that information was prepared in preparation for litigation, and is thereby protected as work product, rests with the party asserting the doctrine. See Conoco Inc. v. United States Dept. of Justice, 687 F.2d 724, 730 (3d Cir.1982). This burden is not to be taken lightly. In the words of Judge Edward R. Becker, “[a]dvising a client about matters which may or even likely will ultimately come to litigation does not satisfy the ‘in anticipation of standard. The threat of litigation must be more real and imminent than that.” In Re Grand Jury Investigation (Sturgis), 412 F.Supp. 943, 948 (E.D.Pa.1976).

Defendants have not even claimed, much less demonstrated that the notes and memorandum prepared by Ms. Shuman were prepared in anticipation of, or in preparation for, litigation. Accordingly, I can not find based on the record before me that the notes or the memorandum sought are protected under the work-product doctrine.

This answers but the initial question of the inquiry into whether the notes and memorandum are protected from discovery. The second, and more important in terms of the instant action, question is whether these documents are shielded from discovery by the attorney-client privilege.

Also ripe for consideration under the privilege are the answers to certain deposition questions sought by plaintiff and claimed privileged by defendant. Plaintiff has grouped these as questions seeking the substance of:

(1) communications made by the client to the attorney-deponent (with these I will include the substance of the notes taken by Ms. Shuman of her telephone conversation with the client;

(2) communications made by the deponent-attorney to his/her client (it is appropriate to include Ms. Shuman’s notes in this category also);

(3) communications between the deponent-attorneys (in this category it is similarly appropriate to include the memorandum to the file or Mr. Fischer, another deponent-attorney who would have had direct access to the file, prepared by Ms. Shuman);

(4) facts concerning the general nature of the deponents activities; and,

(5) underlying facts of which the deponent-attorneys became aware.

II.

Federal courts sitting in diversity jurisdiction, as I do here, must apply state law with regard to attorney-client privilege. Fed.R.Evid. 501; see also In Re Westinghouse Elec. Corp., Etc., 76 F.R.D. 47, 53 (W.D.Pa.1977); Giordani v. Hoffmann, 278 F.Supp. 886, 889 (E.D.Pa.1968). The privilege is governed in Pennsylvania by 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5928.4 This statute (and its substantially identical predecessor, 28 P.S. § 321)5 is essentially a codification of the Pennsylvania common law of attorney-client privilege. In Re Westinghouse, su[427]*427pra, at 56; Cohen v. Jenkintown Cab Company, 238 Pa.Super. 456, 462 n. 2, 357 A.2d 689, 692 n. 2 (1976).

It is the well settled law of the Commonwealth that the question of whether a communication is privileged, or not, is for the court. Moore v. Bray, 10 Pa. 519 (1849). Equally well settled in Pennsylvania is that unlike the related doctrine protecting the work-product of lawyers, the general rule in the attorney-client privilege area is that “all professional communications are sacred.

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Bluebook (online)
103 F.R.D. 423, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22028, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cedrone-v-unity-savings-assn-paed-1984.