Citizens Trust Co. v. Blasbalg (In re Pacific Enterprises, Ltd.)

36 B.R. 426, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 6325
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedFebruary 2, 1984
DocketBankruptcy No. 8200619. Adv. No. 820358
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 36 B.R. 426 (Citizens Trust Co. v. Blasbalg (In re Pacific Enterprises, Ltd.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Citizens Trust Co. v. Blasbalg (In re Pacific Enterprises, Ltd.), 36 B.R. 426, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 6325 (D.R.I. 1984).

Opinion

[427]*427DECISION GRANTING THE TRUSTEE’S MOTION TO COMPEL PRODUCTION

ARTHUR N. VOTOLATO, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge.

The trustee seeks an order compelling the production of certain diary entries in the possession of the secured creditor, Citizens Trust Company, and Citizens objects on a variety of grounds.

In 1977, Pacific Enterprises, Ltd., d/b/a Pacific Gem Co., granted Citizens a security interest in certain collateral, including accounts receivable. An involuntary Chapter 7 petition was filed against Pacific on July 22, 1982, and Pacific immediately consented to the entry of an order for relief. At the time, Pacific (the debtor) was in default of its obligation to Citizens in excess of $150,000. Two weeks later, Citizens filed a complaint for relief from the automatic stay, seeking to set off $8,803 which the debtor had on deposit with Citizens. The trustee filed a counterclaim alleging two preferential payments to Citizens total-ling $151,523, on the ground that Citizens was drastically undersecured on the dates of the payments in question.

In connection with his counterclaim, the trustee seeks production from Citizens of numerous records, including bank diaries, “pertaining to [Citizens’] loans and/or lines of credit, accounts or other financial relationships with Pacific Enterprises, Ltd. d/b/a Pacific Gem Co. from September 1977 to the present.” Trustee’s Notice of Intention to Take Deposition and Request for Production at 1. After Citizens asserted that the diary entries were privileged, the trustee moved to compel the production of “all diary entries relating to any loan or loans made by Citizens Trust Company to the debtor.” Citizens objected to the motion, and after hearing, the parties submitted memoranda.

Citizens advances several reasons for refusing to produce the requested documents, among them, that the diaries contain confidential information which its duty to its customer, Pacific Enterprises, Ltd. (the debtor), prevents it from disclosing. As the trustee points out, however, “[t]he trustee ... is [now] the representative of the estate,” 11 U.S.C. § 323(a). Although Citizens’ Reply Memorandum addresses several issues raised in the trustee’s brief, it fails to respond to the trustee’s argument on this point, probably because there is no logical reply. “Communications received by bankers in ... implied confidence ... are not privileged,” 10 Am.Jur.2d Banks § 332 n. 1 (1963), and a bank may be compelled by court order to disclose such communications. Id. at § 332.

Citizens also contends that the trustee’s request was not stated with “reasonable particularity” as required by Fed.R. Civ.P. 34(b),1 and further that the documents sought contain irrelevant information. The trustee’s request, although broad, is clearly “relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action” and “reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). The trustee cites portions of depositions as support for his contention that “[depositions have shown that plaintiff Bank has kept ‘diary entries’ which are likely to contain information essential to Trustee’s ability to prove that the debtor made payments to the Bank at a time when the Bank was woefully undercollateralized, and within 90 days of the filing.” Trustee’s Memorandum at 5. Citizens virtually concedes that the diary entries meet the minimal criteria of relevance required by Fed.R. Civ.P. 26(b)(1) when it states that the trustee “could have obtained the information contained in the diary entries by asking the appropriate questions at the deposition of Plaintiff’s senior vice president ... [but] failed to ask these questions.” Reply Memorandum in Support of Plaintiff’s Objection to Motion to Compel Production of Documents at 6. The scope of discovery is very [428]*428broad,2 and unless discovery rules are liberally interpreted, their usefulness as a pretrial tool would be virtually eliminated. The trustee’s request for production is not lacking in “reasonable particularity,” nor does it exceed the scope of discovery as defined by Rule 26(b)(1).

Although Citizens did not assert the attorney-client privilege in its original memorandum, it does so in its reply memorandum. There, Citizens contends that “[t]he attorney-client privilege protects only those portions of the diary entries which constitute communications between Plaintiff [Citizens] and Plaintiff’s attorney.” Citizens’ Reply Memorandum at 7 (emphasis in original). This is the extent of Citizens’ argument with respect to the attorney-client privilege, and the Court remains unenlightened as to which, if any, diary entries or portions thereof are asserted to be “communications.” It is also unclear whether Citizens is restricting its argument to diary entries prepared by an in-house attorney. In any event, the attorney-client privilege does not extend to “the memoran-da, briefs, communications and other writings prepared by counsel for his own use in prosecuting his client’s case; and it is equally unrelated to writings which reflect an attorney’s mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories.” Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 508, 67 S.Ct. 385, 392, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947). In the absence of any cogent explanation of the applicability of the attorney-client privilege in this case, we must conclude that the privilege does not apply here.

A closer question is presented in Citizens’ argument that the diary entries are immune from discovery under the “work product” doctrine, Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(3). Pursuant to this Rule, .

a party may obtain discovery of documents and tangible things otherwise discoverable under subdivision (b)(1) of this rule and prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial by or for another party or by or for that other party’s representative (including his 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 his case and that he is unable without undue hardship to obtain the substantial equivalent of the materials by other means, (emphasis added.)

Because there is no requirement in Rule 26(b)(3) that the documents at issue be prepared by an attorney, we need not decide whether documents prepared by a business executive who is also in-house counsel have any special protection. See, e.g., 4 J. Moore & J. Lucas, Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 26.-64[4], at 26-450 (2d ed. 1983) (“The mere fact that an attorney is present at discussions of business affairs does not immunize the discussions from discovery”).

It is clear, however, both from the explicit language of Rule 26(bX3), and from case law, that the qualified immunity from discovery of work product applies only to materials “prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial.” Rule 26(b)(3).

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36 B.R. 426, 1984 Bankr. LEXIS 6325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-trust-co-v-blasbalg-in-re-pacific-enterprises-ltd-rid-1984.