Construction Industry Services Corp. v. Hanover Insurance

206 F.R.D. 43, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23985, 2002 WL 393061
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedDecember 6, 2001
DocketNo. CV 00-1438 ADS WDW
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 206 F.R.D. 43 (Construction Industry Services Corp. v. Hanover Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Construction Industry Services Corp. v. Hanover Insurance, 206 F.R.D. 43, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23985, 2002 WL 393061 (E.D.N.Y. 2001).

Opinion

WALL, United States Magistrate Judge.

Pending before the court is a motion by the defendants seeking to compel the production of documents that the plaintiffs, Construction Industry Services Corp., et al. (“CISCO”), claim are privileged. By order dated October 25, 2001, the plaintiffs were ordered to produce, for in camera review, the documents that they claim are protected from disclosure by attorney-client or work [45]*45product privilege. After the order was issued, the plaintiffs produced some documents previously in dispute (e.g., the Whynot documents), and, on November 6, submitted those documents for which privilege is still invoked for this court’s review. On November 27, the plaintiffs submitted six additional documents, with a letter explaining that they had been inadvertently omitted from the earlier submission.

The plaintiffs appear to make two arguments in regard to the documents. First, they claim that they are protected by the attorney client and/or work product privileges. They also claim, as a corollary argument, that those privileges have not been waived pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(2)(B) in regard to documents created or reviewed by Samuel Liebgold, a designated expert in this action, because Mr. Liebgold acted as both a consultant and an expert, and the disputed documents relate only to his role as consultant.

The role played by Samuel Liebgold is the crux of the inquiry on this motion. The documents reveal that Liebgold, an outside accountant for CISCO, played a significant role in evaluating the strength of the claims against the defendants in this lawsuit and in advising CISCO about the litigation. Liebgold’s advice extended even to the choice of attorneys to conduct the litigation, but the documents contain little or no accounting advice. It is unclear from the record before the court why CISCO relied so heavily on Liebgold for advice outside the realm of accounting expertise. It is also unclear what relation Liebgold had to the various attorneys consulted by CISCO before and during the litigation. As explained in more detail infra, although some set of facts may exist under which the attorney client privilege may have extended to Liebgold, the failure of the plaintiffs to provide an explanatory affidavit from Liebgold and from a representative of CISCO1 or to otherwise establish a sufficient record to explain Liebgold’s role and to support the application of the privileges requires a finding that a number of documents are not protected by the attorney client privilege. For the reasons set forth below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.

A.) Application of the Attorney-Client Privilege:

Pursuant to Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, substantive questions of privilege in this diversity action are governed by New York State law. See Magee v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co., 172 F.R.D. 627, 638 (E.D.N.Y.1997); see also Hendrick v. Avis Rent A Car Sys., 944 F.Supp. 187, 188 (W.D.N.Y.1996) (citing Application of American Tobacco Co., 880 F.2d 1520, 1527 (2d Cir.1989)). Section 4503(a) of New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules provides, in relevant part, that “[ujnless the client waives the privilege, an attorney or his employee, or any person who obtains without the knowledge of the client evidence of a confidential communication made between the attorney or his employee and the client in the course of professional employment, shall not disclose, or be allowed to disclose such communication, nor shall the client be compelled to disclose such communication____” At the core of the privilege is the existence of “a confidential communication between an attorney or his employee and the client in the course of professional employment.” Id. As explained in more detail infra, this element is lacking in regard to several of the documents at issue, and the privilege was waived as to other documents. Several documents are protected from disclosure by the privilege.

1.) Documents that are not communications between a client and counsel— documents numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10,11, & 12:

A number of the documents at issue, while they refer to attorneys who played some role in decisions about the litigation, are not communications between the party/client (CISCO), and their attorneys, and thus cannot qualify for the attorney-client privilege. Documents 1 and 2 are identical [46]*46copies of a memo from Liebgold to Louis Regine, the President and CEO of CISCO, evaluating CISCO’S litigation options based on the claims against the defendants in this action. Liebgold’s advice, as set forth in the memo, was apparently based at least in part on the recommendations of two attorneys, Martin Siegel and Neil Connelley. Mr. Siegel is an attorney with the law firm representing the plaintiffs in this action, Berlack, Israels & Liberman LLP. Mr. Connelley is described by the plaintiffs as one of the lawyers “who CISCO consulted to determine whether to commence this action.” 11/5/01 Galvan Letter at 2.

The memo is not, however, a communication between CISCO and those lawyers, nor is it a communication between the lawyers and Liebgold. It is a communication between the party and that party’s outside accountant regarding litigation. Although the content of the memo appears to include attorneys’ advice, nothing on its face indicates who hired the attorneys, how Mr. Liebgold became privy to the legal advice embodied in the memo, or why this memo might qualify for protection under the attorney-client privilege. “As is the case with all privileges, the party invoking the attorney-client privilege bears the burden of establishing all essential elements of the privilege.” Magee, 172 F.R.D. at 638 (citing People v. Osorio, 75 N.Y.2d 80, 550 N.Y.S.2d 612, 549 N.E.2d 1183 (1989); Priest v. Hennessy, 51 N.Y.2d 62, 431 N.Y.S.2d 511, 409 N.E.2d 983 (1980)). The plaintiffs have not met this burden.

The plaintiffs claim that “certain documents that [Liebgold] reviewed cut to the core of the attorney-client privilege and are not implicated by his role as an expert.” 11/5/01 Galvan Letter at 1. The burden of a party withholding documents on the basis of privilege cannot be “ ‘discharged by mere conclusory or ipse dixit assertions,’ ” however, and the plaintiffs offer an insufficient factual and legal basis for their claim of privilege in regard to these documents, von Bulow v. von Bulow, 811 F.2d 136, 146 (2d Cir.1987) (quoting In re Bonanno, 344 F.2d 830, 833 (2d Cir.1965)); see also Strougo v. BEA Assocs., 199 F.R.D. 515, 519 (S.D.N.Y. 2001). It is clear from the record before the court that Liebgold was a trusted business advisor to Regine and CISCO, but that is not enough to bring him within the purview of the attorney-client privilege in regard to these documents. Even if the privilege did apply, the documents would be subject to a waiver analysis based on the disclosure of the attorneys’ advice to Liebgold, and the privilege would be waived. See section A 2, infra.

Several other documents also fail to reflect a communication between client and attorney.

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Bluebook (online)
206 F.R.D. 43, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23985, 2002 WL 393061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/construction-industry-services-corp-v-hanover-insurance-nyed-2001.