Dome Petroleum Ltd. v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wisconsin

131 F.R.D. 63, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5371, 1990 WL 71343
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedMay 4, 1990
DocketCiv. A. No. 84-97
StatusPublished
Cited by97 cases

This text of 131 F.R.D. 63 (Dome Petroleum Ltd. v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wisconsin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dome Petroleum Ltd. v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wisconsin, 131 F.R.D. 63, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5371, 1990 WL 71343 (D.N.J. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

WOLIN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on both plaintiffs’ and defendants’ appeal from Magistrate Haneke’s Order dated February 10, 1987 and the Magistrate’s Findings and Conclusions filed September 27, 1989. The Magistrate’s original order and later opinion denied the application of plaintiffs Dome Petroleum Limited and Dome Energy Limited (collectively “Dome”) for an order compelling Raymond Jast, Esq., counsel for defendant Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wausau (“Employers”), to respond to deposition questions concerning his communications with defendant The First Jersey National Bank (“First Jersey”) and granted plaintiffs’ application for an order compelling defendants to respond to a Document Demand by providing a list of documents to which a privilege would be asserted. Dome appeals from that part of the order which denied their application to compel certain deposition testimony and defendants appeal from that part of the order which compelled the production of the list of privileged documents. Both parties claim that the Magistrate’s decision was contrary to law.

I. BACKGROUND

A complete history of this action may be gleaned from the previous, Third Circuit opinion issued in this action and a previous Third Circuit opinion issued in a prior action involving the same transaction. See The First Jersey National Bank v. Dome Petroleum Limited (“Dome F), 723 F.2d 335 (3d Cir.1983) and Dome Petroleum Ltd. v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. (“Dome II”), 767 F.2d 43 (3d Cir.1985). For the purposes of the appeals before the Court a brief background in the facts of this litigation is required.

In 1981, First Jersey acted as a depository in connection with the tender offer of Dome for the stock of Conoco Inc. (“Conoco”). In the course of performing its duties as depository, First Jersey rejected as untimely the appropriate and timely tenders of Conoco shares by the State Street Group. The State Street Group was unable to participate in Dome’s tender offer. After realizing its error, First Jersey paid the State Street Group $3.5 million in compensation. First Jersey obtained a loan in this amount from its insurer, Employers, with the understanding that First Jersey would attempt to recover the money pursuant to an indemnification clause in the depository agreement between Dome and First Jersey. The Third Circuit held that under that clause, Dome was required to indemnify First Jersey for the $3.5 million dollars. Thereafter, First Jersey repaid the loan to Employers. Dome then commenced the present suit against Employers and First Jersey seeking to be reimbursed either from Employers as subrogee of First Jersey, or from First Jersey for their having destroyed Dome’s subrogation rights.

The first issue before the Court is whether the Magistrate erred in determining that Jast, the attorney for Employers who negotiated the loan between Employers and First Jersey, may assert a privilege and refuse to answer deposition questions concerning those negotiations. The second issue before the Court is whether the Magistrate erred by compelling defendants to provide a comprehensive list of documents whose disclosure defendants’ believed to be privileged.

II. DISCUSSION

A magistrate’s adjudication of a non-dis-positive motion will be set aside only if the [65]*65order is found to be clearly erroneous or contrary to law. Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 785 F.2d 1108, 1113 (3d Cir. 1986), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 976, 108 S.Ct. 487, 98 L.Ed.2d 485 (1987) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A)); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(a); General Rule 40 D(4) of the U.S.Dist.Ct. for the Dist. of N.J. This Court will determine that a finding is clearly erroneous “when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948). The Magistrate’s order may also be reversed if it is found that his determination was contrary to law. The Magistrate has delegated authority pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) to exercise wide discretion in fashioning appropriate discovery orders. Several courts have also held that a magistrate’s determination in a discovery dispute is entitled to great deference and reversible only for an abuse of discretion. See Environmental Tectonics v. W.S. Kirkpatrick & Co., 659 F.Supp. 1381, 1399 (D.N.J.1987) (citing cases), aff'd in part, rev’d in part, 847 F.2d 1052 (3d Cir.1988); see also, Schroeder v. Boeing Commercial Airplane Co., 123 F.R.D. 166 (D.N.J.1988).

A. Motion to Compel Deposition Answers

First, the Court will entertain the appeal from the Magistrate’s denial of Dome’s motion to compel deposition answers from Raymond Jast, Esq. who was counsel for Employers during the transactions at issue in this matter. Throughout the entirety of the judicial proceedings in the matter, Jast has refused to answer questions relating to the loan receipt agreement and to communications between himself and Employers and First Jersey. That refusal has been based on the claim of one or more of four privileges: (a) an attorney-client privilege between Jast and Employers; (b) an attorney-client privilege between Jast and First Jersey; (c) an insurer-insured privilege between Employers and First Jersey; and (d) a joint defense privilege between Employers and First Jersey.

Dome contends that because Dome is subrogated to the rights of First Jersey as against Employers under the subrogation clause of the agreement between Dome and First Jersey, Dome “stands in the shoes" of First Jersey. Dome contends that this enables Dome to obtain information known by Jast without reaching the question of whether an attorney-client privilege attaches. Under Dome’s theory, since Dome is First Jersey for the purposes of asserting the rights at issue in Count I, Dome is the “client” for the purposes of obtaining the information from Jast. Dome asserts that the assignee or subrogee of an insured has the same rights as the insured to obtain information known to the attorney who represented the insured and the insurer. Dome further argues that a joint defense privilege is not available to Employers and First Jersey for the above reasons and because separate attorneys represented each party to the negotiations.

Employers and First Jersey assert that the arguments Dome has put forward have no validity where there is no dispute between the insured and the insurer. Defendants’ claim that Dome is an outsider to Employers and First Jersey’s common interest in this litigation, and therefore, Dome is not entitled to learn of Jast’s communications during the negotiations between the two.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
131 F.R.D. 63, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5371, 1990 WL 71343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dome-petroleum-ltd-v-employers-mutual-liability-insurance-co-of-njd-1990.