Estate of Hohler v. Hohler

924 N.E.2d 419, 185 Ohio App. 3d 420
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 31, 2009
DocketNo. 09 CA 860
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 924 N.E.2d 419 (Estate of Hohler v. Hohler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Hohler v. Hohler, 924 N.E.2d 419, 185 Ohio App. 3d 420 (Ohio Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

Vukovich, Presiding Judge.

{¶ 1} Plaintiff-appellant, the estate of Richard Hohler, appeals the decision of the Carroll County Probate Court entered in favor of defendant-appellee, Roxanne Keiffer Hohler, who is the surviving spouse. Specifically, the court ordered the decedent’s attorney, who had drafted a prenuptial agreement for the decedent, to testify at deposition and to bring with him all files of the decedent. The trial court found that the surviving spouse’s waiver of the decedent’s attorney-client privilege under R.C. 2317.02(A) had no limits; the court did not discuss the estate’s argument concerning work product.

{¶ 2} We hold that the trial court was correct in finding that a court has no discretion to impose policy limitations on a surviving spouse’s statutory waiver of the decedent’s attorney-client privilege. Thus, the court is not to weigh whether there is a conflict between the interests of the surviving spouse and those of the decedent or his estate. Moreover, the surviving spouse’s waiver is not statutorily limited to communications occurring during the period of marriage, and thus the court cannot impose such a limitation.

{¶ 3} Nevertheless, work product is a separate doctrine applicable to some of the documents produced by counsel in this case. We hold that the proper test to determine whether documents were prepared in anticipation of litigation and thus protected work product is whether the nature of the documents shows that they were prepared because of the prospect of litigation. The documents prepared by counsel in drafting the prenuptial agreement in this case were made in anticipation of litigation, thus invoking work-product protection. There is a good-cause exception to work-product protection. However, because an in-camera review of the documents was not conducted, this issue cannot be fully resolved at this time, necessitating a remand.

[423]*423STATEMENT OF THE CASE

{¶4} On June 25, 2007, the decedent and the surviving spouse signed a prenuptial agreement, and they were married on July 7, 2007. The agreement was prepared by the decedent’s counsel, attorney Robert Roland of the Day Ketterer law firm. The surviving spouse had retained separate counsel.

{¶ 5} The decedent died on September 8, 2008. His son filed an application to probate the decedent’s will, which left nothing to the surviving spouse. This caused the surviving spouse to file an election to take against the will. A different attorney from Day Ketterer represented the estate.

{¶ 6} The estate filed a complaint for a declaratory judgment regarding the prenuptial agreement, and the surviving spouse filed an action to void the prenuptial agreement on the grounds that there was not full disclosure of assets and that she believed the agreement dealt with divorce but not death. These actions were consolidated in the probate court.

{¶ 7} The surviving spouse issued a subpoena to attorney Roland to testify as a witness and to bring any and all files related to the decedent.1 This caused a discovery dispute. On February 6, 2009, the estate filed a motion for a protective order and to quash the subpoena, arguing that the files relating to the decedent are protected by attorney-client privilege. The estate later added an argument that the files pertaining to preparation of the prenuptial agreement were protected by the work-product privilege, which belongs to the attorney.

{¶ 8} On February 18, 2009, the surviving spouse responded and also filed a motion to compel attorney Roland to testify on all matters relating to the decedent and to produce for inspection all personal files of the decedent. She disclosed that she needed the documents and testimony in order to invalidate the prenuptial agreement. Her motion pointed out that attorney Roland’s deposition had been scheduled but that one day before the deposition, the estate’s attorney called opposing counsel and indicated that he did not intend to allow his partner to testify as to any matters that took place prior to the parties’ marriage and that he would not produce any files for inspection. She noted that the parties agreed to forgo the deposition until the estate could file its motion to quash and the court could rule on privilege.

{¶ 9} In response to the argument of attorney-client privilege, the surviving spouse’s motion stated that the surviving spouse was waiving the decedent’s attorney-client privilege under R.C. 2317.02(A) and argued that this statute [424]*424contains no limits on the scope of the waiver. In response to the work-product argument, she urged that the prenuptial agreement was not prepared in anticipation of imminent litigation.

{¶ 10} On March 31, 2009, the trial court found that R.C. 2317.02(A) allows the surviving spouse to waive the attorney-client privilege for her deceased spouse without limitation. The court thus granted the motion to compel attorney Roland to testify and to bring all the decedent’s files to deposition.

{¶ 11} The estate filed a timely notice of appeal. The discovery of privileged matter is subject to immediate appeal. See R.C. 2505.02(A)(3) (discovery of privileged matter is a provisional remedy), (B)(4) (order that grants or denies a provisional remedy is appealable if it in effect determines the action with respect to the provisional remedy, if it prevents judgment with respect to the provisional remedy, and if the appellant would not be afforded meaningful or effective remedy by appeal after final judgment as to all issues). See also State ex rel. Butler Cty. Children Serv. Bd. v. Sage (Apr. 3, 2002), 95 Ohio St.3d 23, 25, 764 N.E.2d 1027 (order granting motion to compel discovery of allegedly privileged material is not subject to Civ.R. 54(B) in order to allow immediate appeal).

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

{¶ 12} The estate’s first assignment of error provides:

{¶ 13} “The trial court erred in holding that appellant could waive her deceased husband’s attorney-client privilege concerning communications which took place prior to the marriage regarding the preparation of a prenuptial agreement with her.”

{¶ 14} Pursuant to R.C. 2317.02,

{¶ 15} “The following persons shall not testify in certain respects:

{¶ 16} “(A)(1) An attorney, concerning a communication made to the attorney by a client in that relation or the attorney’s advice to a client, except that the attorney may testify by express consent of the client or, if the client is deceased, by the express consent of the surviving spouse or the executor or administrator of the estate of the deceased client.”

{¶ 17} The estate argues that a surviving spouse’s waiver of the decedent’s attorney-client privilege is subject to the trial court’s discretion to impose policy limitations as evidenced by the use of “may” in the statute. The estate also contends that this discretion anticipates the application of certain limitations on the surviving spouse’s waiver. For instance, the estate urges that the waiver should not be self-serving when the waiver is to the detriment of the decedent. [425]*425In addition, the estate urges that the surviving spouse’s waiver should not apply to communications that occurred prior to marriage.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
924 N.E.2d 419, 185 Ohio App. 3d 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-hohler-v-hohler-ohioctapp-2009.