Flechas v. Pitts

138 So. 3d 907, 2014 WL 1875361
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 8, 2014
DocketNo. 2013-IA-00839-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 138 So. 3d 907 (Flechas v. Pitts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flechas v. Pitts, 138 So. 3d 907, 2014 WL 1875361 (Mich. 2014).

Opinion

[908]*908 ORDER

The motion for reconsideration is denied. The en banc Court’s order filed herein on December 20, 2013, is vacated and withdrawn, and this order is substituted in lieu thereof.

This matter is before the Court en banc on the Motion for Immediate, Extraordinary Relief, and Petition for Reconsideration and/or Rehearing of Previous Ruling Based on Newly Discovered Evidence and Related Legal Issues filed by Petitioner; the Motion to Dismiss and to Strike the Motion for Immediate, Extraordinary Relief, and Petition for Reconsideration and/or Rehearing of Previous Ruling Based on Newly Discovered Evidence and Related Legal Issues, or to Partially Strike filed by Respondent; Respondent’s Rule 48A(d) Mississippi Rules of Appellate [909]*909Procedure Motion for Access to Sealed Document, and all responses and rebuttals.

By orders dated March 27, 2013, and June 5, 2013, separate panels of this Court denied Petitioner’s requests for interlocutory appeal or writ of prohibition as to orders entered by the Lincoln County Chancery Court in Cause No.2011-0478. Petitioner then asked for reconsideration of these decisions. By order dated June 20, 2013, this Court stayed all proceedings in Cause No.2011-0478, and ordered responses from Respondent and the Lincoln County Chancery Court. After consideration, this Court entered an order on August 29, 2013, which allowed the Lincoln County Chancery Court to enter an order resulting from a hearing held in the chan-eery court on June 20, 2013. This order was entered by the chancery court on September 13, 2013.

After consideration of the pleadings, the transcript of the June 20, 2013, hearing, and the September 13, 2013, order, the Court finds that the Motion for Immediate, Extraordinary Relief, and Petition for Reconsideration and/or Rehearing of Previous Ruling Based on Newly Discovered Evidence and Related Legal Issues should be granted; that, pursuant to Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 21(d), this Court should dispose of this motion for extraordinary relief in an expedited manner under Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 5(e), and that the Court further finds as follows:

1.With respect to the Order of September 13, 2013, the chancery court stated “[t]his Order does not supersede or vacate, in whole or in part, any of the court’s previous orders,” requiring this Court to address the subpoena duces tecum of May 30, 2012 (“Subpoena”); the chancery court’s Order of February 1, 2013 (“Order 1”); the chancery court’s Order of May 23, 2013 (“Order 2”); and the chancery court’s order of September 13, 2013 (“Order 3”).

2. The subpoena is at the core of this dispute. The subpoena was served on an attorney for a party and not the party or a witness. The subject matter of the subpoena includes all of Flechas’s personal files and records regarding all aspects of his representation of Troy Pitts. These include “all files, records, electronic communications, written or any documents ... including ... all divorce files, personal injury defense files, estate files, Will or trust files, [and] deed preparation files.” See Subpoena. At the time the subpoena was served, the only proceeding pending was a will contest between competing wills advanced by Alyee Pitts and Todd Pitts.

3. Flechas sought to withdraw as attorney for Todd Pitts by Motion of April 4, 2012, which motion was denied by the chancery court. While this issue is not before the Court, it is self-evident that Flechas’s ability to represent Todd Pitts has been compromised by the ongoing subpoena litigation, or a trial within a trial, and the chancery court should revisit this. See Mississippi Rule of Professional Conduct 3.7 (Lawyer as a Witness). See also Graves v. Maples, 950 So.2d 1017 (Miss.2007).

4. In response to the subpoena, Fle-chas consistently has raised issues of relevance and privilege, both work-product and attorney-client. See Flechas’s “Motion Quash, or in the Alternative, for Protective Order,” and his “Answer and Defense to the Petition for Citation of Contempt, Renewed Motion to Quash or, in the Alternative, for a Prohibitive Order, and Motion to Stay.” Flechas arguably did not sufficiently set out in detail which documents were privileged and why; however, as explained below, Fle-chas was placed in an almost impossible situation.

[910]*9105. In Order 1, the chancery court denied Flechas’s motion to quash. The chancery court found that no privilege attached to any of the documents because the information subpoenaed under Rule 45 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure was not subject to Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure 26(b)(3), 37(a), and Uniform Circuit and County Court Rule 1.10(C), as the chancery court found the protections in these rules apply only to “discoverable information.” See Order 1. In addition, the chancery court found none of Flechas’s personal files and documents were privileged. Id. Instead, the chancery court found the files and documents were subject to an exception to the privilege rules under Rule 502(d)(2) of the Mississippi Rules of Evidence, which provides an exception to the rules of privilege when parties claim through the same deceased client. See Order 1. Thus, this order put Flechas in a position where he would have to turn over every single document in his possession relating to his representation of Troy Pitts, without regard to the relevance of the information or whether the subpoenaed documents contained discoverable or other protected work-product information. Indeed, Flechas was in the almost-impossible situation of having to produce a privilege log that included nearly every document in his personal files relating to his representation of Troy Pitts in multiple matters.

6. A subpoena duces tecum is subject to the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. Because the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure are modeled on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, this Court has “looked to the federal interpretations of our state counterparts as persuasive authority.” Hartford Cas. Ins. Co. v. Halliburton Co., 826 So.2d 1206, 1216 (Miss.2001) (citations omitted). Discussing the relation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 to the federal rules related to discovery, Wright and Miller state “[t]he federal courts, in a great multitude of cases, announced that the discovery rules constituted an integrated mechanism and that [the discovery rules and Rule 45] must be read in pari materia.’ ” 9A Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2452 (3d ed.2013) (citing Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 505, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947) (“It matters little at this later stage whether Fortenbaugh fads to answer interrogatories filed under Rule 26 or under Rule 33 or whether he refuses to produce the memoranda and statements pursuant to a subpoena under Rule 45 or a court order under Rule 34. The deposition-discovery rules create integrated procedural devices.”)). Indeed, this view is consistent with prior decisions from this Court. See, e.g., West v. West, 891 So.2d 203, 216 (Miss.2004) (“We reverse the chancellor’s decision to quash Debbie’s subpoenas duces tecum and remand to the trial court ...

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 3d 907, 2014 WL 1875361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flechas-v-pitts-miss-2014.