Hubert v. Oswego Junction Enterprises LLC d/b/a Prohibition Junction Sports Bar & Grill

District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided December 29, 2022·No. 1:21-cv-03360·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION Natalia Hubert, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) Case No. 21 C 3360 v. ) ) Jeffrey T. Gilbert Oswego Junction Enterprises LLC ) Magistrate Judge doing business as Prohibition ) Junction Sports Bar & Grill, ) ) Defendant. ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER This case is before the Court on several pending discovery motions: Plaintiff’s Second Motion to Compel Discovery [ECF 31] (“Plaintiff’s Second Motion to Compel”); Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike Defendant’s Belated Rule 26(a)(1) Disclosures or, in the Alternative to Deem Privileges Waived and Allow Discovery [ECF 47] (“Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike”); and Defendant’s Motion to Compel and to Extend Discovery Cutoff Date [ECF 50] (“Defendant’s Motion to Compel”). For the reasons discussed below, Plaintiff’s Second Motion to Compel is granted; Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike is denied but the alternative request for relief is granted as to the deemed waiver of the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine, and to allow discovery consistent with that ruling; and Defendant’s Motion to Compel is denied.1 1 The Court previously denied without prejudice Defendant’s Motion to Compel and to Extend Discovery Cutoff Date [ECF 50] with respect to Defendant’s request to extend the discovery cutoff date. [ECF 54, 56]. The Motion remains pending with respect to Defendant’s request I. Plaintiff Natalia Hubert (“Plaintiff”) sued Defendant Oswego Junction Enterprises, LLC, d/b/a Prohibition Junction Sports Bar & Grill (“Defendant”), her

former employer, for sex discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Illinois Human Rights Act, 755 ILCS 5/2 et seq. Defendant says it fired Plaintiff because she lied about what happened during a portion of the time when she was in a room alone with her alleged harasser, Tillman Liggins who also worked for Defendant, in the early morning hours of July 24, 2018, at Defendant’s restaurant and bar. The incident was captured on

closed circuit video, but a 15-minute portion of the video was dark and difficult to see. Defendant says Plaintiff told its attorney and trial counsel in this case, Kenneth McLaughlin, that Liggins grabbed Plaintiff’s arm and forcibly pulled her toward him during the segment of the video that was dark when McLaughlin interviewed Plaintiff about the incident. McLaughlin subsequently had the video lightened. After he reviewed it, he told Defendant’s owner, Kevin Fialko, that the lightened video did not depict what Plaintiff said had happened during her interview. Fialko says he fired

Plaintiff because she was dishonest based on the discrepancy between what McLaughlin told him about his interview of Plaintiff and what the lightened version of the video depicted. Plaintiff denies telling McLaughlin what he says she said about what happened during the darkened portion of the video. Plaintiff and McLaughlin

that the Court compel Plaintiff to provide further responses to Defendant’s discovery requests. are the only witnesses to McLaughlin’s interview of Plaintiff because Plaintiff’s former attorney, who was present for the interview, has since passed away. McLaughlin took notes during his interviews of both Liggins and Plaintiff, and

he sent emails to Fialko relaying some of what was said during those interviews and his thoughts about them. Defendant has produced McLaughlin’s interview notes and emails to Fialko, but it has redacted portions of the notes and emails invoking the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine. Defendant says it is withholding only McLaughlin’s “mental impressions” of what he learned during his investigation, but McLaughlin communicated his mental impressions to Fialko before

he decided to fire Plaintiff and they informed Fialko’s termination decision. Plaintiff moves to compel Defendant to produce the complete, unredacted versions of McLaughlin’s interview notes and emails arguing that any privilege has been waived because Defendant has put at issue what McLaughlin told Fialko about his interviews of Plaintiff and Liggins, and what the lightened version of the video tape depicted compared to what McLaughlin says Plaintiff told him when he interviewed her. The Court ordered Defendant to produce the complete, unredacted notes and

emails for in camera review [ECF 49], and the Court has reviewed those documents. Defendant also has invoked the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine in declining to respond fully to Plaintiff’s Requests for Production of Documents Nos. 5-8, and 10 and Plaintiff’s Interrogatory No. 7. Federal law applies to the Court’s determination of whether Defendant can rely on the attorney client privilege or the work product doctrine in this federal civil rights action. Remus v. Sheahan, 2006 WL 146006, at *1 (N.D. Ill. 2006); Fed. R. Evid. 501. The Court agrees with Plaintiff that Defendant and its counsel have waived the ability to rely upon the attorney client privilege or work product doctrine to shield

from discovery McLaughlin’s interview notes and his emails to Fialko and any other communications he had with Fialko about the interviews and McLaughlin’s investigation. Fialko’s state of mind when he decided to terminate Plaintiff and his reason for doing so is a central issue in this case. Fialko testified unequivocally during his deposition that he fired Plaintiff based upon what McLaughlin told him about his interviews of Plaintiff and Liggins and what was depicted in the lightened version of

the video. Transcript of Fialko Deposition [ECF 26-1], at 69:19-70:14; 76:6-80-1. By placing McLaughlin’s investigation of Plaintiff’s claims of discrimination and Fialko’s communications with McLaughlin about that investigation squarely at issue in this case, Defendant has forfeited the ability to rely upon the attorney client privilege or work product doctrine to shield from discovery counsel’s investigation and his communications with Fialko that led him to terminate Plaintiff. Remus v. Sheahan, 2006 WL 146006, *2 (“[t]he advice of counsel is placed in issue where the client asserts

a claim or defense, and attempts to prove that claim or defense by disclosing or describing an attorney client communication”), citing Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., v. Home Indemnity Co., 32 F.3d 851, 863 (3d Cir. 1994) (cited with approval in Garcia v. Zenith Electronics Corp., 58 F.3d 1171, 1175 n. 1 (7th Cir. 1995)); Musa-Muaremi v. Florists’ Transworld Delivery, Inc., 270 F.R.D. 312, 318 (N.D. Ill. 2010).2

2 During Fialko’s deposition, his attorney McLaughlin confirmed on the record that his communications with Fialko were the basis for Fialko’s decision to fire Plaintiff. Transcript Defendant argues that McLauglin’s “mental impressions” are sacrosanct and insulated from discovery. But McLaughlin’s so-called “mental impressions” were communicated to Fialko, and those communications form the basis of Fialko’s

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Hubert v. Oswego Junction Enterprises LLC d/b/a Prohibition Junction Sports Bar & Grill, (N.D. Ill. 2022).

Hubert v. Oswego Junction Enterprises LLC d/b/a Prohibition Junction Sports Bar & Grill (Hubert v. Oswego Junction Enterprises LLC d/b/a Prohibition Junction Sports Bar & Grill) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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