In re 1980 United States Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum

502 F. Supp. 576, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15451
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedDecember 5, 1980
DocketMisc. No. 496
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 502 F. Supp. 576 (In re 1980 United States Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re 1980 United States Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum, 502 F. Supp. 576, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15451 (E.D. La. 1980).

Opinion

CHARLES SCHWARTZ, Jr., District Judge.

This matter arises on the motion of the state of Louisiana to quash the subpoena [578]*578duces tecum issued by the United States directing Hunter O. Wagner, Jr., Louisiana’s commissioner of financial institutions, to produce “any and all records pertaining to applications for charter by any groups for the establishment of a banking institution in Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana.”

The state moves to quash this subpoena duces tecum on four separate grounds. These are:

1) the subpoena is unreasonable and oppressive;
2) there has been no showing that the subpoenaed records are relevant to a legitimate ongoing grand jury investigation;
3) the United States gave no notice of the subpoena to charter applicants or chartered banks; and
4) Section 44:4 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes prohibits the commissioner from releasing the requested material because it is specifically excluded from the realm of “public records”; should the commissioner comply with the subpoena, he would subject himself to potential criminal and civil liability.

As to the first of the offered grounds for quashing, the Court bears in mind the permissible and indeed necessary breadth allowed to grand juries in their investigative work. United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709-710, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 3108, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1976); Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665, 700, 92 S.Ct. 2646, 2666, 33 L.Ed.2d 626 (1972). The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has suggested a three-pronged test for analyzing claims of overbreadth of subpoenas. Their criteria are:

1) The subpoena may command only the production of things relevant to the investigation of the thing being pursued.
2) Specification of things to be produced must be made with reasonable particularity.
3) Production of records covering only a reasonable period of time may be required.

United States v. Gurule, 437 F.2d 239 (10th Cir. 1970); Matter of Berry, 521 F.2d 179 (10th Cir. 1975). We find these criteria to be reasonable guidelines for the issues presented here.

Counsel for the commissioner acknowledged that the requested materials existed in some relatively discrete condition. In its brief opposing the state’s motion to quash, the United States notes that it has received information that no more than five applications were received in the ten year period from 1970 to 1980. Assuming that this is the case, the subpoena could hardly be called oppressive. On the other hand, given the Assistant United States Attorney’s statement at argument that it is the applications received during that ten year time period in which the United States is interested, the United States should have so constructed the subpoena initially in order to avoid forcing the commissioner to search through decades of unneeded and unwanted records. With this agreed-upon modification, the Court does not find the subpoena to be either oppressive or unreasonable.

As to the second reason assigned for quashing the subpoena, the United States has responded that the materials are needed for an ongoing grand jury investigation. There is no requirement that the United States at this time specify which statutes may have been violated by whom. Blair v. United States, 250 U.S. 273, 39 S.Ct. 468, 63 L.Ed. 979 (1919); In re Morgan, 377 F.Supp. 281 (S.D.N.Y.1974). It is of course axiomatic that grand jury proceedings are secret. In order to satisfy itself as to the existence and legitimacy of an ongoing grand jury investigation to which the documents at issue here are relevant, the Court ordered the Assistant United States Attorney to appear at an ex parte, in camera hearing to establish a proper basis for the subpoena. She did so, and the Court is convincec. of the legitimacy of the current investigation and the relevance of the subpoenaed material to it. The procedure adopted by the Court was specifically approved by the Tenth Circuit in In re September 1975 [579]*579Grand Jury Term, 535 F.2d 734 (10th Cir. 1976).1

The commissioner argues that the United States failed to comply with statutory requirements to give notice to parties, records of whose dealings are maintained in files in his office, that such records were being sought and thereby failed to give them opportunity to assert any privilege which would prohibit the dissemination of the documents. Upon careful reading of the statutes the implication of which is argued by the commissioner, however, the Court is convinced that there is no state or federal law which in any sense precludes the commissioner with complying with the subpoena request.

Section 3571 of Title 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes provides that banks and other offerors of credit are not to release information relating to credit transactions except through a process by which those whose records are sought are notified and given opportunity to contest such release. Subsection (E) of Section 3571, however, specifically exempts from the provision of the Section “any request by a law enforcement agency for information sought in connection with an investigation of any alleged crime other than an investigation into a crime which constitutes a violation of federal, state, or municipal tax law.” Thus, Section 3571 provides no leg on which the commissioner may stand in moving to quash the subpoena. In the current situation there is no apparent requirement of notice to any party whose application records are being sought; such documents could hardly by the furthest leap of the imagination be considered “credit records.” Even if there were such a general requirement of notice here, the statute itself waives it in this grand jury situation.

Similarly, the federal Financial Privacy Act of 1978, 12 U.S.C. § 3401 et seq., requires generally that notice be given to customers of banks whose records are sought. Whether the documents here at issue are such records within the statutory definition of the term is highly questionable. 12 U.S.C. § 3401. However, records not specifically identifiable with an individual are not covered by the statute. 12 U.S.C. § 3413(a). Further, the Financial Privacy Act explicitly exempts from its provisions grand jury subpoena such as the one here. 12 U.S.C. § 3420.

The commissioner cites Section 4

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Related

In Re Grand Jury
737 So. 2d 1 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1999)
In Re Subpoena Duces Tecum Directed to Dillon
824 F. Supp. 330 (W.D. New York, 1992)
In Re Grand Jury Subpoena
688 F. Supp. 319 (W.D. Tennessee, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
502 F. Supp. 576, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-1980-united-states-grand-jury-subpoena-duces-tecum-laed-1980.