In re Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for Puerto Rico

390 F. Supp. 3d 311
United States District Court·Decided June 27, 2019·No. No. 17 BK 3283-LTS (Jointly Administered); No. 17 BK 3566-LTS·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

LAURA TAYLOR SWAIN, United States District Judge

Before the Court are (i) the Objection of Certain ERS Bondholders to the Magistrate *315Judge's May 6 and May 15, 2019 Orders on Motions to Compel (Docket Entry No. 7035 in Case No. 17-3283,2 the "Objection") and (ii) the Reply in Support of Objection of Certain ERS Bondholders to the Magistrate Judge's May 6 and May 15, 2019 Orders on Motions to Compel and Objection to May 30, 2019 Order (Docket Entry No. 7435, the "Reply") (the Objection and the Reply together, the "Objections").3 Through the Objections, the Bondholders seek to set aside the Order on Motions to Compel issued by Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein on May 6, 2019 (Docket Entry No. 6836, the "May 6 Order"), the Supplemental Order on Motions to Compel issued by Judge Dein on May 15, 2019 (Docket Entry No. 6971, the "May 15 Order"), and the Order on Motion to Compel issued by Judge Dein on May 30, 2019 (Docket Entry No. 7166, the "May 30 Order") (collectively, the "Discovery Orders"), which collectively denied various motions filed by the Bondholders seeking to compel the production of documents in connection with the Motion of Certain Secured Creditors of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for Relief from the Automatic Stay (Docket Entry No. 3418, the "Stay Relief Motion"). The Court has reviewed carefully the Discovery Orders and all pertinent submissions of the parties. For the reasons stated below, the Objections are overruled as set forth herein.

BACKGROUND

On February 25, 2019, by Order Granting Urgent Motion to Expedite Consideration of Motion of Certain Secured Creditors of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for Relief from the Automatic Stay (Docket Entry No. 371 in Case No. 17-3566, the "Scheduling Order"), this Court set an expedited schedule for consideration of the Stay Relief Motion and referred any related discovery disputes to Judge Dein. In accordance with the Scheduling Order and subsequent orders entered by this Court,4 the Bondholders renewed their previously-served discovery demands, and also served new discovery requests, upon ERS, the Commonwealth, the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority ("AAFAF") (ERS, the Commonwealth, and AAFAF, collectively, the "Government Parties"), and the Financial Oversight Management Board for Puerto Rico (the "Oversight Board"). As relevant here, the Bondholders sought discovery from the Government Parties regarding the planning and legislative intent behind House Joint Resolution 188 of 2017 ("J.R. 188") and Act No. 106, which together in 2017 implemented a "pay as you go" ("PayGo") system for Commonwealth employee pension contributions. Although the Government Parties produced some materials responsive to the Bondholders' discovery demands, they also withheld certain documents under the deliberative process privilege, executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, and common interest doctrine.

On March 21, 2019, the Bondholders filed the Motion of Certain Secured Creditors *316of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to Compel Discovery (Docket Entry No. 5972, the "March 21 Motion") seeking, inter alia, an order compelling the Government Parties "to produce a privilege log that provides the information necessary for the Bondholders and the Court to assess their claims of privilege." By Order dated April 2, 2019 (Docket Entry No. 6111), which resolved the March 21 Motion, Judge Dein permitted the Government Parties to serve categorical privilege logs, provided that the logs included certain enumerated information. The Government Parties served a categorical privilege log on April 10, 2019, a revised categorical privilege log on April 12 (the "April 12 Log"), and an individual entry log on April 14.5 (See Government Parties' Response to Movants' Objection to Magistrate Judge's May 6, 2019 and May 15, 2019 Orders on Motions to Compel (Docket Entry No. 7293, the "Response"), ¶ 12.) The April 12 Log identified the following seven categories of withheld documents:

1. Confidential communications with in-house counsel and/or outside counsel providing, requesting, and/or discussing legal advice in connection with anticipated and ongoing litigation with ERS bondholders.
2. Confidential communications with in-house counsel and/or outside counsel providing, requesting, and/or discussing legal advice in connection with pension reform proposals, including conversion to PayGo, the PayGo fee structure, legal theories regarding potential litigation, and treatment of benefits.
3. Confidential communications with in-house counsel and/or outside counsel providing, requesting, and/or discussing legal advice in connection with PayGo implementation, including treatment, calculation, invoicing, and collection of PayGo fees.
4. Confidential communications with in-house counsel and/or outside counsel providing, requesting, and/or discussing legal advice concerning draft pension reform legislation including circulating and commenting on interim drafts and analyses of Joint Resolution 188 and Act 106.
5. Confidential, pre-decisional, deliberative communications regarding pension reform legislation, including circulating and commenting on interim drafts, analyses of, and presentations on conversion to PayGo, PayGo fee structure, and treatment of benefits in connection with Joint Resolution 188 (enacted June 25, 2017) and Act 106 (enacted August 23, 2017).
6. Confidential, pre-decisional, deliberative communications and/or documents regarding the drafting of fiscal plans and budgetary reporting documents concerning the effect of PayGo on Commonwealth budget and collection of PayGo fees, including communications circulating and commenting on interim drafts and analyses.
7. Confidential, pre-decisional, deliberative AAFAF communications with Hacienda concerning PayGo implementation, including treatment, calculation, invoicing, and collection of PayGo fees.

(Docket Entry No. 6253-2.)

On April 15 and April 16, 2019, respectively, the Bondholders filed the Motion of Certain Secured Creditors of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to Compel Production of Documents in Privilege Log Categories 1 to 4 [Attorney-Client *317Privilege, Attorney Work Product, Common Interest] (Docket Entry No. 6253, the "Attorney-Client Privilege Motion") and the Motion of Certain Creditors of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to Compel Production of Documents in Privilege Log Categories 1, 5 to 7 [Deliberative Process Privilege and Executive Privilege] (Docket Entry No. 6320, the "Deliberative Process Privilege Motion" and, together with the Attorney-Client Privilege Motion, the "Motions to Compel"). Through the Motions to Compel, the Bondholders demanded production of all documents identified as privileged in the Government Parties' logs.

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In re Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for Puerto Rico, 390 F. Supp. 3d 311 (usdistct 2019).

390 F. Supp. 3d 311 (In re Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for Puerto Rico) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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