International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. v. United Telephone Co.

60 F.R.D. 177, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1140, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12860
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedJuly 3, 1973
DocketCiv. No. 72-17
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 60 F.R.D. 177 (International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. v. United Telephone Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. v. United Telephone Co., 60 F.R.D. 177, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1140, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12860 (M.D. Fla. 1973).

Opinion

ORDER

KRENTZMAN, District Judge.

This is an action brought pursuant to Section 4 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15, to recover for damages from defendant’s alleged violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2, together with a pendent claim for tortious interference with contractual relationships. Before the Court is plaintiff’s Rule 37 motion to compel, presenting for consideration the applicability of the attorney-client privilege in an action for damages resulting from alleged “sham” litigation as described in Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U.S. 127, 81 S.Ct. 523, 5 L.Ed.2d 464 (1961).

The controversy arises out of International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation’s proposed sale to and installation of a telephone system at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Foundation retirement facility known as Shell Point Village. Shell Point Village, at Ft. Myers, Florida, is located within the geographic area served by defendant United Telephone Company of Florida, as holder of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity issued by the Florida Public Service Commission.

The plaintiff alleges, inter alia, that defendant violated the Sherman Act by filing a complaint before the Florida Public Service Commission “to prevent execution of the ITT/SPV contract knowing that there existed no legal basis for the complaint and using the sham and frivolous proceeding to terminate the contractual relationship between SPV and ITT.”

The central aspect of the plaintiff’s claim being the litigation before the Public Service Commission, the plaintiff filed interrogatories and requests for production of documents pertaining to matters surrounding the institution and prosecution of the action before the Commission, as well as prior meetings, memoranda and discussions relative to the plaintiff’s sale of telephonic equipment at the Shell Point Village.

The defendant filed objections to certain of the interrogatories and requests for production based, among other things, on the attorney-client and work product privileges, whereupon the plaintiff filed this motion to compel pursuant [180]*180to Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.1

I

Discovery and Privileged Matters

Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows discovery in civil cases “regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action.” The same common law rules of privilege govern the scope of discovery as generally govern the admissability of evidence at trial. United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 73 S.Ct. 528, 97 L.Ed. 727 (1953).2 Accordingly, material subject to the attorney-client or work products privileges is not discoverable unless said material falls within some exception to the rule.

The rule relative to the attorney-client privilege is that the client has a privilege, which may be waived, to refuse to disclose and to prevent his attorney and others within the confidential relationship from disclosing, communications between the client and his attorney within the course of the professional relationship.

Once the elements of the attorney-client privilege are established, that privilege has, in the past, been as absolute' as any known in the law. However, there have been exceptions to the inviolability of this privilege, one being where the communications made by the client to his attorney were made for the purpose of being guided or assisted in the commission of a crime or fraud. Pollock v. United States, 202 F.2d 281 (5 Cir. 1953).

In Garner, supra, at note 2, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit mentioned the traditional crime-fraud exception to the privilege and went on to say:

“But we do not consider unavailability of the privilege to be confined to the narrow ground of prospective criminal transactions. The differences between prospective crime and prospective action of questionable legality, or prospective fraud, are differences of degree, not of principle.” 430 F.2d at 1103.

Accordingly, Garner indicates that there are no nice tests for the determination of whether the privilege should or should not be available. The privilege may be overcome, not only where fraud or crime is involved, but also where there are other substantial abuses of the attorney-client relationship.

The crux of the plaintiff’s contention here is that the defendant’s communications with counsel fall within the improper purpose doctrine in that they were made for the purpose of instituting a “sham” proceeding before the Florida Public Service Commission.3 That con[181]*181tention is also the crux of the plaintiff’s complaint.4

II

Movant’s Burden

The question next arises as to the burden of proof necessary to overcome a well-pleaded claim of attorney-client privilege. The courts of the United States have not followed the older English rule that the mere charge of illegality will overcome the privilege to be given to confidential communications. As the Supreme Court stated in Clark v. United States, 289 U.S. 1 (1933) at 14, 53 S.Ct. 465 at 533, 77 L.Ed. 993:

“ . . . we do not mean that a mere charge of wrongdoing will avail without more to put the privilege to flight. There must be a showing of a prima facie case sufficient to satisfy the judge that the light should be let in.”

The lower courts’ interpretations of what constitutes a “prima facie case” has not been uniform. It was held in Securities & Exchange Commission v. Harrison, 80 F.Supp. 226 (D.D.C.1948) that in order to establish a prima facie case there had to be evidence sufficient “to reasonably justify a verdict of wrong doing which would be sustained.” 80 F.Supp. at 232. More recently the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit wrote in Pfizer, Inc. v. Lord, 456 F.2d 545 (1972) at 549:

“Under present law, a party seeking to overcome a claim of attorney-client privilege by invoking the improper purpose exception has the burden of producing sufficient evidence to sustain a finding that the challenged communications were made in furtherance of a crime or tort.” (emphasis supplied).

The Fifth Circuit, however, has avoided the use of the term

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60 F.R.D. 177, 19 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1140, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-telephone-telegraph-corp-v-united-telephone-co-flmd-1973.