Minnesota Specialty Crops, Inc. v. Minnesota Wild Hockey Club, L.P.

210 F.R.D. 673, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20804, 2002 WL 31387726
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedAugust 9, 2002
DocketCiv. No. 00-2317 (JRT/RLE)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 210 F.R.D. 673 (Minnesota Specialty Crops, Inc. v. Minnesota Wild Hockey Club, L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Minnesota Specialty Crops, Inc. v. Minnesota Wild Hockey Club, L.P., 210 F.R.D. 673, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20804, 2002 WL 31387726 (mnd 2002).

Opinion

ORDER

ERICKSON, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction

On April 11, 2002, the Court heard argument on the Plaintiffs Motion to Compel Discovery. At the time of the Hearing, the Plaintiff appeared by Peter M. Lancaster, Esq., and the Defendants appeared by Frederick W. Morris, and Timothy P. Griffin, Esqs. For reasons which follow, we grant the Plaintiffs Motion.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

This is one of a series of Discovery Motions that have been brought by one or the [674]*674other of the parties to this action. On December 13, 2001, we heard argument on the Plaintiff’s Motion for an Order which would compel the Defendants to produce certain privileged documents, following the Defendants’ waiver of its previously asserted attorney/client and work product privileges, when they adopted an “advice-of-counsel” defense to the Plaintiffs trademark infringement claims. Previously, the Defendants had not produced any documents, which had been generated after February 12, 1998 — which was a date that fell a few weeks after the Defendants received the Plaintiffs “cease and desist” letter — claiming that, after that date, all their otherwise discoverable documents were protected by the work product doctrine, as they had been prepared in anticipation of litigation.

In an Order dated December 21, 2001, we agreed with the Plaintiff that, “by raising the advice-of-counsel defense, the Defendants ha[d] waived their privilege as to all documents upon which that defense is based, and which were not prepared in anticipation of litigation,” and we concluded that the Defendants’ use of an assumed date for the assertion of the work product privilege, without reference to the subject matter of the document for which privilege had been asserted, was inappropriate. Accordingly, we granted the Plaintiffs Motion, and instructed the Defendants that, “irrespective of when a document was prepared, [they] should produce any documents, or relevant parts thereof, that [were] related to their advice-of-counsel defense,” except those that were “not related to such a defense, and [were] legally privileged.” Order of December 21, 2001, at 10.

Now the Plaintiff returns, and complains that the Defendants have not complied with our Order, as the Defendants only produced a single, additional document, in response to that Order’s directive.' The Plaintiff contends that the Defendants have continued to unfairly engage in a “selective invocation of privilege and work product protection to use and publicize the attorney communications that they believe benefit them while they continue to hide those that do not.” Plaintiffs Memorandum in Support of Motion to Compel (“Plaintiffs Brief’), at 1. The Plaintiff asks that we direct the Defendants to produce: “All documents discussing [the Plaintiffs] trademark rights in ‘MINNESOTA WILD’ or related design or how such rights might be affected by defendants’ actions or contemplated actions.” Plaintiffs April 12, 2002 Letter Brief to the Court.

In response, the Defendants contend that, after receiving our Order of December 21, they “reviewed their file and identified a small number of documents prepared after February 12,1998 concerning advice of counsel relating to the Hockey Club’s use of ‘Minnesota Wild.’” Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion to Compel (“Defendants’ Brief’), at 6. However, the Defendants contend that with “one exception,” those documents “were obviously and expressly prepared in anticipation of litigation,” and thus were not produced. Id. The Defendants assert that the scope of discovery, which has been identified by the Plaintiff, is “overbroad and unworkable,” and that the only documents which remain in issue are those “relating to advice of counsel provided to defendants concerning the adoption and use of ‘Minnesota Wild’ by the Hockey Club or NHLE that have not been produced on a claim of privilege.” Defendants’ April 16, 2002 Letter Brief. The Defendants suggested, as a solution to the parties’ disagreement, that the subject, undisclosed documents be submitted to the Court for an in camera review.

At the time of the Hearing we expressed our belief that, perhaps, the dispute between the parties could only be resolved by an in camera review of the disputed documents. However, given the Plaintiffs concern, that the Defendants had not properly defined the scope of the documents which were to be submitted for that review, we permitted the parties to submit supplemental briefing on this issue. See, In re Pabst Licensing GmbH Patent Litigation, 2001 WL 797315 (E.D.La., July, 2001), citing Glenmede Trust Co. v. Thompson, 56 F.3d 476, 486 (3rd Cir.1995). In addition, we asked the Defendants to include, with the documents that they were producing for in camera review, a privilege log, which would describe the submitted [675]*675documents,1 and a roster of the key players, in order that we would be informed as to the identities of the authors, and recipients of the documents. Upon receipt of those submissions, we took the Plaintiffs Motion under consideration.

III. Discussion

The inquiry before the Court is dual-faceted. First, we are obliged to define the world of documents that are discoverable, in view of the Defendants’ assertion of an advice-of-counsel defense, and its attendant waiver of privilege. Necessarily, this requires our determination of whether the Defendants had gathered all of the relevant documents, based upon a proper appreciation of the scope of the privileges being waived, to be submitted for our review. If the Defendants’ identification of relevant documents were overly narrow, then our review would be correlatingly ineffectual. Second, we are obliged to determine whether the documents produced by the Defendants, for our in camera review, are properly discoverable.

A. Standard of Review. Generally, discovery may inquire into all information, not otherwise privileged, that is relevant to the subject matter of the action, provided that it is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. See, Rule 26(b) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. However, a privilege which would otherwise protect certain materials from discovery can be voluntarily waived, such as “when a party asserts an advice of counsel defense, [and] waives the attorney-client privilege with respect to ‘all communications to and from counsel concerning the transaction for which counsel’s advice was sought.’ ” Greene, Tweed of Delaware, Inc. v. DuPont Dow Elastomers, L.L.C., 202 F.R.D. 418, 420 (E.D.Pa.2001), quoting Applied Telematics, Inc. v. Sprint Corp., 1995 WL 567436 *1 (E.D.Pa., Sept. 21, 1995).

The assertion of an advice-of-counsel defense, can also serve as a waiver of attorney work product immunity. See, Mushroom Assoc. v. Monterey Mushrooms, Inc., 1992 WL 442892 *3 (N.D.Cal., May 19, 1992). However, “[b]ecause the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine have different standards of waiver, they must be considered separately,” and the scope of the waiver of these protections may not be identical. SNK Corp. of America v.

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210 F.R.D. 673, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20804, 2002 WL 31387726, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minnesota-specialty-crops-inc-v-minnesota-wild-hockey-club-lp-mnd-2002.