Mlynarski v. Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center

572 N.E.2d 1025, 213 Ill. App. 3d 427, 157 Ill. Dec. 561, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 655
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 26, 1991
Docket1-90-0778
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 572 N.E.2d 1025 (Mlynarski v. Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mlynarski v. Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, 572 N.E.2d 1025, 213 Ill. App. 3d 427, 157 Ill. Dec. 561, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 655 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE EGAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, appeals from a finding of contempt for the defendant’s refusal to produce a document requested by the plaintiff.

Rita C. Mlynarski was admitted to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and had surgery on March 12, 1987. On April 1, 1987, while she was still in the hospital, she slipped and fell in or near the bathroom and was injured. She died on September 12, 1987, and her husband, Steve Mlynarski, filed an action in her name on October 16, 1987.

In its answers to the plaintiff’s interrogatories, the defendant identified all eyewitnesses to the occurrence, all persons at the scene immediately before and after the occurrence, all persons with knowledge of the facts of the plaintiff’s injuries, and all persons who rendered treatment on the date of the occurrence.

The plaintiff filed supplemental interrogatories. Supplemental interrogatory number 2 sought the identity of the person within the defendant’s risk management department who participated or claimed to have participated in the investigation of the accident. Interrogatory number 3 asked for the name and address of each person with whom members of the defendant’s risk management department had communicated. Interrogatory number 7 asked for any statements, memoranda, interviews or writings concerning communications between the defendant, risk management, the defendant’s attorneys or any other persons relative to the allegations of the complaint. The defendant objected to interrogatories 2 and 3 on the ground that they were overly broad, burdensome and sought information that was not relevant. It objected to interrogatory number 7 on the grounds that the information sought was protected by both the attorney-client privilege and the work-product privilege. The plaintiff filed a motion to compel the defendant to answer the interrogatories.

After a hearing, the judge overruled the defendant’s objections to interrogatories numbers 2 and 3, and ordered the defendant to answer them. The judge also ordered the defendant to provide the documents requested by interrogatory number 7 to the court for in camera inspection. The defendant filed its answers to interrogatory numbers 2 and 3; the answers revealed that Ruth Goldsberry, a coordinator in the defendant’s office of risk management, had investigated the decedent’s fall. The answers also disclosed the names and addresses of all but two of the persons that Goldsberry had contacted during the course of her investigation.

The judge conducted an in camera inspection of three documents requested by interrogatory number 7. She ruled that the first document, a letter from Goldsberry to the defendant’s outside counsel, was privileged. She also ruled that the second document, a memo from Goldsberry to the defendant’s general counsel, was privileged because it contained a discussion about settlement.

The judge ruled that a memorandum from Goldsberry to the defendant’s general counsel was not privileged and ordered the defendant to produce it. The memorandum consisted of summaries of statements from persons Goldsberry had interviewed. The judge explained that, although the statements contained in that memorandum were not verbatim statements of witnesses, the memorandum did not involve Goldsberry’s “mental machinations.”

The defendant’s attorney sent a letter to the plaintiff’s attorney indicating that the defendant did not intend to comply with the judge’s order to produce the April 16 memorandum. The plaintiff’s attorney filed a motion requesting the judge to compel the defendant’s compliance with the order or to impose sanctions. On February 22, 1990, the judge granted the plaintiff’s motion to compel, and the defendant was held in contempt of court and fined $1. The issue is whether the disputed memorandum is protected by the attorney-client or work-product privilege. In effect, the judge ruled that it was protected by neither. The defendant contends that it is protected by both.

The attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications made by a client to an attorney while seeking legal advice. (134 Ill. 2d R. 201(b)(2).) When the client is a corporation, however, the question becomes which employees of the corporation are entitled to the protection of the privilege when they communicate with the corporation’s attorneys. The Illinois Supreme Court has adopted what has been described as a “control group” test. (Consolidation Coal Co. v. Bucyrus-Erie Co. (1982), 89 Ill. 2d 103, 432 N.E.2d 250.) The court held that a rule limiting the privilege to employees forming “top management” was too narrow and adopted an expanded version of the control-group test:

“We believe that an employee whose advisory role to top management in a particular area is such that a decision would not normally be made without his advice or opinion, and whose opinion in fact forms the basis of any final decision by those with actual authority, is properly within the control group. However, the individuals upon whom he may rely for supplying information are not members of the control group. *** This approach, we think, better accommodates modern corporate realities and recognizes that decision-making within a corporation is a process rather than a final act.” (89 Ill. 2d at 120.)

Under the control-group test, there are two tiers of corporate employees whose communications with the corporation’s attorney are protected. The first tier consists of the decision-makers, or top management. The second tier consists of those employees who directly advise top management, and upon whose opinions and advice the decision-makers rely. 89 Ill. 2d at 120.

The party who claims the privilege has the burden of showing the facts which give rise to the privilege. (Claxton v. Thackston (1990), 201 Ill. App. 3d 232, 559 N.E.2d 82.) The question before us, therefore, is reduced to this: Has the defendant maintained its burden of showing that Goldsberry was a member of the control group? In support of its position the defendant submitted the affidavit of Sandra R. Jones, the director of the office of risk management and Golds-berry’s superior. Goldsberry held a position of coordinator. In her affidavit Jones said the following:

“All settlement decisions made with respect to litigated and non-litigated claims against the Medical Center are made jointly by Mr. Brown [the defendant’s general counsel], affiant [Jones] as Director, Office of Risk Management and the Coordinator in the Office of Risk Management who was assigned to handle the particular matter. Both affiant and the Coordinator assigned to any such matter are consulted from time to time both by Mr. Brown and by outside counsel to determine what legal action the medical center will pursue with respect to particular claims. The advice and opinions of affiant and the assigned coordinator form part of the basis for any decision to settle or litigate the matter.”

The defendant argues that the affidavit of Jones provides the necessary proof that Goldsberry was a member of the control group.

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Bluebook (online)
572 N.E.2d 1025, 213 Ill. App. 3d 427, 157 Ill. Dec. 561, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mlynarski-v-rush-presbyterian-st-lukes-medical-center-illappct-1991.