Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp. v. Humana, Inc.

258 F.R.D. 684, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107977, 2009 WL 982449
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedApril 9, 2009
DocketNo. 08-20424-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 258 F.R.D. 684 (Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp. v. Humana, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp. v. Humana, Inc., 258 F.R.D. 684, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107977, 2009 WL 982449 (S.D. Fla. 2009).

Opinion

ORDER REGARDING DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR IN CAMERA REVIEW

ANDREA M. SIMONTON, United States Magistrate Judge.

Presently pending before the Court are Plaintiffs’ Request for In Camera Review [688]*688and Finding of Waiver of Attorney Client Privilege (DE # 158),1 and Defendant’s Cross-Motion to Determine Inadvertent Disclosure of Privileged Emails (DE # 179).2 A hearing was held before the undersigned Magistrate Judge on April 3, 2009. Based upon a careful review of the record as a whole, include the parties’ arguments at the April 3, 2009 hearing, and for the reasons stated herein, Plaintiffs motion is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART; and, Defendant’s cross-motion is DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp. and Preferred Care Partners, Inc. (collectively, “PCP”) brought this action against Defendant Humana, Inc. to recover damages that it alleges resulted from unsuccessful negotiations to sell PCP to Humana. The jurisdiction of this Court is based upon diversity of citizenship pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. According to the Amended Complaint, PCP operates a health plan with a Medicare Advantage Contract which puts them in direct competition with Humana. In 2007, the parties began negotiating a sale of PCP to Humana; and, as part of the due diligence process, PCP permitted Humana to view its sensitive proprietary information (“due diligence information”) under the terms of a Confidentiality Agreement.

After the negotiations failed, PCP alleges, Humana breached the Confidentiality Agreement by, inter alia, using the due diligence information to compete with PCP; disclosing the due diligence information to third parties; representing to the public that a sale of PCP to Humana was imminent; using the due diligence information to target and poach PCP’s physician providers and their patients; and failing to destroy all of the due diligence information at the close of the negotiations (Count I). In addition, PCP sought specific performance and injunctive relief to prevent Humana from using the due diligence information to compete with PCP; disclosing the due diligence information to third parties; disclosing the fact that PCP and Humana discussed a sale; contacting PCP’s providers or members; and, to require Humana to destroy all of the due diligence information in its possession (Count II). PCP also sued Humana for monetary damages (Count III) and injunctive relief (Count IV) under the Florida Trade Secrets Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 688.001-688.009, as well as for tortious interference with advantageous business relationships (Count V) and breach of fiduciary duty (Count VI) (DE# 90).

II. THE INSTANT MOTIONS

These motions arise from Humana’s supplemental production of over 10,000 pages of documents on January 16, 2009, approximately two months after the expiration of the discovery deadline, which passed on November 17, 2008.

On February 26,2009, PCP filed its motion for in camera review, seeking a ruling from this Court that the attorney-client privilege does not apply to three emails that Humana turned over to it on January 16, 2009— namely, the ‘Wilson Email,” the “Print and Purge Email” and the “50/50 Email;” and, that Humana waived the attorney-client privilege as to all documents produced on January 16, 2009, including the Wilson Email, the Print and Purge Email and the 50/50 Email, as well as emails numbered HUMANA SUPP 0099803 and HUMANA SUPP 004080-004081 4 (DE # 158).

On March 16, 2009, Humana filed a response and cross-motion, in which it asserts that a fourth email delivered to PCP on January 16, 2009 — the “Valuation Email” — is subject to the attorney-client privilege; and, [689]*689that it did not waive the privilege based on its disclosure (DE # 173).

III. LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

A. The Attorney-Client Pñvilege

In a diversity action such as this one, state law governs the scope of the attorney-client privilege. See 1550 Brickell Assocs. v. Q.B.E. Ins. Co., 253 F.R.D. 697, 699 (S.D.Fla.2008). Pursuant to Florida law, “[a] communication between lawyer and client is ‘confidential’ if it is not intended to be disclosed to third persons.” Fla. Stat. § 90.502(1)(c); accord Cunningham v. Appel, 831 So.2d 214, 215 (Fla. 5th Dist.Ct.App. 2002). The Florida Supreme Court has held that the standard for asserting the privilege is more stringent for corporations than it is for individuals and, therefore, a corporation seeking to shield a communication between lawyer and client from disclosure bears the burden of proving, among other things, that: “the communication would not have been made but for the contemplation of legal services; ... the content of the communication relates to the legal services being rendered;” and “the communication is not disseminated beyond those persons who, because of the corporate structure, need to know its contents.” 1550 Brickell, 253 F.R.D. at 699 (citing Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Deason, 632 So.2d 1377, 1383 (Fla.1994)).

The burden of proof rests squarely on the party claiming the attorney-client privilege to show that the primary purpose of the communication in question was for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, not business advice. See Carpenter v. Mohawk Indus., Inc., No. 4:07-CV-0049-HLM, 2007 WL 5971741, at *9 (N.D.Ga. Oct. 1, 2007) (“When advice given by an attorney relates to both business and legal matters, the legal advice must predominate in order for the attorney-client privilege to apply.”); Hasty v. Lockheed Martin Corp., No. Civ. A. 98-1950, 1999 WL 600322, at *2 (E.D.La. Aug. 6, 1999) (“[T]he business aspects of [a corporate] decision are not protected simply because legal considerations are also involved;” and, “in those cases where the document does not contain sufficient information to indicate whether the material was considered confidential, that material should not be privileged.”). As the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida explained,

“[t]here is general agreement that the protection of the privilege applies only if the primary or predominate purpose of the attorney-client consultations is to seek legal advice or assistance.” [1 Paul R. Rice, Attorney-Client Privilege in the United States] § 7:5. “There are substantial policy reasons for holding that business documents submitted for attorney review are not by that virtue automatically exempt as privileged or work product protected communications.” Visa USA, Inc. v. First Data Corp., 2004 WL 1878209, *8 (N.D.Cal.2004).
The structure of certain business enterprises, when their legal departments have broad powers, and the manner in which they circulate documents is broad, has consequences that those companies must live with relative to their burden of persuasion when privilege is asserted. See, e.g., In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, 501 F.Supp.2d 789, 805 (E.D.La.2007).

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258 F.R.D. 684, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107977, 2009 WL 982449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/preferred-care-partners-holding-corp-v-humana-inc-flsd-2009.