Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Texaco, Inc.

208 F.R.D. 329, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11496, 2002 WL 1286544
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedMay 15, 2002
DocketNo. 01-CV-642-P(J)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 208 F.R.D. 329 (Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Texaco, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Texaco, Inc., 208 F.R.D. 329, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11496, 2002 WL 1286544 (N.D. Okla. 2002).

Opinion

ORDER

JOYNER, United States Magistrate Judge.

Currently before the Court for consideration is the Motion to Compel Production of Documents from the Plaintiff filed by Defendant, Texaco, Inc. Defendant asserts that Plaintiff should be ordered to produce documents which Plaintiff claims are protected by the attorney client or the attorney work product privilege. Defendant claims that the documents should be produced because Plaintiff has waived the applicable privileges or because Plaintiff has placed the documents “at issue” in the litigation.

The Court has considered the briefs presented by the parties, the relevant case law, and the arguments of the parties. Defendant’s Motion to Compel is hereby GRANTED. [Docket No. 15-1]. The Court finds that Plaintiff has waived the attorney client privilege and work product doctrine with regard documents and communications in the prior state court litigation. The Court concludes that Plaintiff has not placed the documents “at issue” by the filing by Plaintiff of this lawsuit.

[331]*331I. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In 1977, the Defendant leased certain property to the City of Tulsa for 50 years. Plaintiff and Defendant, in 1983, entered a purchase agreement. Plaintiff purchased a refinery from Defendant. The purchase included the property which was previously leased to the City, and the purchase was made subject to lease to the City.

In 1989, Plaintiff gave permission to the City of Tulsa to install a sanitary sewer line through the leased property. Sometime in 1991, during process of installing the sewer line, the contractor for the City of Tulsa discovered some buried drums on the property. An environmental crew was hired to remove the drums. The supervisor of that environmental crew, Gary Medlin, was injured on October 1,1991.

In 1993, Gary Medlin sued Plaintiff and Defendant in Tulsa County state court. The Tulsa County District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Texaco (the Defendant in this action) and against Medlin. The lawsuit proceeded with Medlin’s claims against Sinclair (the Plaintiff in this action). Sinclair and Medlin eventually settled the state court litigation.

Following the settlement of the state court matter, Plaintiff sued Defendant in federal district court. Plaintiff sued claiming breach of contract, common law and statutory indemnification, and breach of implied covenant of good faith. Plaintiff additionally requested declaratory judgment.

Defendant filed this Motion to Compel requesting that the Court order Plaintiff to produce documents which Plaintiff claims are protected by either the attorney client privilege or the work product doctrine. Defendant claims that Plaintiff has waived the privilege and the doctrine or that Plaintiff has placed the documents “at issue.”

II. WAIVER ISSUES

Defendant initially claims that Plaintiff has waived the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine due to Plaintiffs selective disclosure of documents. Defendant notes that Plaintiff produced some privileged and work product documents to Defendant and that the production of some but not all documents leads to a complete waiver of the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine. Plaintiff acknowledges that some documents were produced to Plaintiff which were in the files of Plaintiffs attorney in the state court action, Randolph Jones. Plaintiff however, characterizes the documents which were produced to Defendant as containing solely factual information. Plaintiff disagrees with Defendant that any documents were produced which are protected by the attorney client privilege or the work product doctrine, and therefore denies that any waiver occurred.

Two separate waiver issues are presented to the Court. Plaintiffs privilege log cites both the attorney client privilege and the work product doctrine as a basis for withholding production of certain documents. Defendant asserts that Plaintiff has waived both the attorney client and the work product privilege. The Court will address each of these issues separately.

The Attorney Client Privilege

The parties agree that Oklahoma state law controls the issue of privilege. See Fed. R.Evid. 501 (“[I]n civil actions and proceedings, with respect to an element of a claim or defense as to which State law supplies the rule of decision, the privilege of a witness, person, government, State or political subdivision thereof shall be determined in accordance with State law.”). Oklahoma has a statute outlining the attorney client privilege.

A client has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing confidential communications made for the purpose of facilitating the rendition of professional legal services to the client:

1. Between himself or his representative and his attorney or his attorney’s representative.

12 O.S.2001, § 2502(B).

A Plaintiff usually has the burden of proof to show that a privilege does apply, and that documents are protected from produer tion. Under the unique circumstance in which Defendant presents this argument, [332]*332Plaintiff claims that the documents which have been produced by Plaintiff are not subject to the privilege and are not covered by the statute. Defendant is the party asserting that the Oklahoma privilege law applies to the documents which were produced by Plaintiff. Oklahoma law would suggest that Defendant has the burden of establishing that the documents which were produced are covered by the statute. See, e.g., Hurt v. State, 303 P.2d 476 (Okla.Ct.Crim.App.1956).

Certainly, a Court cannot countenance the selective production of otherwise privileged documents by a Plaintiff. The risk is obvious. A Plaintiff could choose to produce documents which are otherwise protected by the privilege which were beneficial to Plaintiffs case but would decline to produce privileged documents which might benefit the Defendant. To prevent such injustices, Courts have routinely held that the selective disclosure of otherwise privileged documents results in a waiver of the privilege.

In this case, the parties have a fundamental disagreement. Although both parties agree that certain documents were produced, Plaintiff asserts that the documents which were produced are not protected by any privilege. Plaintiff argues that these documents, although in some instances located in the attorneys files, are merely factual documents which were, in some cases, transmitted by the attorney to the client. Plaintiff asserts that these documents contain no attorney client privileged information because the documents relate only factual information. Plaintiff maintains that any documents which provided attorney advice to the client were not produced.

Plaintiff maintains that some of the documents which were sent by Plaintiffs pri- or attorney to Plaintiff but which communicated purely “factual information” are not attorney client communications. The Court disagrees. The Court understands, in principle, the distinction which Plaintiffs counsel is attempting to draw. And, in some respects, the Court applauds Plaintiffs counsel’s efforts at attempting to provide as much factual information to Defendant in discovery as possible.

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Bluebook (online)
208 F.R.D. 329, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11496, 2002 WL 1286544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sinclair-oil-corp-v-texaco-inc-oknd-2002.