Stamps v. Town of Framingham

38 F. Supp. 3d 134, 2014 WL 1598019, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52729
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedApril 16, 2014
DocketCivil No. 12-11908-FDS
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 38 F. Supp. 3d 134 (Stamps v. Town of Framingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stamps v. Town of Framingham, 38 F. Supp. 3d 134, 2014 WL 1598019, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52729 (D. Mass. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO COMPEL

SAYLOR, District Judge.

I. Background

This is a civil rights action arising out of the shooting of an individual during the execution of a search warrant. On January 25, 2011, Eurie Stamps, Sr., was shot and killed in his home by defendant Paul Duncan, an officer of the Framingham Police Department. Plaintiffs Eurie Stamps, Jr., and Norma Stamps are the co-administrators of the elder Stamps’s estate. They have brought suit on behalf of the estate against Duncan and the Town of Framingham, alleging violations of the constitutional rights of the elder Stamps under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and wrongful death under the Massachusetts Torts Claims Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 258, § 2.

The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office performed an investigation into Stamps’s death to determine whether Duncan, or any other individual, should be prosecuted. The office decided against prosecuting Duncan.

Plaintiffs have subpoenaed the DA’s Office for its investigative file on Stamps’s death. The DA’s Office refused to produce the file, contending that the documents were privileged. Plaintiffs then filed a motion to compel, which was referred to Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings.

On December 3, 2013, the Magistrate Judge granted the motion to compel as to a number of the disputed documents and directed that others be produced for in [139]*139camera inspection. Following the in camera inspection, the Magistrate Judge granted the motion to compel as to some documents but denied it as to others. In particular, the Magistrate Judge ruled that the documents on pages 1-16,100-01,150-202, 817, and 919-24 were not privileged because the DA’s office had not provided evidence of “who made the notes, when they were made, or how they were intended to be used.” (Magistrate Judge’s Mem. and Order, Docket No. 71, at 3). The Magistrate Judge also ruled that the documents on pages 146-49, 211-14, and 323-24 were protected by the deliberative process privilege, and the documents on pages 262-63 were protected by the attorney work-product doctrine.

On March 3, 2014, the DA’s office filed a motion for reconsideration, contending that the documents on pages 1-16, 100-01, 150-202, 817, and 919-24 were protected by the attorney work-product doctrine. As part of that motion, it supplemented the record with an affidavit from John Verner, the assistant district attorney who investigated Stamps’ death. In his affidavit, Verner stated that he personally prepared the documents on pages 1-16, 150-202, and 817 as part of his review of Stamps’s death for potential criminal liability. (Verner Aff., Docket No. 75, Ex. 1 ¶ 4). He also stated that the documents on pages 100-01 were prepared by a police officer who was participating in the investigation; he remembers that a police officer handed him the notes at the scene of Stamps’s death, but does not remember which officer. (Id. ¶ 5). Finally, he states that he wrote the handwritten notes on pages 919-24 as part of his investigation. (Id. at 6).

The Magistrate Judge denied the motion for reconsideration, stating that it would be unfair for him to consider the late production of relevant evidence on the issue of privilege. The DA’s office filed an objection to the Magistrate Judge’s order on the motion for reconsideration, contending that it did not discover that Verner wrote the notes until February 27, 2014, and that the timing of the production of Verner’s affidavit did not constitute a waiver of the privilege.

Plaintiffs have also filed an objection to the Magistrate Judge’s order, contending that the deliberative process privilege and the attorney work-product doctrine do not apply to the documents on pages 146-49, 211-14, 262-63, and 323-24.1

II. Standard

A party may object to a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation on nondispositive matters. ' Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(a). “The district judge in the case must consider timely objections and modify or set aside any part of the order that is clearly erroneous or is contrary to law.” ■Id.

A court must quash or modify a subpoena that “requires disclosure of privileged or other protected matter, if no exception or waiver applies.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 42(d)(3). Under Rule 45, a party withholding privileged information under a claim that it is privileged must (1) expressly make the claim and (2) describe the nature of the withheld documents that will enable the parties to assess the claim. Fed. R.Civ.P. 45(e)(2)(A). In federal cases, “[t]he common law—as interpreted by United States courts in the light of reason and experience—governs a claim of privilege.” Fed.R.Evid. 501.2

[140]*140“In a discovery dispute, the burden to establish an applicable privilege rests with the party resisting discovery.” FDIC v. Ogden Corp., 202 F.3d 454, 460 (1st Cir.2000). Where, as here, a party asserts a qualified privilege,

a trial court is ... obliged to balance conflicting interests on a case-by-case basis in ruling on particular claims of privilege. When particular documents have been determined to be covered by a qualified privilege, a party seeking discovery of those documents must make a threshold showing of need, amounting to more than “mere speculation.” Once this burden is met, an in camera review of the documents in question ... is a relatively costless and eminently worthwhile method to insure that the balance between one party’s claims of irrelevance and privilege and the other’s- asserted need for the documents is correctly struck.

Association for Reduction of Violence v. Hall, 734 F.2d 63, 66 (1st Cir.1984) (internal quotations and citations omitted). While “the interest of the party seeking disclosure tends to be strongest when the information in question is highly relevant, helpful, and unavailable from other sources,” “the interest of the party asserting a privilege tends to be strongest when the information in question falls squarely within the definition of privilege, and its disclosure would undermine the public interest in free, candid and uninhibited exchange of information.” Id.

III. Analysis

A. The Deliberative-Process Privilege

It is well-settled under federal law that there is a qualified privilege “for intragovernmentál memoranda containing opinions or recommendations of policy-making rather than purely factual import.” Hall, 734 F.2d at 66.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 F. Supp. 3d 134, 2014 WL 1598019, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52729, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stamps-v-town-of-framingham-mad-2014.