The Salvation Army Kelley v. Bennett

273 P.3d 656, 229 Ariz. 204, 629 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 11, 2012 WL 687844, 2012 Ariz. App. LEXIS 30
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMarch 2, 2012
Docket2 CA-SA 2011-0091
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 273 P.3d 656 (The Salvation Army Kelley v. Bennett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Salvation Army Kelley v. Bennett, 273 P.3d 656, 229 Ariz. 204, 629 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 11, 2012 WL 687844, 2012 Ariz. App. LEXIS 30 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

ESPINOSA, Judge.

¶ 1 In this special action, petitioners the Salvation A’my and John and Kyna Kelley (herein collectively referred to as the Salvation Army), defendants in the underlying personal-injury action that arose from the near drowning of real party in interest Ethan Bennett, challenge the respondent judge’s order requiring them to produce redacted summaries of interviews of four of the Salvation Army’s employees and six of its volunteers. An investigator had conducted the interviews at the direction of the Salvation A'my’s attorneys, and the Salvation A’my maintains the summaries are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the workproduet doctrine. We accept jurisdiction because the Salvation Army has no remedy by appeal and because “a special action ‘is the proper means to seek relief when a party believes a trial court has ordered disclosure of material protected by a privilege or work product shield.” Green v. Nygaard, 213 Ariz. 460, ¶ 6, 143 P.3d 393, 395 (App.2006), quoting Emergency Care Dynamics, Ltd. v. Superior Court, 188 Ariz. 32, 33, 932 P.2d 297, 298 (App.1997).

¶ 2 It also is appropriate to accept special-action jurisdiction here because, at least with respect to the interviews of the Salvation Amy’s employees, the challenge to the respondent judge’s ruling involves “a pure issue of law that may be decided without further factual inquiry.” Winner Enters., Ltd. v. Superior Court, 159 Ariz. 106, 108, 765 P.2d 116, 118 (App.1988). For the reasons that follow, we conclude those interviews fall within the provisions of AR.S. § 12-2234 and therefore are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Accordingly, we vacate the respondent judge’s order requiring the Salvation Amy to disclose summaries of the interviews of its employees, and we direct the respondent to determine whether the Salvation Army’s volunteers are its “agents” under the statute, which would render the investigator’s interviews of them privileged as well.

Background

¶ 3 The complaint filed in the underlying action alleges that the Salvation A’my and *206 “its employees, volunteers, officers and/or agents” negligently failed to provide adequately trained personnel to supervise children attending the organization’s summer day camp and swimming at its Temple Corps Community Center swimming pool in Tucson. The complaint further alleges that, as a 'result, Ethan Bennett sustained permanent injuries when he nearly drowned there on June 2, 2009. During discovery, the Ben-netts sought production of “copies of all tapes and interview notes of all witnesses tape recorded and interviewed by Vivian Consoli,” a private investigator retained by the Salvation Army’s counsel to investigate the incident. The Salvation Army objected to production of Consoli’s interview summaries on the ground that those documents were “protected by the attorney client privilege and the work-product doctrine.” It also asserted the request for production was “overbroad and unduly burdensome in that it does not set a time-frame or identify the interviewees and literally asks for all tapes and interview notes for all interviews ever conducted by Ms. Consoli.”

¶4 The Bennetts filed a “Motion to Resolve Pending Discovery Disputes between the Parties,” listing Consoli’s summaries as among “documents and information previously requested” that the Salvation Army had not produced. In response, the Salvation Army cited its earlier objections to disclosure of the summaries, maintaining “those investigative materials are privileged and will not be produced.” Relying on Rule 26(b)(3), Ariz. R. Civ. P., and Longs Drug Stores v. Howe, 134 Ariz. 424, 430, 657 P.2d 412, 418 (1983), the Salvation Army further argued Consoli’s summaries revealed its attorneys’ mental processes and consequently were entitled to protection from disclosure. It also maintained the Bennetts could not show “substantial need” for Consoli’s summaries of her interviews with Salvation Army employees and volunteers, as required by Rule 26(b)(3), “because they have already deposed all of The Salvation Army’s employees and volunteers who were at the pool on June 2, 2009, as well as some of the children who were there that day.”

¶ 5 At a hearing on their discovery motion, the Bennetts claimed they had no ability to interview witnesses “within a couple of weeks” after the incident, as Consoli had, and so had a substantial need for any witness statements found in the summaries and no other way to obtain “what they said or remembered at that time.” They asserted that “the substance of what [the witnesses] said” during the interviews “is not privileged,” even if Consoli’s “thoughts and impressions” in preparing the summaries were protected under the work-product doctrine.

¶ 6 In response, the Salvation Army noted it had released redacted summaries of interviews Consoli had conducted of children attending the day camp, as previously directed by another judge, but it argued those disclosures were justified by the “special, unique circumstances” associated with child witnesses. It maintained the interviews Consoli had conducted of the children should not be “analogize[d]” to the interviews she had conducted of Salvation Army employees or volunteers. As to the latter, the Salvation Army stated, “[A]ny of those interview summaries where she’s communicating her thoughts and impressions to [counsel] are privileged. They’re work product.” It emphasized that, in conducting the interviews, Consoli had been an “agent of defense counsel,” acting “at his order[,] undertaking directions from him[, and] reporting to him,” and it maintained Consoli’s summaries, made “at the specific request of defense counsel [who asked] for certain interviews ... is work product, period.” It again contended the Bennetts had made no showing of “substantial need” for the summaries or an “inability” to obtain the information contained in them by other means, see Ariz. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(3), because they had deposed the same employees and volunteers that Consoli had interviewed.

¶ 7 After argument, the respondent judge directed the Salvation Army to “redact the work product” from Consoli’s interview summaries and disclose the redacted summaries to the Bennetts. 1 The Salvation Army filed a *207 motion for reconsideration and, citing § 12-2234, argued Consoli’s summaries were protected by attorney-client privilege as well as the work-produet doctrine. The respondent declined to reconsider his ruling and denied the motion without further comment. This special action followed.

Discussion

¶ 8 We will grant special-action relief from a discovery order only if we find the respondent judge has abused his discretion or exceeded his jurisdiction or legal authority. Twin City Fire Ins. Co. v. Burke, 204 Ariz. 251, ¶ 10, 63 P.3d 282, 284-85 (2003). But an “ ‘error of law ...

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Bluebook (online)
273 P.3d 656, 229 Ariz. 204, 629 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 11, 2012 WL 687844, 2012 Ariz. App. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-salvation-army-kelley-v-bennett-arizctapp-2012.