Universal City Development Partners, Ltd. v. Ride & Show Engineering, Inc.

230 F.R.D. 688, 68 Fed. R. Serv. 396, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21320, 2005 WL 2323149
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedSeptember 23, 2005
DocketNo. 6:04-cv-781-Orl-28JGG
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 230 F.R.D. 688 (Universal City Development Partners, Ltd. v. Ride & Show Engineering, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Universal City Development Partners, Ltd. v. Ride & Show Engineering, Inc., 230 F.R.D. 688, 68 Fed. R. Serv. 396, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21320, 2005 WL 2323149 (M.D. Fla. 2005).

Opinion

Order

GLAZEBROOK, United States Magistrate Judge.

This cause came on for oral argument on August 26, 2005, and September 21, 2005, on the following motions:

MOTION: DEFENDANT RIDE & SHOW ENGINEERING, INC.’S MOTION TO COMPEL PLAINTIFF UNIVERSAL CITY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS, LTD. TO RETURN INADVERTENTLY PRODUCED PRIVILEGED MATERIALS (Doc. No. 95)
FILED: July 11, 2005
THEREON it is ORDERED that the motion is DENIED.
MOTION: SECOND MOTION TO COMPEL RETURN OF INADVERTENTLY PRODUCED PRIVILEGED DOCUMENTS BY RIDE & SHOW ENGINEERING, INC. (Doc. 147)
FILED: September 19, 2005
THEREON it is ORDERED that the motion is DENIED.

Defendant Ride & Show Engineering, Inc. (“RSE”) filed its first motion to compel Plaintiff Universal City Development Partners, Ltd. (“Universal”) to return to RSE documents approximately 36 pages of documents that it claims are protected by the attorney-client privilege and/or the attorney work product privilege. RSE claims to have inadvertently produced the documents during discovery. RSE provided copies of the contested documents (Defendant’s Hearing Exhibits 1 and 2) to the Court on August 26, 2005, for an in camera inspection pursuant to this Court’s notice. Docket No. 136. RSE filed its second motion to compel on September 19, 2005,1 and provided 145 additional documents2 marked as Defendant’s Exhibit 3 to the Court on September 21,2005. for an in camera inspection.

1. THE LAW

A. The Attorney-Client Privilege

In federal question cases, privileges are determined under federal common law. Fed.R.Evid. 501. The attorney-client privilege is only available when all the elements are present. Provenzano v. Singletary, 3 F.Supp.2d 1353, 1366 (M.D.Fla.1997), aff'd, 148 F.3d 1327 (11th Cir.1998). The elements of the attorney-client privilege are:

(1) Where legal advice of any kind is sought (2) from a professional legal advisor in his capacity as such, (3) the communications relating to that purpose, (4) made in confidence (5) by the client, (6) are at his instance permanently protected (7) from disclosure by himself or by the legal advis- or, (8) except the protection may be waived.

Id. (quoting Int’l Tel. & Tel. Corp. v. United Tel. Co., 60 F.R.D. 177, 184-85 (M.D.Fla. 1973)) (citations omitted): The party asserting the privilege has the burden of proving the existence of the privilege. See United States v. Schaltenbrand, 930 F.2d 1554, 1562 (11th Cir.1991).

It is generally recognized that the communication of factual information is not protected by the attorney-client privilege. [691]*691For example, reports reflecting the status of litigation and containing purely factual information are not privileged. See Women’s Inter Art Ctr., Inc. v. N.Y.C. Econ. Dev., 223 F.R.D. 156,160 (S.D.N.Y.2004) (status report with handwritten edit notes containing only factual background information were not protected). Similarly, fee agreements or retainer agreements generally are not privileged. See, e.g., In re Semel, 411 F.2d 195, 197 (3d Cir.1969) (“In the absence of unusual circumstances, the fact of a retainer, the identity of the client, the conditions of employment and the amount of the fee do not come within the privilege of the attorney-client relationship.”); Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh v. Aetna Cas. & Surety Co., 384 F.2d 316, 317 n. 4 (D.C.Cir.1967) (fact of attorney-client relationship and reason for its existence generally are not privileged); Finol v. Finol, 869 So.2d 666 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.2004) (billing information that does not reveal mental impressions and opinions of counsel is not privileged); P. & B. Marina, Ltd. P’ship v. Logrande, 136 F.R.D. 50, 55 (E.D.N.Y.1991) (request to pay fees and attached statement of fees was not privileged).

B. The Attorney Work Product Protection

Protection for an attorney’s work product was first recognized by the Supreme Court in Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 67 S.Ct. 385, 91 L.Ed. 451 (1947). Rule 26(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure subsequently was added to clarify the extent to which trial preparation materials are discoverable in federal courts. Rule 26(b)(3) provides, in pertinent part:

[A] party may obtain discovery of documents and tangible things otherwise dis-eoverable ... and prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial by or for another party or by or for that other party’s representative ... only upon a showing that the party seeking discovery has substantial need of the materials in the preparation of his ease and that he is unable without undue hardship to obtain the substantial equivalent of the materials by other means. In ordering discovery of such materials when the required showing has been made, the court shall protect against disclosure of the mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories of an attorney or other representative of a party concerning the litigation.

Rule 26(b)(3) does not expressly address the temporal scope of the work-product immunity. The “literal language of the Rule,” however, protects materials “prepared for any litigation or trial as long as they were prepared by or for a party to the subsequent litigation.” F.T.C. v. Grolier Inc., 462 U.S. 19, 25, 103 S.Ct. 2209, 76 L.Ed.2d 387 (1983) (emphasis in original).

Although the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has not addressed the issue,3 the Court finds that the above language from Grolier provides a strong basis to conclude that Rule 26(b)(3) applies to subsequent litigation. See Frontier Ref. Inc. v. Gormam-Rupp Co., 136 F.3d 695, 703 (10th Cir.1998); In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 43 F.3d 966, 971 (5th Cir.1994) (“Grolier provides a strong hint that Rule 26 and a fortiori, Hickman (which is the genesis of Rule 26), applies to subsequent litigation”): cf. Peterson v. BMI Refractories, 124 F.3d 1386, 1392 n. 4 (11th Cir.1997) (“dicta from the Supreme Court is not something to be lightly cast aside”). There is a split among [692]

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230 F.R.D. 688, 68 Fed. R. Serv. 396, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21320, 2005 WL 2323149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/universal-city-development-partners-ltd-v-ride-show-engineering-inc-flmd-2005.