Source: https://www.gjel.com/blog/problem-areas-regarding-spousal-privilege-in-california-civil-cases.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 02:42:35+00:00

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Assume the following factual scenario: a serious car accident occurs, injuring the plaintiff. Just after the accident, the insured defendant called her husband and discussed, in detail, the now highly contested facts of how the incident occurred. During litigation, plaintiff’s counsel notices the deposition of defendant’s husband. Will plaintiff’s counsel be able to elicit, by the husband’s testimony at deposition, the content of the post-accident telephone conversation between him and the defendant, his wife? Such testimony might contain admissions that could be crucial at trial.
The court in Hand v. Superior Court (1982) 134 Cal.App.3d 436, 442 resolved this same issue (the propriety of a spousal deposition) in the context of statutory analysis of identical language (“immediate benefit”) contained in Code of Civil Procedure § 2019. The Hand court rejected a claim of spousal privilege and found it insufficient to preclude the non-party spouse’s deposition.
However there is ammunition in the case law which Defendant’s counsel can use to argue in response. It is contained in Duggan v. Superior Court (1981) 127 Cal.App.3d 267, 270-272. That case held that an “immediate benefit” waiver of the spousal privilege against testifying is triggered only if the married person would obtain a benefit from his or her spouse’s litigation because of a right which the married person holds directly, and not simply because of a potential community property interest in any recovery that the spouse might obtain.
In Duggan, the husband, a partner in a real estate venture, sued to establish a 15% ownership interest in certain parcels of real property acquired on behalf of the partnership, which were held of record by defendants. Despite his wife’s potential community property interest in any recovery the husband might obtain, the court held the suit was not being prosecuted for her “immediate benefit” so as to trigger a § 973(b) waiver of her testimonial privileges. She was, the court said, not a party to the action, nor was she a signatory to the partnership agreement, nor a record holder of any property involved in the suit; nor, the court noted, did she by law possess a community property claim to specific partnership property (citing to Corporations Code § 15025(2)(e)). Therefore, the Duggan court held: “Any claim to a community property interest in the partnership would be against [Husband]…, and under the showing made here, the action is not being prosecuted for the immediate benefit of the person whose deposition is sought.” Id. at 272. The court therefore concluded that compelling the wife’s deposition would violate her Evidence Code §§ 970 and 971 privileges.
Another authority on this issue, Sabado v. Moraga (1987) 189 Cal.App.3d 1, 9–10, offers little guidance to either side: it expressly leaves undecided whether a spouse’s suit seeking damages for violation of the Civil Rights Act would trigger § 973’s “immediate benefit” waiver.
Counsel should also consider whether a final factual variable might be of any analytical consequence: does it matter if the loss is insured; and, if it is, does it matter if the defendant has potential financial exposure beyond the policy limits? This factual variation has not been discussed in any applicable case law. The husband could certainly argue that if he is truly not exposed to loss by the claim because (for example) a statutory settlement demand does not exceed his policy limits, the exception to spousal privilege set out in Evidence Code § 973 should not apply.
In summary, there is fodder in the case law for each side’s argument in this dispute, and both parties should be able to present a forceful position. Two competing principles are at stake: the statutory right of discovery, and the judicial use of privilege to protect the confidentiality of a marital relationship. Only further development of the case law will determine which interest is likely to prevail in any given dispute.
Can a spouse be required to testify in a civil case where her testimony could be detrimental to her and her husband if the testimony involves matters that occured before her marriage?

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 § 2019
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 § 973
 § 15025
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 § 973
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