Opinion ID: 1862647
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Waiver of the work product privilege.

Text: The parties do not dispute that the Cowett documents constitute work product of Kalafut and Terra and are otherwise protected from disclosure by the work product privilege. The narrow issue we must decide, however, is whether Kalafut's testimony in the Bush Ranch case and his comments in discussions with Du Pont attorneys amount to an express waiver of the work product privilege and, if so, whether such waiver extends to the Cowett documents in Kalafut's possession.
In our cases, we have addressed what matters fall under the work product privilege, see Squealer, 530 N.W.2d at 686-87, Shook, 497 N.W.2d at 887-88, Ashmead, 336 N.W.2d at 200-01, but we have never addressed possible waiver of the work product privilege. We did, however, address waiver of the attorney client privilege in Miller v. Continental Insurance Co., 392 N.W.2d 500, 504-05 (Iowa 1986). In Miller, we cited the rule that voluntary disclosure of the content of a privileged communication constitutes waiver as to all other communications on the same subject.  Id. (emphasis added). This rule is referred to as subject matter waiver. See In re Martin Marietta Corp., 856 F.2d 619, 623 (4th Cir.1988) (explaining subject matter waiver as a situation when disclosure of a confidential communication outside a privileged relationship waives the privilege as to all information related to the same subject matter). We held in Miller that by making certain disclosures of otherwise privileged information in affidavits, plaintiffs waived the attorney client privilege only as to the communications about the matter actually disclosed in the affidavits. Miller, 392 N.W.2d at 505. Exotica contends that the subject matter waiver rule applies in this case such that Kalafut's testimony in the Bush Ranch litigation amounts to a waiver of the work product privilege as to all Cowett documents in Kalafut's possession because they involve the same subject matter as the topic of Kalafut's testimony, that is, Cowett's opinion on the Benlate/atrazine contamination. Kalafut, on the other hand, argues that due to the policy differences between the attorney-client privilege and the work product privilege, the subject matter waiver rule does not extend to the work product privilege. Kalafut therefore contends that although he may have waived the work product privilege as to his specific statements in the Bush Ranch litigation, that waiver does not extend to all Cowett documents in his possession.
Other authorities have considered whether the subject matter waiver rule applied in the attorney-client privilege context likewise applies to the work product privilege such that waiver of the work product privilege as to certain matters extends to all other documents in the attorney's possession on that same subject. See, e.g., United States v. Nobles, 422 U.S. 225, 239, 95 S.Ct. 2160, 2170-71, 45 L.Ed.2d 141, 154 (1975) (stating that defendant, by electing to present [an] investigator as a witness, waived the [work product] privilege with respect to matters covered in [the investigator's] file); Pittman, 129 F.3d at 988 (stating that disclosure to an adversary waives work product protection as to items actually disclosed, but rejecting argument that by voluntarily disclosing photographs and measurements of railroad crossing accident scene, defendant waived work product privilege for entire contents of investigator's file; waiver of work product privilege was limited to photographs actually disclosed); Martin Marietta, 856 F.2d at 625-26 (holding that by disclosing documents to government, party impliedly waived work product privilege as to all non-opinion work product on the same subject matter disclosed, but subject matter waiver rule does not apply to opinion work product); Duplan Corp. v. Deering Milliken, Inc., 540 F.2d 1215, 1222-23 (4th Cir.1976) (stating that broad concepts of subject matter waiver analogous to those applicable to claims of attorney-client privilege are inappropriate when applied to the work product privilege; holding that subject matter waiver does not extend to case where there has only been inadvertent or partial disclosure and in which no testimonial use has been made of the work product); United States v. Skeddle, 989 F.Supp. 917, 921 (N.D.Ohio 1997) (holding that company general counsel's testimony in criminal case against former directors and officers of company did not waive work product privilege as to company's entire investigative file prepared during investigation of claims of self-dealing; company's entire investigative file was not the same subject matter as the limited testimony of counsel); In re United Mine Workers of America Employee Benefit Plans Litig., 159 F.R.D. 307, 310, 312 (D.D.C.1994) (citing rule that disclosure of documents protected by attorney work product privilege waives the protections of the privilege as to the documents disclosed, but holding that such disclosure does not extend to other work product documents still in the possession of the party asserting the privilege); Fleet Nat'l Bank v. Tonneson & Co., 150 F.R.D. 10, 16 (D.Mass.1993) (even if inadvertent disclosure of one group of documents waived work product privilege as to those documents, there was no subject matter waiver of privilege as to other groups of documents); 8 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Richard R. Marcus, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2016.2, at 245-46 (2d ed.1994) (waiver is limited to matters actually disclosed), § 2024, at 368-69 (disclosure of some documents does not destroy work-product protection for other documents of the same character; disclosure of documents to third person does not waive work-product immunity unless disclosure substantially increases the opportunities for potential adversaries to obtain the information).
Upon our review, we disagree with the district court's conclusion that Kalafut's testimony in the Bush Ranch case and his correspondence with Du Pont attorneys amounts to a waiver of the work product privilege as to the Cowett documents in Kalafut's possession. When read in context, Kalafut's testimony in the Bush Ranch case illustrates that Kalafut was simply providing a summary of the Benlate litigation. While it is true that Kalafut discussed Cowett's opinion that atrazine contamination in Benlate on the part of Terra was not the cause of the growers' crop and tree damage, Kalafut spoke only generally of Cowett's opinions and did not discuss in detail how Cowett had reached his conclusions. In fact, Kalafut's testimony concerning Cowett's opinions and conclusions was limited by the court as indicated above. We further conclude that the November 7, 1991 letter from Du Pont attorney Wellington to Kalafut likewise does not amount to a waiver by Kalafut of the work product privilege. Again, as illustrated by the excerpts from the record, Kalafut was trying to learn from Du Pont the true nature of the growers' problems with Benlate during the time that Terra was paying the growers' claims on Du Pont's behalf. It was Kalafut's duty to communicate with Du Pont regarding the Benlate claims and to evaluate Terra's liability in the matter. But to say that Kalafut waived his work product privilege concerning information that might potentially absolve Terra of liability, simply by discussing the general nature of that information with Du Pont, would mean that an attorney could never discuss the positive aspects of his or her case with opposing counsel for fear that such discussion would amount to a waiver of the work product privilege as to all documents supporting that position. If this were the case, settlement negotiations and communication between the parties in general would break down. Such a result would be inconsistent with a commonsense application of the work product doctrine and certainly inconsistent with the goal of resolving cases in a timely manner. We therefore believe that Kalafut's testimony in the Bush Ranch case and his comments in a November 6, 1991 letter to Du Pont concerning Cowett's opinions, and the other items referred to by the district court, do not amount to such a waiver of the work product privilege so as to require production of the detailed Cowett documents in Kalafut's possession. Those documents continue to be protected from discovery under the work product privilege. We thus conclude that the district court abused its discretion in ordering Kalafut to produce the Cowett documents on the basis of waiver of the work product privilege.