Opinion ID: 2585318
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Arizona cases

Text: ¶ 18 In previous opinions, our courts have found reliance on a privilege unfair when used as both a sword and a shield. In Ulibarri, for instance, a patient sued her psychiatrist for medical malpractice. 184 Ariz. at 384, 909 P.2d at 451. The statute of limitations had expired, but the patient argued that the statute had been tolled because the psychiatrist repressed her memory. The psychiatrist counterclaimed, accusing the patient of attempting to blackmail him by threatening to go public with allegations of sexual misconduct. The psychiatrist alleged that as part of a blackmail scheme, the patient told him she consulted an attorney, who advised her to sue him. If true, this would show the patient remembered the incident, thus negating the tolling claim. The patient denied threatening the psychiatrist with the attorney's advice. The psychiatrist sought to depose the attorney, and the patient asserted the attorney-client privilege. The court of appeals wrote: [I]t is only fair that [the psychiatrist] be allowed to ask the attorney whether those alleged communications occurred.    [The patient] is not permitted to thrust his lack of knowledge into the litigation as a foundation or condition necessary to sustain his claim against [the psychiatrist] while simultaneously retaining the lawyer-client privilege to frustrate proof of knowledge negating the very foundation or condition necessary to prevail on the claim asserted against [the psychiatrist]. Such tactic would repudiate the sword-shield maxim.... 184 Ariz. at 385, 909 P.2d at 452 (quoting League v. Vanice, 221 Neb. 34, 374 N.W.2d 849, 856 (1985)). In League, a minority shareholder sued the corporate president for breach of duty, and the president raised a statute of limitations defense. The shareholder plaintiff claimed lack of knowledge of his legal rights because the transactions, he said, had been concealed from him. Applying the Hearn test, the Nebraska Supreme Court concluded that the plaintiff had injected his knowledge, or lack of knowledge, as a crucial issue ... to sustain his claim... while simultaneously retaining the lawyer-client privilege to frustrate proof of knowledge negating the very foundation or conclusion necessary to prevail on the claim. League, 374 N.W.2d at 856. Plaintiff was using the privilege as both a sword and a shield. Thus, the court held the privilege had been waived. ¶ 19 In Elia v. Pifer, our court of appeals applied the Hearn test and found a waiver in a legal malpractice action in which a plaintiff claimed privilege for the communications between himself and the attorneys he hired after the defendant's alleged malpractice occurred. 194 Ariz. 74, 977 P.2d 796 (App. 1998). The plaintiff claimed the defendant attorney was negligent in accepting a divorce settlement without first discussing it with him. The attorney asserted, among other things, that the lawyers who succeeded her and who were representing plaintiff in the malpractice action caused some or all of the damages by failing to appeal the settlement decree or take other action to mitigate the damages. The defendant sought access to communications between the plaintiff and his current attorneys so that she could determine the reason for their failure to take any action to challenge the original decree incorporating the settlement. Relying on Hearn and League, our court of appeals found all three prongs of the Hearn test satisfied because the plaintiff denied having known of his right to appeal the original decree. See id. at 81-82 ¶¶ 36, 38-40, 977 P.2d at 803-04 ¶¶ 36, 38-40. The communications between the plaintiff and his lawyers were therefore placed directly at issue by the plaintiff's assertion that he lacked knowledge of his right to appeal when this lack of knowledge was the basis of his damage claim. Thus, the court concluded the party asserting the privilege was attempting to use it to shield information about his legal knowledge from the opposing party while using an alleged lack of such knowledge as a sword to further his cause of action. See id. at 82 ¶ 40, 977 P.2d at 804 ¶ 40. In thus applying Hearn and following League, our court of appeals said it was rejecting the strict test followed in California and other states for determining waiver of privilege and was applying the more liberal test of the Hearn case. Id. at 81-82 ¶¶ 37-38, 977 P.2d at 803-04 ¶¶ 37-38. ¶ 20 This, the court said was consistent with Arizona law. Id. at 82 ¶ 40, 977 P.2d at 804 ¶ 40. The Arizona law the court referred to is Throop, in which this court found an implied waiver of the physician-patient privilege when a party defended against an allegation of negligently causing an automobile accident by denying negligence and claiming sudden heart attack as a cause of the accident. The personal representative of the deceased driver introduced a death certificate showing that the deceased died of a sudden heart attack. The plaintiff wished to introduce testimony that a doctor had told the deceased to refrain from driving because of his severe heart condition. The representative attempted to invoke the physician-patient privilege to preclude the doctor's testimony. We said that [t]he claim of privilege to buttress such a position is contrary to the spirit of the privilege and the purpose of trials to ascertain the truth. 94 Ariz. at 157-58, 382 P.2d at 567-68. The fairness concept and the sword and shieldmetaphor that come up in all our later cases was first used in Throop's quote from WIGMORE. [4] Id. at 158, 382 P.2d at 568. Again, we saw inherent unfairness of concern to the court when the deceased's medical condition was made an issue in the case, but the privilege was then raised to attempt to prevent the adversary from showing that the deceased knew of the condition. ¶ 21 Similar language was used when a criminal defendant claimed he had not been given information essential for an informed decision on his plea agreement. See State v. Cuffle, 171 Ariz. 49, 52, 828 P.2d 773, 776 (1992). We held that by raising that claim the defendant waived the privilege with respect to the information given to him by his attorney. See id. at 53, 828 P.2d at 777. The court of appeals reached a like result in a personal injury case in which the defendant was alleged to have driven under the influence. Buffa v. Scott, 147 Ariz. 140, 708 P.2d 1331 (App.1985). The defendant placed her physical condition in issue by testifying she had ingested only a minimal amount of alcohol. The court of appeals held that the trial judge acted within his discretion in finding a waiver of the doctor-patient privilege because the defendant had cross-examined the plaintiff's expert to gain admissions that, under the hypothesis created by defendant's testimony, plaintiff's blood alcohol level may have been much lower than the plaintiff contended. See id. at 143, 708 P.2d at 1334. Once the defendant made that cross-examination and argued those points, the court said, the defendant's conduct was such that it would be both unfair and inconsistent with the privilege's purpose to permit it to be used to prevent the admission of the blood alcohol tests made at the hospital. Id. at 144, 708 P.2d at 1334-35.