Opinion ID: 593181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the petition relating to the ex parte funding approval process

Text: 90 We now consider whether to direct the newly assigned district judge to discontinue the ex parte process currently in place for approving the class plaintiffs' use of escrowed settlement funds and whether to order the unsealing of the previous ex parte communications. 91 Petitioner Kaiser Cement notes that the only sealed information that has been released concerns the funding for the Third Wave Conference. It argues that the plaintiffs' request for that funding contained forbidden ex parte advocacy on the merits and that Judge Kelly's attendance at the conference would never have happened if all submissions had been on the public record. Kaiser Cement believes that the ex parte approval process creates the appearance of an alliance between the district court and the plaintiffs and will inevitably lead to further improper advocacy by the class plaintiffs. 92 Before reaching the merits of the petition, however, we must first decide whether this issue is properly before us. For many of the same reasons previously discussed, we believe that in extreme cases mandamus may be a proper means to prevent a district judge from continuing to engage in clearly improper ex parte communications with a litigant. If necessary, we would in such circumstances issue a writ as part of our responsibility for the orderly and efficient administration of justice within the circuit. Rodgers v. United States Steel Corp., 508 F.2d 152, 161 (3d Cir.1975). 93 In 1988, Kaiser Cement raised a substantially similar challenge to Pretrial Order 137 on both an appeal and a petition for mandamus. In a brief, unpublished memorandum opinion, we dismissed the appeal as interlocutory and denied the petition for mandamus. With regard to the mandamus petition, we stated: 94 The district court must of necessity create an administrative machinery for the distribution of a settlement fund. We do not find that the order permitting ex parte communications with respect to that fund, in which Kaiser has no interest, is likely to cause Kaiser a grave injustice, or that the order reflects a clear error of law. If the speculative prejudice to which Kaiser refers should transpire it can be addressed in an appropriate motion and an appeal [from] a final judgment. 95 In re School Asbestos Litigation, 862 F.2d 310 (3d Cir.1988). 96 The plaintiffs submit that our earlier opinion is binding as the law of the case. 32 Kaiser Cement replies that our earlier opinion merely ruled that its claim was unripe until it could demonstrate actual prejudice, as opposed to the purely speculative prejudice it then alleged. Accordingly, Kaiser Cement now asserts that the submissions regarding the Third Wave Conference, which only an unusual series of events caused it to discover, illustrate actual improper advocacy and, thus, prejudice. 97 We are satisfied that the law of the case doctrine does not preclude us from considering the merits of Kaiser Cement's petition. While our earlier memorandum opinion suggested that appeal from final judgment was the ordinary means to request relief from actual prejudice, we did not have any reason to consider the possibility of a later petition based on materialized harm. The filings sealed under Pretrial Order 137 were not to have been disclosed until the end of this litigation; accordingly, we could not have anticipated that the defendants could prove actual prejudice before that time. For the reasons that follow, however, we decline to issue the requested writ. 98 At the outset, we reaffirm our earlier view that the approval process is not inherently impermissible because it necessarily involves ex parte communications. For obvious reasons of adversarial fairness, ex parte communications between judge and litigant are strongly disfavored. They are tolerated of necessity, however, where related to non-merits issues, for administrative matters, and in emergency circumstances. See, for example, United States v. Thompson, 827 F.2d 1254, 1258-59 (9th Cir.1987) ([S]ituations where the court acts with the benefit of only one side's presentation are uneasy compromises with some overriding necessity, such as the need to act quickly or to keep sensitive information from the opposing party. Absent such compelling justification, ex parte proceedings are anathema in our system of justice.... (footnote omitted)); United States v. Skulsky, 786 F.2d 558, 561 (3d Cir.1986) (affirming denial of evidentiary hearing on issue of ex parte communications because record clearly indicated that the ex parte communication concerned the procedural question of which forum should determine whether Rule 6(e) had been violated, and, thus, could not have been prejudicial to the defendants). 99 In this case, Judge Kelly believed it necessary to create an ex parte process to administer the settlement fund, a fund in which the nonsettling defendants had no interest. He also believed that counsel for the class plaintiffs should not have to wait until the long-distant conclusion of this litigation for reimbursement of their reasonable expenses. We continue to believe that Pretrial Order 137 did not, on its face, constitute a clear error of law requiring interlocutory correction by writ of mandamus. 100 Therefore, we reiterate that to be entitled to relief Kaiser must demonstrate that prejudicial ex parte advocacy, as opposed to administratively necessary ex parte communication, is likely to occur under the mechanism of Pretrial Order 137. Kaiser Cement submits that the plaintiffs' December 1, 1989, request for conference funds was such forbidden advocacy and suggests that more of the same has occurred and will occur if we do not put a stop to it. We agree with the district court, however, that Kaiser Cement overstates the plaintiffs' supposed abuse of the process. 101 Paragraph 4 on page 2 of the plaintiffs' December 1, 1989, application reads: 102 Plaintiffs believe that a balanced view of issues concerning asbestos in buildings and related matters is not being presented to the public or the scientific community at this time. (See Exhibit A letter dated November 17, 1989 from the National School Board Association to Herbert B. Newberg and David Berger co-lead counsel for plaintiffs) Funding is lacking to bring together internationally-acclaimed scientists to discuss the results of recent studies on building-exposed populations and other matters. 103 The referenced letter described a December 1990 symposium on Health Aspects of Exposure to Asbestos in Buildings that was held at Harvard University. According to the letter, that symposium had been sponsored in part by the Safe Buildings Alliance, a lobbying organization associated with the defendants in this litigation, and most of the speakers were acting as expert witnesses for or consultants to the defendants. The letter lamented the wide media coverage of the Harvard conference, which it considered a closed conference, and, in effect, suggested that the plaintiffs sponsor a counter-conference to present unbiased scientific research (emphasis in original). The letter suggested Dr. Selikoff as an organizer. 104 Although Kaiser Cement considers this submission to be an outrageous partisan attack, we agree with Judge Kelly, who wrote: 105 Although Plaintiffs' assertions that a previous academic conference was biased in favor of the asbestos industry may be viewed liberally as an indirect general attack on the positions advocated by Defendants in this matter, I do not find that there has been any ex parte advocacy of views on the actual merits of this litigation.... 106 Memorandum opinion accompanying Pretrial Order 316 at 6 (June 10, 1991). We believe that the class plaintiffs were attempting in good faith to persuade the court to grant a legitimate request, not to engage in improper, gratuitous attacks on the defendants. To justify spending the funds, the plaintiffs had to explain why the ordinary processes of scientific symposia and publications were not sufficient. What minimal advocacy there was was obviously harmless. 107 Out of caution, however, we have reviewed in camera all of the plaintiffs' past sealed submissions and the district court's sealed rulings thereon, which total thousands of pages. Almost none of the submissions could reasonably be viewed as advocacy. The vast bulk of the materials involve bills for photocopying, deposition expenses, payments to experts, and so forth. A few of the bills list particular articles that were to be copied or reviewed by expert witnesses. That, however, hardly strikes us as advocacy of the contents of those articles, and we highly doubt that Judge Kelly viewed them as recommended reading. 108 The only two items that seem to us even remotely objectionable are: (1) a rather technical summary of the results of a study on the dangers of asbestos that was attached to a bill therefor; and (2) a letter claiming litigation expenses that, in another portion, referred to a defendant's alleged discovery abuses and suggested that a motion for sanctions under Rules 11 and 37 should be filed. Although ideally the plaintiffs should have redacted the offending portions, Judge Kelly undoubtedly paid little attention to these items buried in the middle of sizeable submissions. Further, the research report is quite limited in scope and is essentially inconclusive. Moreover, the exhibits were being offered not on the merits of the case but as evidence of legitimate expenses on behalf of the class. We do not believe either instance illustrates an effort on the part of the plaintiffs to exercise ex parte influence over the district court. 109 We thus find no reason to unseal past submissions or rulings at this time or to disband the procedure of sealed filings altogether. Judge Kelly will no longer be presiding over the case, and hence no prejudice from any improper past advocacy can occur. Moreover, we agree with Judge Kelly that the plaintiffs' litigation expenses are, at this stage, none of the defendants' business. Disclosing the documentation of the plaintiffs' costs would reveal elements of the plaintiffs' litigation strategy and might advise the defendants' of the plaintiffs' financial position. This would provide the defendants a potential strategic advantage to which they are not entitled. 110 Nevertheless, these three isolated mishaps do suggest that the newly assigned district judge ought to avoid personally reviewing the submissions. Although we will not issue a writ of mandamus, we strongly urge the incoming district judge to delegate for now the responsibility of approving the plaintiffs' litigation expenses to a magistrate judge or special master not otherwise involved in the litigation. See Manual for Complex Litigation, Second § 24.21 (West, 1985); id. at § 24.13; James Wm. Moore & Jo Desha Lucas, 5A Moore's Federal Practice p 53.02 at 53-67 (Matthew Bender, 2d ed. 1992). See also Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 53 (provisions governing the appointment of special masters). We further note that Judge Kelly has already established sensible guidelines, and auditors have recently suggested several improvements to the process that the new presiding judge may wish to incorporate. 111 In sum, to promote efficient administration of the fund, yet to assuage the fears of the defendants and to avoid any appearance of impropriety, we suggest that the new presiding judge avoid personally reviewing the sealed submissions until the end of litigation, at which time he or she can resolve any remaining disputes over the submissions. 112