Opinion ID: 2324768
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Orders rejecting claims of privilege and requiring disclosures are immediately appealable.

Text: We ordered briefing and oral argument on whether this Court should continue to permit immediate appeals from discovery orders that implicate privileged and confidential materials under our collateral order rule, Pa.R.A.P. 313. We did so in view of the United States Supreme Court's recent refusal to allow such appeals in Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 599, 175 L.Ed.2d 458 (2009). With limited exceptions, Pennsylvania law permits only appeals from final orders. See Pa.R.A.P. 341 ([A]n appeal may be taken as of right from any final order.). Final orders are those that dispose of all claims and all parties, are explicitly defined as final orders by statute, or are certified as final orders by the trial court or other reviewing body. Id.; Rae v. Pa. Funeral Dirs. Ass'n, 602 Pa. 65, 977 A.2d 1121, 1125 (2009). However, Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 313(b) permits a party to take an immediate appeal as of right from an otherwise unappealable interlocutory order if the order meets three requirements: (1) the order must be separable from, and collateral to, the main cause of action; (2) the right involved must be too important to be denied review; and (3) the question presented must be such that if review is postponed until after final judgment, the claim will be irreparably lost. Pa.R.A.P. 313(b). All three prongs of Rule 313(b) must be met before an order may be subject to a collateral appeal; otherwise, the appellate court lacks jurisdiction over the appeal. Rae, supra at 1125. [4] We applied Rule 313 in Ben v. Schwartz, 556 Pa. 475, 729 A.2d 547 (1999), and determined that orders overruling claims of privilege and requiring disclosures were immediately appealable. In that case, a plaintiff in a dental malpractice suit had subpoenaed the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs to produce its investigative file for the dentist being sued. The Bureau moved to quash the subpoena, asserting that the material subpoenaed was subject to the governmental/executive privilege and a privilege under provisions of the Right-To-Know Law. The motion to quash was dismissed by the court of common pleas, and the Bureau filed an appeal to Commonwealth Court, which dismissed the appeal as interlocutory. We granted review and determined that the order met the test for a collateral appeal. We noted that to qualify as a collateral order, the order must meet the three requirements of Rule 313(b) described above. Ben, supra at 550 (citing Geniviva v. Frisk, 555 Pa. 589, 725 A.2d 1209 (1999)). We explained that the order dismissing the motion to quash met the separability requirement because the privilege issues could be addressed without analyzing the allegations of dental malpractice. Id. at 552. We next determined that the importance prong was met because claims of privilege implicate rights rooted in public policy, and impact individuals other than those involved in the litigation. Id. Finally, we concluded that the Bureau, as the party subject to the disclosure order, would suffer irreparable loss if review were postponed because, once the investigative file was turned over, any privilege would be effectively destroyed because the disclosure could not be undone. Id. Recently, in Mohawk Industries, supra , the United States Supreme Court reached the contrary result. In that case, the federal district court had ordered Mohawk Industries to disclose certain materials putatively protected by the attorney-client privilege on the ground that Mohawk Industries' actions in other litigation had waived the privilege. Mohawk Industries, 130 S.Ct. at 604. Mohawk Industries appealed, and the Eleventh Circuit dismissed the appeal on the ground that it was from an interlocutory order not appealable under the federal collateral order doctrine. Id. The Supreme Court granted review and affirmed. It held that rulings adverse to the attorney-client privilege are not eligible for collateral order appeals because such orders are not effectively unreviewable after final judgment. Id. at 606. It stated that, even if a district court has improperly required disclosure of privileged material, a litigant can obtain sufficient relief after final judgment by having the court of appeals vacate the judgment and remand for a new trial at which the privileged materials are excluded from evidence. Id. at 606-07. The Court also noted other methods of obtaining interlocutory review for litigants in the federal system. It observed that a litigant subject to a particularly injurious or novel privilege ruling might obtain an interlocutory appeal by permission, or apply to the court of appeals for a writ of mandamus where the district court's privilege ruling `amounts to a judicial usurpation of power or a clear abuse of discretion,' or otherwise works a manifest injustice. Id. at 607 (quoting Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 390, 124 S.Ct. 2576, 159 L.Ed.2d 459 (2004)). Finally, the Court stated that a party could refuse to obey a discovery order and either appeal after judgment an order imposing discovery sanctions, or appeal any order imposing contempt sanctions for failing to follow the disclosure order, Id. at 608. After reviewing Mohawk Industries and the briefs of the parties here, we are not convinced that we need to change course and overrule Ben, supra . We are particularly unconvinced that an appeal after final judgment is an adequate vehicle for vindicating a claim of privilege. Rather, we reaffirm our position in Ben that once material has been disclosed, any privilege is effectively destroyed. Privileges exist as a rule to promote frank discussions, and we respectfully disagree with the United States Supreme Court that disallowing immediate appeals will not chill such discussions. See Gillard v. AIG Ins. Co., 15 A.3d 44, 57 (Pa.2011) (noting the broad range of protection afforded by the attorney-client privilege and citing Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 394-95, 101 S.Ct. 677, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981)). The free airing of concerns that privileges are intended to foster will be curtailed if parties are unable to speak without worrying that a confidant ordinarily subject to a privilege will one day be forced to repeat confidences. See Lepley v. Lycoming Cty. Ct. of Com. Pl., 481 Pa. 565, 393 A.2d 306, 310 (1978) (stating purpose of work-product privilege). A rule requiring parties to wait until final judgment to appeal an order overruling a claim of privilege would both cause the privilege-holder's fears to be realized and deprive the privilege-holder of any meaningful remedy. Absent a stay and an immediate appeal, the possessor of putatively privileged material will repeat to others what the client told him or her in confidence, and, if it turns out that the claim of privilege was meritorious, a later appeal will not be able to undo the harm. Once putatively privileged material is in the open, the bell has been rung, and cannot be unrung by a later appeal. See Kennedy, supra at 944 (There is no effective means of reviewing[,] after a final judgment[,] an order requiring the production of putatively protected material. (quoting Commonwealth v. Dennis, 859 A.2d at 1270, 1278 (Pa.2004)) (holding that an order requiring a prosecutor to disclose his notes from voir dire, over a claim of work-product privilege, was immediately appealable under Rule 313) (alterations in Kennedy )). In our view, the alternate methods for obtaining interlocutory review that the United States Supreme Court noted are either insufficient to preserve the vitality of privileges, or are not available in Pennsylvania law. The Court's first suggestionthat those subject to a ruling adverse to a claim of privilege might obtain an interlocutory appeal by permissionis not an adequate alternative. Pennsylvania law permits interlocutory appeals by permission, but under a somewhat different standard than the federal system. In Pennsylvania law, such an appeal may be had only if the party seeking the appeal clears two hurdles. First, the party must convince the trial court to certify in the order for which review is sought that the order involves a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion, and that an immediate appeal from the order may materially advance the ultimate termination of the matter. 42 Pa.C.S. § 702(b); see also Pa. R.A.P. 1311(b). [5] Second, if such a certification is obtained, the party must then convince the appellate court having jurisdiction over the appeal that it should exercise its discretion and permit an interlocutory appeal. Id. These appeals by permission are an insufficient substitute for an immediate appeal as of right from orders overruling privileges. It is foreseeable that in some cases, the privilege claim will be thought insufficiently controlling or persuasive to justify an immediate appeal, or that an immediate appeal of what is ordinarily a discovery order will not hasten the end of the case. After all, privileges may be claimed for material that is not central to claims or defenses in the case, yet the litigant may be unwilling to relinquish the claim of privilege for any number of personal or other reasons. And even where the privilege issue is not controlling, or where an immediate appeal will not materially advance the end of the case, the frank discussions that privileges are meant to protect will be chilled if the opportunity for immediate correction by an appellate court is not available. As for seeking a writ of mandamus as a substitute for an immediate appeal, mandamus is generally not available in Pennsylvania law as a vehicle for obtaining appellate review. The Superior and Commonwealth Courts may issue writs of mandamus to lower courts only regarding matters ancillary to appeals already pending within those courts' respective jurisdictions. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 741; 42 Pa.C.S. § 761(c). [6] See also Mun. Publications, Inc. v. Ct. of Com. Pl. of Phila. Cty., 507 Pa. 194, 489 A.2d 1286, 1288 (1985) (holding that the Superior Court may not issue writs of prohibition to review an order denying recusal before final judgment); Bell Appeal, 396 Pa. 592, 152 A.2d 731 (1959) (No statute confers such powers upon the Superior Court except for the purely incidental right to issue a writ of mandamus or prohibition to a court of inferior jurisdiction ancillary to proceedings pending in the Superior Court under its appellate jurisdiction. . . .). Although this Court may assume plenary jurisdiction over any case pending in a Pennsylvania court, and in such a case may issue a writ of mandamus, we may assume such jurisdiction only where the matter involve[es] an issue of immediate public importance. . . . 42 Pa.C.S. § 726. However, the requisite degree of public importance is lacking in most orders overruling privileges, even though such an order may have a profound effect on the party holding the privilege. In short, because of the extremely limited availability of mandamus as a method of obtaining appellate review in Pennsylvania, we believe it offers insufficient protection of privileges to be a satisfactory alternative to a collateral order appeal. Finally, the option of disobeying a disclosure order and being thus subject to discovery or contempt sanctions as a way of obtaining review is so extreme as to be no option at all. That method would require parties to expose themselves to the full range of sanctions from fines to imprisonment. Such potentially severe ramifications are too likely to coerce parties unfairly into abandoning meritorious claims of privilege to adequately serve the ultimate aim of any privilegeunfettered disclosures in particular circumstances. In summary, we reaffirm our holding in Ben, supra , that orders overruling claims of privilege and requiring disclosure are immediately appealable under Pa.R.A.P. 313. We now turn to the merits of this appeal.