Opinion ID: 3029810
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lum’s Motion To Compel Discovery

Text: Having reviewed the minutes in camera, we hold that the district court did not clearly err in affirming the magistrate judge’s order denying Lum’s motion to compel discovery of the Kauai County Council’s Executive Session 177 minutes. Lum relies on an opinion letter from the Hawaii Office of Information Practices (OIP) stating that only a limited portion of the minutes was covered by the attorney-client privilege. The magistrate judge could reasonably have disagreed with OIP’s review of the minutes or concluded that the privileged material was so intertwined with nonprivileged material that redaction would be ineffective. II. Lum’s Due Process, Breach of Contract and Violation of Public Policy Claims The district court correctly determined that Lum did not have a property interest in his employment and, thus, does not have a viable due process claim. Lum’s employment agreement was tainted by ethical violations by one of the police commissioners, so it was illegal and void ab initio. Cf. Peine v. Murphy, 2 377 P.2d 708, 712 (Haw. 1962) (holding that an agreement vitiated by fraud is void ab initio). A void contract cannot give rise to a property interest. See Bollow v. Fed. Reserve Bank of S.F., 650 F.2d 1093, 1099 (9th Cir. 1981). Accordingly, we need not consider whether Kauai County Code section 3- 1.11(a) would have rendered this contract voidable. Moreover, Lum did not raise the argument that a contract that was merely voidable should be treated differently from one that was void ab initio. Thus, we do not decide whether a voidable contract could create a property interest sufficient for a due process claim. Nor do we address Lum’s breach of contract and public policy claims, which the district court ruled were similarly defeated because the employment agreement was void. Lum has abandoned any challenge to these rulings on appeal. See United States v. Kimble, 107 F.3d 712, 715 n.2 (9th Cir. 1997).