Opinion ID: 2545615
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product

Text: Wheeler/Phillips retained Williams to represent their interests and to negotiate with the IDB and others with respect to the sale of their property. In August 2007, CSX moved to compel the production of Williams's entire legal file, including his correspondence and communications with Wheeler/Phillips. Wheeler/Phillips objected to producing the file on the ground of attorney-client privilege; Williams's law firm objected on the ground that the file was attorney work product. The trial court found that Wheeler/Phillips had waived the attorney-client privilege because they had submitted Williams's affidavit in opposition to motions for a summary judgment filed by the project participants and because Wheeler had submitted her own affidavit. The trial court also found that Wheeler/Phillips had waived the attorney-client privilege because they had produced a letter Williams wrote to McKinney, who was never one of Williams's clients. The court reasoned that because Williams had negotiated with the project participants and had participated in drafting the option agreements and amended option agreements, it is beyond dispute that attorney-client communications between Williams and Wheeler/Phillips are required for the truthful resolution of this case. Relying on Rule 510, Ala. R. Evid., and Ex parte Great American Surplus Lines Insurance Co., 540 So.2d 1357 (Ala.1989), the trial court held that Wheeler/Phillips had used privileged communications as both sword and shield, and it ordered Wheeler/Phillips to disclose Williams's file. Rule 510 states that the waiver of a privilege occurs only where the holder of the privilege voluntarily discloses or consents to the disclosure of any significant part of the privileged matter. Wheeler/Phillips argue that they never disclosed or consented to the disclosure of any privileged information. They argue that the letter from Williams to McKinney merely sets out information Williams had learned about the circumstances under which the option to the Shelton property was obtained and the purchase of that property by the State and that it made no disclosure to McKinney of what could be considered privileged communications between Williams and Wheeler/Phillips. Although the letter to McKinney included a small excerpt from a portion of a letter Williams wrote to Wheeler/Phillips, the excerpt contained only a description of what George had told Williams and McKinney in a prior meeting and, they argue, does not constitute a significant part of the privileged communication. See Rule 510, Advisory Committee Notes (Disclosure of an insignificant part of the privileged matter does not waive the privilege.). Moreover, Wheeler/Phillips argue, any waiver of the attorney-client privilege must be made by the client and cannot be made by the lawyer representing the client without the client's consent. Swain v. Terry, 454 So.2d 948 (Ala.1984). Wheeler/Phillips maintain that there is no evidence indicating that they consented to Williams's waiving any part of the attorney-client privilege and that he cannot be compelled to testify against them as to advice he gave them or other communications that might prejudice them in this case. Richards v. Lennox Indus., Inc., 574 So.2d 736 (Ala.1990). Finally, Wheeler/Phillips argue, Williams's affidavit was offered in opposition to the project participants' motion for a summary judgment. It did not disclose any communications between Williams and Wheeler/Phillips, they say, and did not inject privileged matter into these proceedings. The affidavit merely addressed disclosures made to Williams by certain project participants or their representatives about which the project participants had already deposed him. As to Wheeler's affidavit, she did not reveal any communication she had had with Williams except to say that he informed her in November 2002 that a higher price per acre had been paid to another landowner. Essentially, the project participants seek information concerning what Williams and his clients knew about matters pertinent to the tolling of the statute of limitations on the fraud claims and when they knew it. That issue is critical to the viability of the fraud claims. Williams has given an affidavit submitted as evidence in this case concerning facts such as when he received a copy of the Shelton option agreement and the steps he took to determine whether the option had been exercised. Wheeler has also given an affidavit concerning what Williams told her about the Shelton option agreement. The trial court has granted the motion to compel Williams to produce his entire legal file. Production of the entire file sweeps too broadly; documents relating to information learned by Williams from third parties during his investigation dealing with the timing of his knowledge of alleged fraud, matters highly relevant to the issue of the tolling of the statute of limitations on the fraud claims, constitute his work product if prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial. See Rule 26(b)(3), Ala. R. Civ. P. Of course, some of those documents might predate the time when this litigation was imminent. However, that circumstance does not preclude the status of the documents as work product. See United States v. El Paso Co., 682 F.2d 530, 542-43 (5th Cir.1982) (`[L]itigation need not [necessarily] be imminent... as long as the primary motivating purpose behind the creation of the document was to aid in possible future litigation.' (quoting United States v. Davis, 636 F.2d 1028, 1040 (5th Cir.1981))). Only to the extent that the project participants are unable to obtain without undue hardship the substantial equivalent of information learned by Williams from third parties during his investigation are they entitled to see information in Williams's files relating to such investigation. Ex parte Alabama Dep't of Youth Servs., 927 So.2d 805, 809 (Ala.2005). Because it is a practical impossibility for the project participants to speculate as to all possible sources of information and to make inquiry of such sources as to contact with Williams, the order of the trial court is due to be affirmed to the extent that Williams is required to produce work product dealing with information developed from third parties with respect to the aforementioned investigation. As to communications between Williams and his clients, to the extent there has been any disclosure by Williams, there is no evidence of Wheeler/Phillips's consent to any such disclosure. To the extent that the trial court's order requires disclosure of other information than that allowed herein, the trial court exceeded its discretion in granting the motion to compel as to that information, and the trial court's order is reversed as to that information.