Opinion ID: 1198869
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Disregard of Both the Procedural Context of Sims's Statements and His Evidentiary and Claim Renunciations

Text: Finally, in finding that fairness required that respondents be given access to Sims's mental health records, the district court noted, but plainly gave no effect to, Sims's attorneys' representations that Sims's mental or emotional state is not an element of his Section 1983 claim (Korn Letter at 1) or their representations, described in Parts I.A.2. and I.A.3. above, that they would not offer evidence relating to his mental or emotional state. While the court initially adverted to the claim withdrawal and evidentiary renunciations, it did so only to state that although they might make the information inadmissible at trial, admissibility was not the test. See 2002 Disclosure Order at 1. The court thereafter proceeded to assess the fairness issue, however, as if the renounced evidence would in fact be admitted, concluding, for example, as discussed above, that respondents would be at a disadvantage because they would be unable to prove that Sims was returned to the PSU after the December 20 incident for reasons other than security. See id. at 2. But with no evidence to be presented by Sims at trial as to this matter, the view that respondents would be unfairly prejudiced by lacking access to the privileged information that might prove the negative, id., is inexplicable. These findings that respondents would be disadvantaged by Sims's references to his privileged communications and his return to the PSUand the ruling that Sims cannot unring the bellignored the procedural venue in which his statements were made. As discussed in Part II.B.1. above, the fairness inquiry focuses on whether there is a risk that a decisionmaker will accept the privilege-holder's statements without his opponent's having an adequate opportunity to present rebutting evidence. See, e.g., Doe Co., 350 F.3d at 305. In Carthan, for example, statements were made to the grand jury, which was to decide whether, and against whom, to return an indictment; the witness was not allowed to waive his privilege against self-incrimination in order to make certain statements, but then invoke the privilege to deny the grand jury access to materials that would allow it to evaluate those statements. In the present case, in contrast, Sims's statements were made only in a deposition, not before a decisionmaker or factfinder. Given that Sims cannot introduce any of his own deposition testimony at trial (unless, of course, respondents were to introduce some portion of the deposition that Sims should be allowed to supplement in the interest of completeness, see Fed. R.Civ.P. 32(a)(6)), Sims's deposition testimony does not place respondents in a disadvantageous position at trial. And since Sims made it clear that he will not offer any evidence as to his mental health, or any psychological disorder, or his fears, or any non-garden-variety emotional distress resulting from the alleged assault, etc., we conclude that it was not within the permissible limits of discretion for the district court to conclude that respondents would be prejudiced if Sims were not required to disclose his mental health records.