Opinion ID: 1824158
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the trial court's relevancy analysis may implicate a weighing of competing rights

Text: As this Court stated in Allstate Insurance Co. v. Langston, 655 So.2d 91 (Fla.1995), it is axiomatic that discovery in civil cases must be relevant: Discovery in civil cases must be relevant to the subject matter of the case, and must be admissible or reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. Brooks [v. Owens], 97 So.2d [693, 699 (Fla.1957)]; see also Amente v. Newman, 653 So.2d 1030 (Fla.1995) (concept of relevancy is broader in discovery context than in trial context, and party may be permitted to discover relevant evidence that would be inadmissible at trial if it may lead to discovery of relevant evidence); Krypton [Broadcasting of Jacksonville, Inc. v. MGM-Pathe Communications Co.], 629 So.2d [852, 854 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)] (It is axiomatic that information sought in discovery must relate to the issues involved in the litigation, as framed in all pleadings.); Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(b)(1) (discovery must be relevant to the subject matter of the pending action). Id. at 94. Further, in Martin-Johnson, Inc. v. Savage, 509 So.2d 1097, 1100 (Fla. 1987), this Court observed that irreparable harm such as might be occasioned by an order that would let the cat out of the bag and provide the opponent material that could be used by an unscrupulous litigant to injure another person was the governing standard for determining whether a petition for writ of certiorari would, in a particular case, be an appropriate vehicle for challenging nonfinal orders granting discovery. As this Court observed in Rasmussen v. South Florida Blood Service, Inc., 500 So.2d 533 (Fla. 1987): In deciding whether a protective order is appropriate in a particular case, the court must balance the competing interests that would be served by granting discovery or by denying it. North Miami General Hospital v. Royal Palm Beach Colony, Inc., 397 So.2d 1033, 1035 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); Dade County Medical Association v. Hlis, 372 So.2d 117, 121 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979). Thus, the discovery rules provide a framework for judicial analysis of challenges to discovery on the basis that the discovery will result in undue invasion of privacy. This framework allows for broad discovery in order to advance the state's important interest in the fair and efficient resolution of disputes while at the same time providing protective measures to minimize the impact of discovery on competing privacy interests. Accordingly, we must assess all of the interests that would be served by the granting or denying of discoverythe importance of each and the extent to which the action serves each interest. Id. at 535. While the Fifth District in Deutsch incorrectly concluded that an employer has standing to raise the privacy interest of its employees as a shield against discovery, it correctly observed that employers have standing to oppose production of personal information contained in employee files on the ground that such information is not relevant to the pending litigation. [10] Important to our analysis here, in the context of considering a relevancy objection, the trial court can consider the constitutional rights of third parties who would be substantially affected by the outcome of the litigation. [11] As appropriate, the trial court may conduct an in-camera inspection of the subject records. In that context, the trial court may balance (on an ad hoc basis) the right to privacy and the right to know. City of Billings, 649 P.2d at 1290 (holding that the Montana Human Rights Commission, as part of its investigation of a discrimination complaint, could require an employer to submit certain evidence from its personnel files relating to persons other than the complainants, but that the HRC had to handle this information in a manner which would minimize the invasion of those employees' privacy rights). As a predicate to such review, the record custodian should direct the trial court's attention to the allegedly private information. Cf. First Healthcare Corp. v. Hamilton, 740 So.2d 1189, 1193 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (requiring the defendant to produce the reports for which a privilege was claimed for an in-camera inspection, with a privilege log and an affidavit of the basis of the claimed privilege). Even though the scope of discovery is broad, it must be relevant to issues properly framed by the pleadings in the litigation. Legitimate employee privacy concerns may also be addressed by a carefully crafted discovery order. However, given the broad scope of discovery pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280, [12] if private and confidential information that is not relevant is redacted or withheld from the documents produced, it would be appropriate to require the records custodian to provide to the requesting party details concerning the information withheld, to enable the parties to fully address the issue at the trial level and to challenge the trial court's ruling, if necessary. [13] Based upon the foregoing, we approve the decision in Alterra Health Care Corp. to the extent it is consistent with this opinion, and disapprove the reasoning in Deutsch, with respect to the issue of whether a private employer has standing to challenge a discovery request based exclusively upon the privacy interest of its employees in their personnel files. In so doing, however, we recognize that nonpublic employees may have a privacy interest in certain information contained in their personnel files, which they may assert as intervenors in the litigation. Moreover, in the appropriate case, the trial court should fully consider the employees' alleged privacy interestin the context of determining the relevancy of any discovery request which implicates itregardless of whether the subject employees have intervened or not. It is so ordered. ANSTEAD, C.J., SHAW, WELLS, and QUINCE, JJ., and HARDING, Senior Justice, concur. PARIENTE, J., concurs with an opinion. PARIENTE, J., concurring. I agree with the majority that Sterling House lacked standing to assert the constitutional right of privacy of its employees. Further, I also agree that trial courts can and should make appropriate provisions in orders compelling discovery to protect against the unnecessary disclosure of confidential or private information. See Amente v. Newman, 653 So.2d 1030, 1032 (Fla.1995); Berkeley v. Eisen, 699 So.2d 789, 790 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). I write to emphasize, however, that the courts also must be alert to the possibility of a litigant raising a claim of the privacy rights of others as a subterfuge to prevent the disclosure of relevant information. In this case, the nursing home had complete access to all of its employees' files and thus had the ability to use that information to impeach those former employees who were witnesses in this case with information gained from those files. Yet, the nursing home then attempted to prevent the plaintiff from having that same access. The question becomes whom was the nursing home protecting when it raised a privacy objection to information in its personnel files. In this case, as the majority points out, the plaintiff had already agreed to a redaction of purely private information such as home telephone numbers and social security numbers. We reiterated the importance of our broad and liberal discovery rules in our adversary system in Allstate Insurance Co. v. Boecher, 733 So.2d 993, 995 (Fla. 1999). Thus, while being sensitive that unrestricted disclosure may in a given case implicate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, courts must remain vigilant in preserving our discovery rules' basic framework, which envisions broad discovery in order to advance the state's important interest in the fair and efficient resolution of disputes. Rasmussen v. South Florida Blood Serv., Inc., 500 So.2d 533, 535 (Fla.1987).