Opinion ID: 1483923
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Open Meeting Issue

Text: The Court of Appeals held that the School Board violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, T.C.A. § 8-44-101, et seq., when it met privately with its attorney and Dr. Joseph Field during the course of the present litigation. Complaint is made of two particular meetings. The first occurred on September 3, 1982, when after a hearing in the case in Chancery Court, the Board, its attorney, and Dr. Fields met for twenty minutes behind closed doors in the second floor witness room at the courthouse. No notice of the meeting was given. The second alleged violation occurred on the night of September 16, 1982, when the Board and Dr. Fields met with the Board's attorney at his office from 7:00 to 9:25 p.m. Rick Dringenburg, husband of the SCEA president, and Chris Baxter, a reporter for the local paper, watched Board members enter and leave the office and observed the meeting through the office window. Again, no notice was given of the meeting. Section 8-44-101(a) of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act declares it to be the policy of this state that the formation of public policy and decisions is the public business and shall not be conducted in secret. Section 8-44-102(a) then provides that [a]ll meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times, except as provided by the Tennessee Constitution. There is no express exception to the Act permitting a public body to meet privately with its attorney and it is for this reason that the Court of Appeals determined that both of the Board's meetings with its attorneys violated the Act. This is a minority position among the courts in other jurisdictions that have considered the issue. The majority of courts have fashioned an exception to their states' open meeting laws to permit private attorney-client consultation on pending legal matters even where the statute itself makes no such express exception. See Sacramento Newspaper Guild v. Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, 263 Cal. App.2d 41, 69 Cal. Rptr. 480, 487-492 (1968); Associated Students of the University of Colorado v. Regents of the University of Colorado, 189 Colo. 482, 543 P.2d 59, 61 (1975); Times Publishing Company v. Williams, 222 So.2d 470, 475-476 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1969); Fiscal Court of Jefferson County v. Courier-Journal & Louisville Times Co., 554 S.W.2d 72, 73 (Ky. 1977); Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Housing & Redevelopment Authority, 246 N.W.2d 448 (Minn. 1976) (republished at 310 Minn. 313, 251 N.W.2d 620); Oklahoma Association of Municipal Attorneys v. State, 577 P.2d 1310 (Okla. 1978). Although the Tennessee Open Meetings Act differs from those of other states where courts have created exceptions, the rationale employed by those courts is noteworthy. Two approaches, both based upon the same policy consideration, are given for permitting this exception: (1) the evidentiary privilege between lawyer and client and (2) the attorney's ethical duty not to betray the confidences of his client. Each of these is recognized by the law of Tennessee. The first is found in T.C.A. § 23-3-105 which provides as follows: No attorney, solicitor or counselor shall be permitted, in giving testimony against a client, or person who consulted him professionally, to disclose any communication made to him as such by such person, during the pendency of the suit, before or afterwards, to his injury. Some courts see no reason why both the Open Meetings Act and the attorney-client evidentiary privilege cannot co-exist. It is on this basis that they permit private meetings between public bodies and their attorneys for the purpose of discussing questions of pending litigation. The two are reconciled by holding there has been no implied repeal of the attorney client privilege statute by the open meeting law. See e.g. Oklahoma Association of Municipal Attorneys v. State, supra (but note that Oklahoma's open meeting statute and the privilege statute were passed in the same year); Sacramento Newspaper Guild v. Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, supra, 69 Cal. Rptr. at 490-491; Associated Students of the University of Colorado v. Regents of the University of Colorado, supra, 543 P.2d at 61. The California case, Sacramento Newspaper Guild v. Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, supra , contains the most-cited rationale for these cases. The court first notes that there is a presumption against repeals by implication and that they occur only where the two acts are so repugnant that there is no possibility of concurrent operation or the later provision undeniably shows an intent to supersede the earlier. 69 Cal. Rptr. at 490; See Reams v. Trostel Mechanical Industries, Inc., 522 S.W.2d 170, 173 (Tenn. 1975). The Court then goes on to state that [e]vidence of such intent is by far too thin... . In requiring board members to deliberate and act in public, these do not inexorably embrace the board members in their roles as clients calling upon their attorney for legal advice. In declaring the public's right to be informed, they do not necessarily propel the public's legal adversary into the lawyer-client conference clad in the robes of good citizenship. 69 Cal. Rptr. at 491. Notwithstanding these well reasoned opinions that follow this rationale, we believe the second approach, the attorney's ethical duty to preserve the confidences and secrets of his client, provides a better basis for establishing an exception to the Open Meetings Act. The attorney-client evidentiary privilege only extends to communications from the client to the attorney. D. Paine, Tennessee Law of Evidence, § 96, p. 111-112 (1974), and confidentiality is destroyed when those communications take place in the presence of a third party. Hazlett v. Bryant, 192 Tenn. 251, 257, 241 S.W.2d 121, 123 (1951). The privilege is designed to protect the client and because it belongs to the client, may be waived by him. When the third party in whose presence such communications take place is an agent of the client, the confidentiality is not destroyed. McCormick § 91 (2d ed. 1972); D. Paine, Tennessee Law of Evidence, § 97, p. 112 (1974). When the Board discussed the present lawsuit with its attorney on September 3 and 16, 1982, it did so in the presence of Dr. Fields. As chief negotiator for the Board, Dr. Fields was the Board's agent; therefore, the confidentiality of those communications was not waived by his presence. However, the evidentiary privilege afforded by T.C.A. § 23-3-105 was waived by the passage of the Open Meetings Act. In Times Publishing Company v. Williams, 222 So.2d 470 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1969), that court was confronted with the identical issue involving a similar Open Meetings Act. [1] In establishing an attorney-client exception to the Act, the court pointed out the following: The attorney-client relationship is a unique one under the law. Within this relationship both the attorney and the client enjoy rights and privileges independent of each other. The privilege the client enjoys is one of confidentiality. The privilege of confidentiality can be waived and the effect of Chapter 67-356 has been to waive the privilege on behalf of the board. The clear import of the All meetings provision of this statute is that the public, acting through the legislature, has waived the privilege with regard to the enumerated public bodies. Id. at 475. We are of the opinion that the Tennessee Open Meetings Act had the same effect on the attorney-client evidentiary privilege. An exception based upon the evidentiary privilege would be in contravention of the Legislature's intent and express purpose as stated in the Act. We note, however, that the Legislature was mindful of constitutional exceptions that may exist, and provided that all meetings shall be public except as provided by the Tennessee Constitution. T.C.A. § 8-44-102(a). Article II, Sections 1 and 2, of the Constitution provide: Sec. 1. Division of powers.  The powers of the Government shall be divided into three distinct departments: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Sec. 2. Limitation of powers.  No person or persons belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except in the cases herein directed or permitted. It is well settled that the licensing and regulation of attorneys practicing law in courts of Tennessee is squarely within the inherent authority of the judicial branch of government. Belmont v. Board of Law Examiners, 511 S.W.2d 461 (Tenn. 1974). Furthermore, the Supreme Court has original and exclusive jurisdiction to promulgate its own Rules. Its rule making authority embraces the admission and supervision of members of the Bar of the State of Tennessee. Petition of Tennessee Bar Ass'n., 539 S.W.2d 805, 807 (Tenn. 1976). This Court, in the exercise of its constitutionally delegated authority, has promulgated rules and regulations governing the practice of law, and adopted a code of professional responsibility which includes the following: