Court Opinion

ID: 9473122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:19:49.554481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:19.857025
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree that the district court’s opinion should be affirmed, but for reasons different from those advanced by the majority.
In Fisher v. United States, 425 U.S. 391, 96 S.Ct. 1569, 48 L.Ed.2d 39 (1976), the appellants, taxpayers, sought to prevent their attorneys from complying with subpoenas, which compelled production of workpapers related to their (taxpayers) individual personal returns. The Supreme Court held that the taxpayers could preclude their attorneys’ compelled production by relying upon a combination of their at*157torney-client privileges and their Fifth Amendment rights. The two-pronged, conjunctive test for that preclusion is as follows. First, the taxpayer had to show that the subpoenas were transferred from the taxpayers to the attorneys in order to obtain legal advice. Id. at 403-404, 96 S.Ct. at 1577-1578. Second, upon a positive showing, the taxpayers had to show that their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination would have precluded their own compelled production. Id. at 404-405, 96 S.Ct. at 1577-1578. Because the taxpayers’ Fifth Amendment rights would not have precluded the taxpayers’ compelled production, the Supreme Court did not direct quashing the subpoenas. Id. at 414, 96 S.Ct. at 1582 (the papers held by the taxpayers’ attorneys were not the taxpayers’ private papers, but instead were the taxpayers’ accountants’ papers; therefore, the compelled production did not involve the taxpayers’ testimonial incriminations).
Consequently, Fisher advises that if a subpoena duces tecum compels an attorney’s production of documents and if, as in the. instant case, that attorney’s client raises, as a defense, his right against compelled self-incrimination in conjunction with his attorney-client privilege, then the client must satisfy the two-pronged test. Of course, the test assumes the existence of an attorney-client relationship and the client’s possession of the documents prior to the transfer. Id. at 404-405, 96 S.Ct. at 1577-1578.
In the instant case Doe, as a client-intervenor, sought to raise his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination in order to quash the subpoena that was served upon his attorney, Weiner. The district court, however, did not appear to recognize that because Doe raised his right against Weiner’s production, Doe had to satisfy the test set forth by Fisher.1 Consequently, the district court failed to engage in any analysis that would have determined whether Fisher’s test was satisfied.
Nevertheless and without realizing its special relevance, the district court made a helpful finding when it was stated “[hjere, there is no evidence that the subpoenaed documents were ever in the hands of John Doe. It appears that they were not. At best, it seems plausible that identical sets of documents related to the wire transfer of funds were in the hands of both Doe and Weiner.” 575 F.Supp. at 202. That finding conclusively demonstrates that Doe could not use his right against compelled self-incrimination to preclude Weiner’s compelled production of the documents because he did not satisfy one of the two assumptions underlying the sequential analysis: client possession of the records prior to transfer. Consequently, I don’t believe that under Fisher, Doe can successfully prevent Weiner’s production.
This conclusion would not be affected by the district court’s statement — “assuming that Joe Doe did transfer the subpoenaed documents, this Court finds that the Fifth Amendment does not proscribe their production by Weiner,” — because the analysis that supported that statement was dicta. Id. What is disturbing about that statement’s supporting analysis is that it erroneously suggests that Fisher disallows the argument that compelled production constitutes impermissible self-authentication. Id. at 203. Fisher, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in United States v. Doe, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 1237, 79 L.Ed.2d 552 (1984), stands for the proposition that compelled production is equivalent to three testimonial admissions, one of which is the authentication of the holder’s belief that those are the records described in the subpoena. This point, I believe, must be emphasized.

. The only point upon which the instant case and Fisher are dissimilar is that in Fisher the documents were the appellants' accountants’ workpapers while in the instant case the documerits are unidentified as to creator but relate to a transfer of funds. That dissimilarity, however, does not affect the applicability of the test set forth by Fisher.