Court Opinion

ID: 9629010
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:35:51.127042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:14.387305
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J.
The petitioners seek a writ of prohibition to restrain the respondent court from enforcing its order for the inspection of certain documents in their possession. An alternative writ was issued.
The order was made in an action in which Wynona Bell, referred to as the plaintiff, seeks to recover damages from the *504petitioners Raymond Gnecco and the city and county of San Francisco for personal injuries alleged to have been suffered by her due to the alleged negligent operation by Gnecco, an employee of the city’s municipal railway, of a bus on which she was a passenger. The petitioners Dion R. Holm and Donald J. Kropp are attorneys at law who at all times involved represented the city and county. They are also the legal representatives of Gnecco as an employee of the city and county in the action for damages. ■ Before trial in that action the plaintiff moved under section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure for an order permitting her to inspect, among other things, (1) a document containing a signed statement made by her to a claims investigator of the municipal railway concerning the facts of the accident; (2) written reports by Gneeeo to the city setting forth his version of the accident, and (3) photographs taken at the scene of and following the accident by agents of the city.
The pertinent parts of section 1000 provide: “Any court in which an action is pending, or a judge or justice thereof may, upon notice, order either party to give to the other, within a specified time, an inspection and copy or permission to take a copy, of entries of accounts in any book, or of any document or paper in his possession, or under his control, containing evidence relating to the merits of the action, or the defense therein ...”
In support of the motion for the order of inspection it was stated in affidavits on behalf of the plaintiff that she had signed a written statement setting forth factual information material to the controversy, the contents of which she could not remember and a copy of which had not been furnished her. It was stated in an affidavit of the plaintiff’s counsel .that the documents involved were recorded and preserved in the “regular course of business of defendants in the operation of the Municipal Railway.” It is claimed that a deposition of the petitioner Gneeeo, not made a part of the record here, also contains evidence that the reports were filed in the regular course of business. There is no further reference to the purpose of the documents in the complaint, the notice of motion, other supporting affidavits or in any other documents which are a part of the plaintiff’s record. The deputy .city attorney and the general claims agent for the Municipal Railway, in affidavits filed on behalf of the petitioners, stated that the questioned documents had been kept in confidence in the possession or control of one of them since *505they were made; that they were in the possession of the attorney at the time of the demand for their production; that they were secured and kept in confidence for use by the attorneys for information and aid in defending in any litigation arising out of the accident, and that the documents are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
The foregoing was the only evidence before the court. The motion was granted as to the documents involved, and the court ordered the petitioners to produce them. Thereafter a motion to vacate the order was denied. The petitioners refused to comply with the order asserting that the court lacked jurisdiction to make it. The court threatens to enforce its order by contempt proceedings and the petitioners seek to restrain its enforcement by this application for the writ of prohibition.
The order is not appealable and prohibition is the proper remedy. (City & County of San Francisco v. Superior Court, 38 Cal.2d 156 [238 P.2d 581] ; Franchise Tax Board v. Superior Court, 36 Cal.2d 538 [225 P.2d 905].)
The petitioners’ main contentions are that the attorney-client privilege (Code Civ. Proc., § 1881, subd. (2)) bars inspection of the papers; that section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure is no broader than the historical bill of discovery in equity, and that by reason of the limitations of the latter, the documents may not be inspected.
In regard to the latter contention it is true that there formerly was no right in equity to inspect an adversary’s documentary evidence. (6 Wigmore, Evidence, 3d ed., 1940, § 1857, p. 443.)  However, while the cases hold that section 1000 is based upon the bill of discovery in chancery courts (Union Trust Co. v. Superior Court, 11 Cal.2d 449 [81 P.2d 150, 118 A.L.R. 259]; Wright v. Superior Court, 139 Cal. 469 [73 P. 145]), they do not hold that the equitable rule establishes a limitation on the scope of our code section.  Where the use of the statutory bill of discovery is denied by our courts it usually is because the information sought to be obtained is not relevant or material to any of the issues in the case. (Union Collection Co. v. Superior Court, 149 Cal. 790 [87 P. 1035] ; Ex parte Clarke, 126 Cal. 235 [58 P. 546, 77 Am.St.Rep. 176, 46 L.R.A. 835].)  It has been said that the documents also must be properly identified and admissible in evidence at the ensuing trial. (McClatchy Newspapers v. Superior Court, 26 Cal.2d 386 [159 P.2d 944].) But none of the cases hold that section 1000 is to be construed *506as narrowly as the petitioners contend.  On the contrary, in Union Trust Co. v. Superior Court, supra, 11 Cal.2d 449, this court stated at page 462: “That the trend of judicial decisions is to relax the rules which relate to the taking of evidence by ancillary proceedings of which the inspection of documents is one method. ...” It further quoted from Corpus Juris, volume 18, page 116, to the effect that provisions such as section 1000 are “remedial in their nature and should be liberally construed.” (See also Austin v. Turrentine, 30 Cal.App.2d 750 [87 P.2d 72, 88 P.2d 178].)  Section 1000 provides in part that when an adversary refuses to comply with an order of inspection, the court “may exclude the entries of accounts of the book, or the document, or paper from being given in evidence. ...” It is apparent that this could apply only to documents in support of the adversary’s own case. It has been said, without discussion of the point here involved, that inspection was proper in a case where account books bore evidence of the adversary’s own case. (Avery v. Wiltsee, 177 Cal. 484, 488 [171 P. 95]; see also Superior Ins. Co. v. Superior Court, 37 Cal.2d 749 [235 P.2d 833]; Demaree v. Superior Court, 10 Cal.2d 99 [73 P.2d 605].)
There is no question but that the documents here sought to be inspected are material and relevant to questions in issue, would be admissible in evidence, and are within the scope of section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure, subject to their confidential nature.
The right to maintain the security of a confidential communication under the attorney-client privilege is set forth in section 1881 of the Code of Civil Procedure which states in part: “There are particular relations in which it is the policy of the law to encourage confidence and to preserve it inviolate; therefore, a person can not be examined as a witness in the following cases ... 2. Attorney and Client. An attorney can not, without the consent of his client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him, or his advice given thereon in the course of professional employment . . ..” (See also Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6068, subd. (e)-)  Where the right to assert the privilege is clear it should follow that the bill of discovery cannot be used to defeat it.
The objective of making a particular communication privileged is to encourage a client to make a complete dis*507closure to Ms attorney without fear that others may also be informed. (City & County of San Francisco v. Superior Court, 37 Cal.2d 227, 235 [231 P.2d 26, 25 A.L.R.2d 1418] ; 8 Wigmore, Evidence, supra, § 2380a, p. 813.)  The privilege attaches where the communication is made in confidence pursuant to a client-attorney relationship with respect to the particular matter. (McKnew v. Superior Court, 23 Cal.2d 58, 65-66 [142 P.2d 1].)  Thus there would seem to be no privilege in a communication which is not made to or for further communication to an attorney, although the communication might have some connection with possible liability in the future, such as reports submitted in the regular course of business for study in accident prevention.  Nor does the privilege attach to a communication not intended to be of a confidential nature. (City & County of San Francisco v. Superior Court, supra, 37 Cal.2d 227, 234-235; McKnew v. Superior Court, supra, 23 Cal.2d 58, 66.)  To make the communication privileged the dominant purpose must be for transmittal to an attorney “in the course of professional employment.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1881, subd. (2) ; City & County of San Francisco v. Superior Court, supra, 37 Cal.2d 227, 235.)
In any given situation it is necessary that a determination be made concerning the facts asserted as a basis for the privilege. This determination is for the trial court in the first instance. Where it is clear that the communication has but a single purpose, there is little difficulty in concluding that the privilege should be applied or withheld accordingly.  If it appears that the communication is to serve a dual purpose, one for transmittal to an attorney “in the course of professional employment” and one not related to that purpose, the question presented to the trial court is as to which purpose predominates. The question then is whether the conclusion of the trial court on the facts is correct or has resulted in an abuse of discretion.
In the present case the plaintiff’s statement to the city’s claims investigator was recorded as she made it. After being transcribed she signed her name to the document. Her assertions that she was not given a copy of the statement and that she does not remember what she said are not disputed. She does not seek to have disclosed any communication from her adversaries to their attorneys. She merely seeks the record of a communication which she herself made *508in an “arm’s length” conversation and which was transmitted to her adversaries’ attorneys. Clearly as to the document embodying this communication there is no attorney-client relationship, the communication was not made nor intended to be in confidence, and the privilege did not attach. Accordingly the document can properly be reached under the statutory provisions.
As to the reports and photographs it is clear that from their character and content they fall within the privilege. Both originated with agents of the city and it is undisputed that they were forwarded in confidence to the defendants’ attorneys for use in possible litigation. It is stated in City & County of San Francisco v. Superior Court, supra, 37 Cal. 2d 227 at page 235: ‘‘ The privilege embraces not only oral or written statements but actions, signs, or other means of communicating information by a client to his attorney.” And at page 236-237: “It is no less the client’s communication to the attorney when it is given by the client to an agent for transmission to the attorney, and it is immaterial whether the agent is the agent of the attorney, the client, or both. ‘[T]he client’s freedom of communication requires a liberty of employing other means than his own personal action. The privilege of confidence would be a vain one unless its exercise could be thus delegated. A communication, then, by any form of agency employed or set in motion by the client is within the privilege ... (8 Wigmore, supra, § 2317, pp. 616-617. . . .)”  It follows that where the communication is between corporate employees and is embodied in reports or photographic evidence for the purpose of redelivery to a corporate attorney the privilege attaches if the reports and photographs were created as a means of communicating confidential information to the attorney.
The present proceeding calls for the determination of the dominant purpose for which the reports and photographs were created. As previously stated, the affidavits of the petitioners in the trial court revealed that the documents were prepared as confidential communications to the city attorney in threat of litigation and that the documents had at all times been treated as such. These affidavits were uncontradicted as to the purpose of the documents. In this connection the plaintiff asserts only that they were prepared in the regular course of business.  But there, is no valid basis for a distinction between a communication created for transmittal to an attorney to prepare for threatened litigation following *509particular accidents, and a communication prepared for an identical purpose under standing rules in the ease of all accidents involving personal or property injury. Because the scope of the operations of the defendant city’s municipal railway is such as to require communications of this nature as a routine matter, it cannot be said that the attorney-client privilege did not attach.
In any action for damages such as the pending one it is of considerable importance to obtain all information available at the scene of the accident in order to safeguard the rights of the party likely to be charged with negligence. It is because of this fact that diligence is required in behalf of such party to avoid or prepare for litigation. In view of the imminent possibility that the city would be faced with a claim involving substantial liability for personal injuries far exceeding financial considerations in any other respect, it is unreasonable and unrealistic to say that the communication of the documentary information to the attorneys for use in their professional capacity was not foremost and predominately in the minds of those securing and transmitting the same.
The court did not make specific findings of fact upon which its order for the production of the documents was based. However, in view of the undisputed evidence both as to the intended purpose and the actual practice followed any determination which would not accord greater importance to the purpose of communications to the attorneys in their professional capacities than to any other purpose would be an abuse of discretion.  The attorney-client privilege is an important element in the effectiveness with which the counselor-at-law is to advise his client and safeguard the latter’s interests. Where, as here, the right to the privilege is clearly established it should not be cast aside. The fact that the information contained in the communications might also be used for incidental purposes not entitled to the privilege is unimportant.
The question of the application of section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure as affecting the attorney-client privilege appears not to have been decided by any California court. However, in an analogous situation in New York Cas. Co. v. Superior Court, 30 Cal.App.2d 130 [85 P.2d 965], it was sought to perpetuate evidence under sections 2083-2086 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The court held that confidential reports of an accident procured for the use of an insurance *510company’s attorney were protected by the attorney-client privilege. Section 1000 was not referred to but the court cited with approval two Ohio decisions that dealt with discovery procedures. (In re Klemann, 132 Ohio St. 187 [5 N.E.2d 492, 108 A.L.R 505]; Ex parte Schoepf, 74 Ohio St. 1 [77 N.E. 276, 6 L.R.A.N.S. 325].) Those cases dealt with an effort to obtain by subpoena duces tecum reports of an accident prepared by an insured for its insurer and insurer’s attorneys. The Ohio court held the communications to the insurer to be privileged.
Numerous decisions in other states have held that where confidential reports were submitted by agents of a corporation for transmittal to the corporate attorney, the privilege attached as against proceedings for discovery. (See cases compiled in 146 A.L.R at 988.) In many of the cases it was emphasized that the crucial question is the purpose for which the communication originated. In Cully v. Northern P. R. Co., 35 Wash. 241 [77 P. 202], the court held that routine correspondence, reports and documents relating to the accidental injury of the plaintiff were privileged, the court stating : “We can conceive of no reason why a different rule should apply in this case than prevails in the case of privileged communications generally.”
It is concluded that the confidential communications embodied in the reports and photographs are protected by the attorney-client privilege. As to those documents the peremptory writ is granted; as to the document containing the signed statement of the plaintiff to the defendant’s investigator, the writ is denied. The alternative writ is discharged.
Gibson, C. J., Edmonds, J., Schauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.