Court Opinion

ID: 9679446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:53:10.270991+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:16:52.637868
License: Public Domain

JOHN E. PARRISH, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I also write separately to question the making of a verbatim record of an argument before a trial court directed to a pre-trial discovery motion.
The principal opinion includes a quotation from a verbatim transcript of a hearing on a pre-trial discovery motion by which plaintiffs counsel in the underlying action sought discovery of statements this relator made to her insurance carrier at the time of the accident that produced the litigation. The record does not reveal why a verbatim record was made. The purpose of a verbatim record is to make sworn testimony available for appellate review and, in the event specific objections are posed to that testimony, to record the objections on which the trial court based its rulings. The argument of an attorney directed to a pre-trial discovery motion can be recited on appeal by means of a written pleading. It is not necessary to incur the cost of taking down and transcribing attorneys’ comments to a trial court that are not directed to litigated issues based on sworn testimony. The fact that a transcript was made in this case should not be taken to mean that such a record is necessary or appropriate.
With respect to the merits of the prohibition action that is before this court, as I understand the principal opinion, it holds that any statement by an insured to his or her liability insurer concerning a claim that may be made against the insured, which the insurer is bound to defend, is privileged; that this is required by State ex rel. Cain v. Barker, 540 S.W.2d 50 (Mo.banc 1976), and cases subsequent to Cain, including Grewell v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 102 S.W.3d 33 (Mo.banc 2033). I do not interpret Cain or Grewell to be that inclusive.
The exception I take to the principal opinion’s holding is based on the precise facts in Cain. In Cain, the statements sought to be discovered “were obtained ... at the direction and under the supervision of the ... attorneys who were then representing [the declarant].” Cain, 540 S.W.2d at 52. The record in this case does not reveal that the statements of relator to which discovery was directed were made at the direction of an attorney or even in anticipation of litigation.
I am not convinced that Grewell applies to this case. Greivell dealt only with an insured’s right to access his or her liability insurance claims file. Greivell acknowledged that an insured has the right to access such a file. However, Grewell specifically refrained from extending its holding to other issues. Grewell proclaimed, “While the attorney/client relationship carries with it numerous duties and privileges, the Court today refrains from recognizing all of those duties and privileges in the insured/insurer relationship.” 102 S.W.3d at 37.
There being nothing in the record in this case specifying that the statements to which the discovery request was directed were taken at the direction or under the *49supervision of attorneys employed by the relator’s insurer, or likely to be employed by that insurer, I would hold that the preliminary order in prohibition this court entered was improvident. I would quash the preliminary writ.