Court Opinion

ID: 9498840
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:29:34.708676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:06.328814
License: Public Domain

GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join in the majority opinion except for Section II B, which requires appellants West Paces Medical Center (“West Paces”) and HCA, Inc., to disobey the *475district court’s discovery order and suffer a contempt citation in order to challenge the propriety of the order. Under the present circumstances, in which the discovery order implicates the attorney-client privilege, I would hold, consistent with In re Lott, 424 F.3d 446 (6th Cir.2005), that mandamus, not contempt, is the appropriate jurisdictional avenue to address appellants’ claims. However, because the district court did not clearly err in concluding that appellants’ inadvertent disclosure of the privileged materials forfeited the privilege, I conclude that mandamus should not issue. Thus, I concur in the result, which is the dismissal of the appeal.
I.
As the majority recognizes, this Court has eschewed the collateral order doctrine as a means to obtain jurisdiction and undertake immediate review of orders compelling discovery during the course of ongoing litigation. See, e.g., In re Lott, 424 F.3d at 449 n. 2; Ross v. City of Memphis, 423 F.3d 596, 599 (6th Cir.2005); Starcher v. Correctional Medical Systems, Inc., 144 F.3d 418, 422-25 (6th Cir.1998); Coleman v. Am. Red Cross, 979 F.2d 1135, 1138 (6th Cir.1992); Fed. Dep. Ins. Corp. v. Ernst & Whinney, 921 F.2d 83, 85 (6th Cir.1990); Dow Chemical Co. v. Taylor, 519 F.2d 352, 354-55 (6th Cir.1975). In the interest of avoiding piecemeal litigation, we have typically limited a litigant who seeks to challenge a discovery order to two possible remedies — either fail to comply with the order and then appeal from a sentence of contempt,1 or seek the extraordinary remedy of a writ of mandamus under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651.2
Recently, however, in In re Lott, we noted that where a claim of privilege is involved,3 the use of discretion inherent in our mandamus jurisdiction is particularly appropriate. We stated:
The inability to cure an unlawful piercing of the privilege through direct appeal has led numerous courts of appeals to regularly utilize mandamus when important interests such as privilege are at issue. “Writ review is rather frequently provided ... because of the desire to protect against discovery of information that is claimed to be protected by the Constitution, privilege, or more general interests in privacy.” 16 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure, § 3935.3, at 605-06 (2d ed.1996 & supp.2005) (emphasis added); ... Hahnemann University Hospital v. Edgar, 74 F.3d 456, 461 (3d Cir.1996); see also In re Regents of University of California, 101 F.3d 1386, 1387 (Fed.Cir. 1996), cert. denied 520 U.S. 1193, 117 S.Ct. 1484, 137 L.Ed.2d 695 (issuing mandamus to set aside discovery order where district court erroneously ordered discovery over claim of attorney-client privilege); Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. v. Turner & Newall, PLC, 964 F.2d 159, 163 (2d Cir.1992) (similar); In re Bieter, 16 F.3d 929, 931-33 (8th Cir. 1994) (similar). This Court has utilized the All Writs Act to alter a discovery order implicating the attorney-client privilege. In re Perrigo, 128 F.3d 430, 441 (1997) (altering a discovery order that would have required public disclo*476sure of information protected by the attorney-client privilege).
These Courts have all found that forcing a party to disclose confidential communications and seek redress via direct appeal after the court has reached a final judgment is an inadequate remedy. In Hahnemann, the Court of Appeals for the [Third] Circuit held that the type of relief afforded by direct appeal is usually insufficient when a claim of privilege is made. 74 F.3d at 461 (“when a district court orders production of information over a litigant’s claim of a privilege not to disclose, appeal after a final decision is an inadequate remedy ... for compliance with the production orders complained of destroys the right sought to be protected.”) (quoting Bogosian v. Gulf Oil Corp., 738 F.2d 587, 591 (3d Cir., 1984)); see also University of California, 101 F.3d at 1387 (“an appeal after disclosure of the privileged communication is an inadequate remedy”) (citation omitted).
424 F.3d at 450-51.
We further rejected the notion that in such circumstances, mandamus is unnecessary because this Court could remedy any harm on direct appeal:
By this logic, if discovery proceeded and privileged material was both disclosed and admitted into evidence against Lott, this Court could find that the privileged material should not have been used against him and treat the admission just as we would any other evidentiary error. But as the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has noted, “a pertinent aspect of confidentiality will be lost, even though communications later deemed to be privileged will be inadmissible at trial.” Chase Manhattan Bank, 964 F.2d at 165. The damage to the attorney-client relationship will have already been done by the disclosure itself.
Id. at 451. See also In re Perrigo Co., 128 F.3d 430, 437 (6th Cir.1997) (holding that “forced disclosure of privileged material may bring about irreparable harm” and, thus, the petitioner appealing an order requiring the production of a privileged statement had “no adequate means to attain the discovery relief it [sought] except by mandamus .... ”).
It is significant to note, in this respect, that “a judgment of civil contempt is not a final decree and therefore is not appeal-able in itself.” Blaylock v. Cheker Oil Co., 547 F.2d 962, 965 (6th Cir.1976) (citing Fox v. Capital Co., 299 U.S. 105, 107, 57 S.Ct. 57, 81 L.Ed. 67 (1936); McAlpin v. Lexington 76 Auto Truck Stop, Inc., 229 F.3d 491, 500 (6th Cir.2000)). Thus, the contempt route requires an aggrieved party claiming privilege to be penalized by a contempt citation, while in the interim presumably being forced to disclose the privileged materials until after a final judgment has issued and an appeal has been pursued. This is, I believe, an arduous and ineffective method of resolving a discovery dispute dealing with sensitive privileged information.
The disobedience and contempt route, used under these circumstances, contradicts the notion that our judicial system largely depends on the voluntary acceptance of court orders. “Being forced to disobey an order of the district court in order to obtain review of the court’s ruling seems a harsh choice.” Richmark Corp. v. Timber Falling Consultants, 959 F.2d 1468, 1480 (9th Cir.1992). As more bluntly stated by another court, “[W]e reject the suggestion that an appeal can properly come before us only if some officer of IBM refuses to deliver the 1,200 documents, subjects himself to the consequences of contempt, and appeals from the contempt judgment. The law today must be more ingenious, flexible and resourceful in its *477ability to avoid any such old-fashioned and semi-barbaric procedure.” International Bus. Machs. Corp. v. United States, 471 F.2d 507, 511 (2d Cir.1972), vacated on other grounds, 480 F.2d 293 (2d Cir.1973). See also United States v. Philip Morris, Inc., 314 F.3d 612, 620 (D.C.Cir.2003) (allowing a collateral order appeal from a discovery order rejecting an attorney-client privilege and noting that the contempt route is an unsatisfactory means to appeal).
In their treatise, Wright and Miller, acknowledging that the contempt route is a well-entrenched path to appeal, nonetheless have observed that: “We are accustomed to appeals that are available as a matter of right or that depend on an explicit exercise of discretion by the trial court, court of appeals, or both. A system that depends on a gamble with contempt, and for parties a gamble that the contempt sanctions may be civil and not appealable, seems unprincipled.” 15B Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure § 3914.23, p. 155 (2d ed.1992). Conversely,
Mandamus provides the most direct way around the rule that generally bars final judgment appeals from discovery orders. The great advantages of mandamus are that it is discretionary and can be adapted much more easily than final judgment doctrine to provide review of questions that are important either intrinsically or because of general impact, without simultaneously opening the door to review of similar questions in all future cases.
Id., § 3914.23 at 132.
Most recently, in In re Powerhouse Licensing, LLC, 441 F.3d 467, 2006 WL 509390 (6th Cir. March 2, 2006) (unpublished), we recognized the applicability of mandamus to analogous circumstances when we considered a petition for a writ of mandamus in an appeal from an order requiring the production of documents containing privileged attorney-client communications. Although we ultimately denied mandamus, concluding that the petitioner had waived the privilege, we favorably cited In re Lott for the proposition that “the scope of the attorney-client privilege implicates the kind of important interests that would normally favor mandamus.” 441 F.3d 467, at 473, 2006 WL 509390 at *4 n. 3.
Thus, consistent with the rationale employed in In re Lott, I would treat the current appeal as a petition for writ of mandamus and evaluate it pursuant to the multi-factor test which our Court has endorsed for determining the propriety of mandamus, i.e., whether: (1) the party seeking the writ has no other adequate means, such as direct appeal, to attain the relief desired; (2) the petitioner will be damaged or prejudiced in a way not correctable on appeal; (3) the district court’s order is clearly erroneous as a matter of law; (4) the district court’s order is an oft-repeated error, or manifests a persistent disregard of the federal rules; and (5) the district court’s order raises new and important problems, or issues of law of first impression. In re Lott, 424 F.3d at 449 (citing In re Chimenti, 79 F.3d 534, 539 (6th Cir.1996), in turn citing In re Bendectin Products Liability Litigation, 749 F.2d 300, 304 (6th Cir.1984)). In weighing these factors, we employ a “flexible rather than a rigid approach.” In re Perrigo Co., 128 F.3d at 435.
In this case, it is clear that the first and second factors favor appellants. As already discussed, they have no other adequate means to attain relief from the discovery order and an appeal after final judgment is an ineffectual remedy. However, with regard to the third factor, I conclude that the district court’s order requiring the production of the privileged *478materials was, under the circumstances, not clearly erroneous as a matter of law. In re Lott, 424 F.3d at 449. The district court, properly applying the relevant law of the District of Columbia, specifically, In re Sealed Case, 877 F.2d 976, 980 (D.C.Cir. 1989), held that appellants’ inadvertent disclosure of the documents at issue effected a waiver of the privilege.4 I agree.
In In re Sealed Case, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals opined that, despite the importance of the attorney-client privilege, “[t]he courts will grant no greater protection to those who assert the privilege than their own precautions warrant. We therefore agree with those courts which have held that the privilege is lost ‘even if the disclosure is inadvertent.’ ” 877 F.2d at 980 (internal citations omitted). Such an inadvertent waiver extends to all other communications relating to the same subject matter. Id. at 980-81.
Here, appellants produced the documents at issue for plaintiff Pogue’s review and then, after realizing that they had mistakenly disclosed the privileged information, secreted the materials from the production box. Pursuant to In re Sealed Case, this disclosure, even though a product of human error, resulted in the forfeiture of the privilege as to the documents in question. Id. at 980. In the absence of extraordinary circumstances that would otherwise excuse this waiver, see Transamerica Computer Co. v. IBM Corp., 573 F.2d 646, 651 (9th Cir.1978), the district court appropriately ordered the production of “all letters and memoranda containing information about prohibited financial arrangements with physicians, and remuneration to physicians for referrals that may violate kickback and self-referral laws.”
Consequently, I concur in the result reached by the majority, albeit for different reasons. The contempt route is not a viable remedy for a party who challenges an order implicating the production of privileged information. Rather, mandamus provides the appropriate channel by which to review a discovery order of this nature. In re Lott, 424 F.3d at 449-51. However, because the third factor of the mandamus test weighs heavily against the entitlement to such extraordinary relief under these particular circumstances, I conclude that a petition for mandamus should not issue and this Court otherwise lacks jurisdiction to entertain this appeal. The appeal should therefore be dismissed.

. See, e.g., Coleman, 979 F.2d at 1138; Butchery Bailey, 753 F.2d 465, 471 (6th Cir.1985); Dow, 519 F.2d at 355.

. See, e.g., In re Perrigo Co., 128 F.3d 430, 435-37; Fed. Dep. Ins. Corp., 921 F.2d at 85-86.

.In In re Lott, a death row inmate successfully petitioned this Court for mandamus relief from a discovery order in which the district court “waived” his attorney-client privilege because he claimed actual innocence.

. The district court's waiver decision is reviewed de novo. United States v. Collis, 128 F.3d 313, 320 (6th Cir.1997).