Court Opinion

ID: 9551541
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:54:57.015152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:05.572016
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE PRINGLE
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
Under C.R.S. 1963, 154-1-1, “all persons without exception, other than those specified in sections 154-1-2 to 154-1-8 may be witnesses.” (emphasis added). Section 154-1-7 lists the various “privileges,” or parties who may not testify unless consent is given by the privileged party. The attorney-client privilege is set forth in C.R.S. 1963, 154-1-7(3) (set forth in full in footnote one of the majority opinion). Nowhere is there the slightest indication that the legislature intended that the attorney-client privilege be extended to include communications not specifically listed in the statute. In fact, by referring to the attorney’s secretary, stenog*354rapher, and law clerk, it appears that the legislature intended to expressly set the parameters of what is effectively a communication to an attorney. In my view, this privilege should be narrowly construed. Dean Wigmore puts it as follows:
“[The attorney-client] privilege remains an exception to the general duty to disclose .... It is worth preserving for the sake of a general policy, but is nonetheless an obstacle to the investigation of the truth. It ought to be strictly confined within the narrowest possible limits consistent with the logic of its principle.” 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence (McNaughton Rev. 1961), 2291 at 554.
Not only does the Court’s construction go beyond the apparent intent of the statute, but it is contrary in spirit to our civil and criminal rules of discovery. Therefore, consistent with our discovery policies of openness so that truth may be the ultimate goal of the judicial process, I would follow the reasoning and holdings of the cases that have denied the privilege in this situation. Jacobi v. Podevels, 23 Wis.2d 152, 127 N.W.2d 73 (1964); Jackson v. Kroblin, 49 F.R.D. 134 (N.D.W. Va. 1970); Gottlieb v. Breslar, 24 F.R.D. 371 (D.D.C. 1959).