Court Opinion

ID: 9689051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:17:17.596246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:43.730674
License: Public Domain

OTIS, Justice
(dissenting).
With respect to statements taken from those members of the switching crew whose negligence is alleged to have caused plaintiff’s injuries, I cannot agree that their employer has no right to invoke the attorney-client privilege. As to them, the unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court in Upjohn Co. v. United States, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 677, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981) is clearly pertinent, and in my opinion, highly persuasive.
In Upjohn, the corporation found itself faced with the likelihood of a substantial tax liability arising out of the bribery of foreign officials by its employees abroad. This disclosure prompted the Chairman of the Upjohn Board of Directors to authorize the corporation’s general counsel to make a thorough investigation. An essential, indeed critical, element of the inquiry was to elicit from the employees responsible for the alleged misconduct, information regarding their participation in the illegal payments.
Questionnaires went to all foreign managers and responses were sent directly to general counsel. The Internal Revenue Service subpoenaed all Upjohn files relative to the investigaiton. Upjohn resisted on the grounds of the attorney-client privilege. The Supreme Court sustained that contention. The Court noted that:
Middle-level — and indeed lower-level— employees can, by actions within the scope of their employment, embroil the corporation in serious legal difficulties, and it is only natural that these employees would have the relevant information needed by corporate counsel if he is adequately to advise the client with respect to such actual or potential difficulties.
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The communications at issue were made by Upjohn employees to counsel for Upjohn acting as such, at the direction of corporate superiors in order to secure legal advice from counsel. As the magistrate found, “Mr. Thomas [general counsel] consulted with the Chairman of the Board and outside counsel and thereafter conducted a factual investigation to determine the nature and extent of the questionable payments and to be in a position to give legal advice to the company with respect to the payments.”
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The communications concerned matters within the scope of the employees’ corporate duties, and the employees themselves were sufficiently aware that they were being questioned in order that the corporation could obtain legal advice.
Id. 101 S.Ct. at 683, 685 (emphasis in original) (footnote omitted).
In the case before us, this was precisely the purpose of counsel’s interviewing those whose activity may have given rise to the railroad’s liability, i. e. to defend the company in anticipation of potential litigation. The Supreme Court went on to point out that:
The privilege only protects disclosure of communications; it does not protect disclosure of the underlying facts by those who communicated with the attorney: “The protection of the privilege extends only to communications and not to facts. A fact is one thing and a communication concerning that fact is an entirely different thing. The client cannot be compelled to answer, the question, ‘What did you say or write to the attorney?’ but may not refuse to disclose any relevant fact within his knowledge merely because he incorporated a statement of such fact into his communication to his attorney.”
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Id. at 685-86 (quoting City of Philadelphia v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 205 F.Supp. 830, 831 (E.D.Pa.1962) (emphasis in original) (citations omitted).
The Chief Justice, expanding on the decision of the Court, would explicitly adopt this rule:
[A] communication is privileged at least when, as here, an employee or former employee speaks at the direction of the management with an attorney regarding conduct or proposed conduct within the scope of employment. The attorney must be one authorized by the management to inquire into the subject and must be seeking information to assist counsel in performing any of the following functions: (a) evaluating whether the employee’s conduct has bound or would bind the corporation; (b) assessing the legal consequences, if any, of that conduct; or (c) formulating appropriate legal responses to actions that have been or may be taken by others with regard to that conduct.
Id. at 680 (Burger, J., concurring).
I have difficulty distinguishing the principles set forth in Upjohn from those we have applied for almost 40 years since Schmitt v. Emery, 211 Minn. 547, 552, 2 N.W.2d at 413, 416 (1942). There we held:
Because it is so often necessary for clients to communicate with their attorneys with the assistance or through the agency of others, as well as by their own personal action, the privilege extends to a communication prepared by an agent or employe, whether it is transmitted directly to the attorney by the client or his agent or employe. Of course the privilege is limited to the necessities of the situation. Where a document is prepared by an agent or employe by direction of the employer for the purpose of obtaining the advice of the attorney or for use in prospective or pending litigation, such document is in effect a communication between attorney and client. The client is entitled to the same privilege with respect to such a communication as one prepared by himself.
Consequently, I would adhere to precedent and affirm the trial court by answering the certified question in the affirmative insofar as employees who took part in the switching operation are concerned. I would agree that the role of employees not responsible for the activity out of which the injury occurred are bystanders whose status would be quite different from the employees with which the Upjohn decision was dealing.