Government Liability Update

Agency That Properly Withholds Documents from Production under the Public Records Act under Deliberative Privilege May Not Be Ordered to Produce Index of Withheld Documents That Reveals Confidential Information

In Labor and Workforce Development Agency v. Superior Court (Fowler Packing Co.), published January 8, 2018, the Third District Court of Appeal issued a writ of mandate directing a trial court to vacate an order directing the Agency to produce an index identifying the author, recipient, matter, and nature of exception for each document the Agency withheld from a California Public Records Act request.  The governor tasked the Agency with drafting and enacting a piece of legislation.  In preparing legislative proposals for the bill, the Agency communicated with Legislative Counsel.  It also sought and received confidential input from key stakeholders including representatives of business and labor.  A CPRA request asked for all public records from the Agency regarding the bill.  The agency withheld documents based on the Deliberative Privilege and attorney work protection.  The trial court permitted the Agency to withhold from disclosure documents protected by the Deliberative Process exemption and Evidence Code section 1040 (protecting confidential government communications).  But it directed the Agency to prepare the challenged index.  it also concluded that attorney work product protection did not apply to communications between the Agency and Legislative Counsel, concluding that the Counsel's client was the Governor, not the agency.

The appellate court held that the trial court erred in ordering that the authors and recipients of the exempt documents be revealed in the index.  The Deliberative Process exemption encourages open exchange of ideas before a legislative decision is made, in recognition that people will not openly share ideas if their ideas and involvement are revealed to the public.  By revealing the identities of the stakeholders who provided the information, the court's order would not serve the Deliberative Process exemption's purpose. The trial court also erred in determining attorney work product protection did not apply.  Because the Governor ordered the state Agency to take the lead in drafting and enacting the legislation, the attorney-client relationship between the Governor and Legislative Counsel extended to the Agency.

The Only Portions of Attorney Billing Invoices That May Be Subject to the California Public Records Act Are Fee Totals In Invoices from Long-Concluded Matters

In County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors v. Superior Court (ACLU), ordered published June 22, 2017, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 3, addressed this case on remand from the California Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court's opinion ruled that billing invoices from outside counsel to public entities in pending cases are exempt from the California Public Records Act, because every portion--including fee totals--communicate attorney-client information.  But it left open the possibility that fee totals from long-concluded matters may not be exempt from the CPRA.

On remand, the appellate court interpreted the Supreme Court's decision as holding that the only portion of an invoice from a long-concluded proceeding that may be subject to the CPRA is the fee total.  Whether the fee total communicates attorney-client information is a factual inquiry for the trial court.  The appellate court also rejected the document-seeker's argument that the trial court should examine the redactions of attorney-client information in camera to determine whether too much was cut out.  Absent party permission, courts cannot examine in camera information claimed to be protected by attorney-client information to determine if the privilege applies.

Outside Counsel's Billing Invoices for Ongoing and Active Litigation Not Subject to CPRA

In Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors v. Superior Court (ACLU), published December 29, 2016, a divided California Supreme Court reversed the lower appellate court's ruling that a public entity's outside counsel's billing invoices were categorically excluded from the California Public Records Act as attorney-client privileged communications.  The ACLU had sought invoices specifying the amount any outside firm had billed the petitioner county for defense in nine specified lawsuits.  The county agreed to produce redacted invoices from three lawsuits no longer pending, but declined to produce invoices in the six pending lawsuits.  Among its grounds was that they were privileged attorney-client communications that contained work product, were therefore privileged under the Evidence Code, and were therefore exempt from the CPRA under Government Code section 6254(k).  The appellate court issued a writ petition reversing the decision, and holding that all billing invoices are protected attorney-client communications.

The Supreme Court split 4-3 on the question of whether the invoices were protected from the CPRA.  The majority held that the contents of an attorney's invoice to a client are privileged only if they either communicate information for the purpose of legal consultation, or risk exposing information that was communicated for such a purpose. The majority further held that the latter category includes any information in any invoice that reflects work in active and ongoing litigation.  The majority reasoned that invoices in themselves are not protected communications, because they are submitted for the purpose of getting paid rather than for purposes that are the "heartland" of attorney-client privilege: information conveyed for the purpose of legal representation.  But they can contain information conveyed for that purpose.  Because invoices in ongoing and pending litigation pose too great a risk of disclosing the substance of legal consultation and strategy.  But information such as cumulative totals of billing for long-concluded litigation pose less of a danger of disclosing the substance of legal consultation.

The dissent opined that the attorney-client privilege applies to all attorney-client communications in the course of a representation, regardless of content; and that the passage of time does not affect the privilege.

 

Inadvertent Disclosure of Privileged Document in Response to California Public Records Act Request Does Not Waive Privilege

In Ardon v. City of Los Angeles, published March 17, 2016, the California Supreme Court reversed a decision by the lower appellate court, and resolved a dispute between the lower appellate courts (discussed in earlier posts in this blog) over whether a public entity's inadvertent disclosure of a privileged document in response to a California Public Records Act Request waives the privilege, allowing the recipient to keep and use the documents and disseminate them to others.  The issue turned on interpretation of Government Code section 6254.5, part of the CPRA, which generally provides that "disclosure" of a public record waives any privilege.  After examining the statute, its history, and the law on inadvertent disclosures in litigation, the Supreme Court interpreted "disclosure" to refer only to an intentional, voluntary and knowing disclosure.  The statute's intent is to forbid public entities from intentionally disclosing a record to one person who requests it, and then refusing to disclose it to another.  But it does not apply to inadvertent disclosures.  

Here, the records the city disclosed to the attorney for a plaintiff suing the city had been withheld from discovery in the litigation, and listed in a privilege log.  These facts indicated that the disclosure was inadvertent.

The court ordered published another case on the subject on which it had granted review, Newark Unified School Dist. v. Superior Court (July 31, 2015, A142963) __ Cal.App.4th __, __, [pp. 11-12]), review granted Oct. 14, 2015, S229112, ordered pub. Mar. 17, 2016.

Under California Public Records Act, Person May Seek Production of Documents Person Already Has; Public Interest in Response to Whistleblower Complaint Outweighs Privacy Rights in Records

In Caldecott v. Superior Court (Newport-Mesa School Dist.), published December 21, 2015, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 3, issued a writ reversing a trial court's decision denying production of documents under the California Public Records Act.  The petitioner was the former executive director of human resources for the real party school district.  While he held that position, the petitioner filed a complaint against the district superintendent.  The petitioner alleged that the complaint alleged that the superintendent created a hostile work environment, and also alleged improprieties with money.  The district alleged that the complaint discussed only personnel matters. The school board responded in writing that it would take no action on the complaint.  Shortly afterward, the superintendent terminated the petitioner's employment, and the school board approved the action.  The petitioner sought production of the documents under the CPRA.   The trial court denied the petitioner's writ petition, on the ground that the petitioner already had the documents.

The appellate court held that the fact the petitioner already had the documents was not a ground for denying the request.  The motive of a person requesting documents under the CPRA is irrelevant.  Further, the petitioner sought the documents so that he could disseminate them without concern that the district would object.  The appellate court ruled that the documents were personnel documents, requiring the court to balance the privacy interest in the documents against the public interest in their disclosure.  Since the documents concerned allegations of conduct by a high-ranking official, the appellate court (after an in camera review) determined that the public interest in them outweighed privacy.  The court overruled the official information privilege objection to their production, ruling that production would not affect internal deliberation.  It directed the trial court, on remand, to review the documents for attorney-client privileged matters, which would not be subject to production.  It awarded the petitioner his attorney fees.

Attorneys' Billing to Public Entities Is Not Subject to the California Public Records Act

In County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors v. Superior Court (ACLU of Southern California), published April 13, 2015, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 3, issued a writ of mandate reversing a trial court decision requiring the petitioner county to produce to real party ACLU, under the California Public Records Act, billing invoices from law firms representing the county in lawsuits brought by county jail inmates alleging jail violence.  Some of the invoices did not relate to ongoing litigation, so that exception to the CPRA did not apply.  The appellate court therefore analyzed whether the CPRA exception for privileged documents.  That required the court to address the hitherto undecided question of whether billing invoices were attorney-client communications that were privileged in their entirety.  The court determined that they were; because they were communications provided in the course of the attorney-client relationship, related to ongoing representation, they were protected regardless of their content.  The court declined to address whether the information could be obtained from other, non-privileged sources.

Inadvertent Production of Privileged Document to Litigant's Attorney Via Public Records Act Request Waives the Privilege

In Ardon v. City of Los Angeles, published December 10, 2014, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 6, affirmed a trial court decision denying the defendant city's motion to compel the plaintiff to return privileged documents the city turned over to the plaintiff's counsel in response to a California Public Records Act request, and to disqualify the plaintiff's counsel.  The plaintiff had sued the city alleging that a telephone users' tax was improper.  The plaintiff's attorney made a Public Records Act request for documents relating to the subject matter of the complaint.  The attorney informed the city's attorneys that through the request she had obtained documents that the city had listed on a privilege log produced during discovery.  The city stated that the documents were privileged, and had been inadvertently produced.  The plaintiff's attorney refused to return the documents.

The appellate court concluded that the rules that govern inadvertent production of documents during discovery in a lawsuit do not govern production in response to a Public Records Act request.  Under Government Code sections 6254 and 6254.5, although privileged documents need not be produced in response to a Public Records Act request, production of privileged documents waives any privilege.  The Act does not contain any exception for inadvertent disclosure, and neither the statutory language nor the legislative history supports any implied exception for such disclosure.  Further, since the law forbids selective withholding, a public entity may not produce a privileged document to one person and then refuse to produce it to another on the ground that the document is privileged.  The plaintiff's counsel did not violate the rules of professional conduct by making the request.

City Charter Establishing Attorney-Client Relationship with City Attorney Supersedes Ordinance Calling for Disclosure of Attorney-Client Communications

In St. Croix v. Superior Court (Grossman), published July 28, 2014, the First District Court of Appeal, Division 1, issued a writ of mandate directing a trial court to vacate its own writ of mandate directing the San Francisco Ethics Commission to disclose written communications with the San Francisco city attorney under the California Public Records Act.  The person who requested the records argued that the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance required disclosure of the communications, regardless of privilege.  The court ruled that because the city charter created an attorney-client relationship between the city attorney and city commissions, incorporated the state law attorney-client privilege for written communications between the city attorney and his or her clients.  A charter city's ordinance cannot contravene its charter.  To the extent the ordinance purports to compel disclosure of attorney-client privileged materials, it conflicts with the charter.  Because the California Public Records Act excludes production of attorney-client privileged materials, the trial court erred in ordering disclosure of those documents.