Long Island Lighting Co., In re

• Decision Date: 12 November 1997
• Docket Number: Docket No. 97-3064
• Citation: 129 F.3d 268
• Parties: , 21 Employee Benefits Cas. 2025, Pens. Plan Guide (CCH) P 23939S In re LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, Retirement Income Plan Of Long Island Lighting Company and its predecessor plans, and Robert X. Kelleher, Petitioners. Robert T. BECHER, Roger Hennessey, Kenneth Hutchenson, Daniel Mcdiarmid, Paul Morea, Robert Pohalski, Joseph Rosado and John Thalmann, Plaintiffs, v. LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, Retirement Income Plan Of Long Island Lighting Company and its predecessor plans, and Robert X. Kelleher, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 268

129 F.3d 268

39 Fed.R.Serv.3d 614, 21 Employee Benefits Cas. 2025,

Pens. Plan Guide (CCH) P 23939S

In re LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, Retirement Income Plan

Of Long Island Lighting Company and its

predecessor plans, and Robert X.

Kelleher, Petitioners.

Robert T. BECHER, Roger Hennessey, Kenneth Hutchenson, Daniel Mcdiarmid, Paul Morea, Robert Pohalski, Joseph Rosado and John Thalmann, Plaintiffs, v. LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, Retirement Income Plan Of Long

Island Lighting Company and its predecessor plans,

and Robert X. Kelleher, Defendants.

Docket No. 97-3064

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Submitted Aug. 26, 1997.

Decided Nov. 12, 1997.

LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP, Michael Lesch, Frank Cummings, John G. Nicolich, of counsel, New York City; and Leonard P. Novello, General Counsel, Long Island Lighting Company, (Stephen W. McCaffrey, Cynthia R. Clark, of counsel), Hicksville, NY, for Petitioners.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, James W. Quinn, Jeffrey S. Klein, Nicholas J. Pappas, of counsel, New York City, and Curto, Barton & Alesi, P.C., Anthony Curto, Barbara Shaheen Alesi, Joseph P. Glynn, of counsel, Melville, NY, for Respondents.

Before: MESKILL and JACOBS, Circuit Judges, and TSOUCALAS, Judge ^*

JACOBS, Circuit Judge.

Petitioners Long Island Lighting Company ("LILCO") and its present and predecessor employee-benefit plans (and plan trustee) seek a writ of mandamus on the ground that certain documents they have been ordered to produce in this action are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Respondents are current and former LILCO employees who brought this certified class action seeking damages and equitable relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. ("ERISA"). Respondents moved for an order compelling production of documents relating to communications between Edward Watts, a manager of LILCO's Insurance Department, and Herbert Leiman, Esq., a LILCO Senior Attorney. Respondents argue that LILCO, as plan fiduciary, cannot assert (or has waived) any privilege to shield its plan-related documents from scrutiny by the plan's beneficiaries.

After sorting out and directing the production of certain unprivileged documents that are not at issue here, Magistrate Judge Orenstein ruled that the remaining documents concern amendments to the plan--as to which LILCO did not act in a fiduciary capacity--rather than administration of the plan--as to which LILCO did act as a fiduciary. Relying on Siskind v. Sperry Retirement Program, 47 F.3d 498, 505 (2d Cir.1995), which holds that amendment of a retirement plan is not a fiduciary function under ERISA, the magistrate judge concluded that the documents were insulated from discovery by the attorney-client privilege (and adhered to that conclusion following a motion for reconsideration). In the course of the hearing, the magistrate judge observed that the documents so clearly addressed non-fiduciary matters that they did not "even come close to fiduciary." Counsel for respondents declined to "quibble with that," and argued instead "that because LILCO chose to use the same attorney for administration and non-administration issues, they've blown the privilege,...."

On appeal, the district judge ruled that Siskind was not determinative of the issue, concluded that "the claim of privilege is not sound," and ordered the production of the documents. Specifically, the district court held that "if a fiduciary of the plan uses the same lawyer to provide him advice as to plan amendment as he uses for plan administration, then the plan administrator must be understood to have either not intended or to have waived confidentiality as to his communications with that lawyer." The district court did not question the magistrate judge's determination that the documents related to plan amendment rather than plan administration, but found that LILCO "waived its privilege over the documents in question by using the same lawyer for amendment purposes as it used to represent the fiduciary of the employees."

The district court stayed production of the documents long enough to afford LILCO an opportunity to apply for a stay in this Court. LILCO filed its mandamus petition on August 11, 1997, and on August 14 filed a motion for a stay pending determination of that petition. We granted the stay on August 29, 1997.

We now issue the writ.

DISCUSSION

I. Availability of Mandamus Relief

Although mandamus is generally unavailable as a means of reviewing district court discovery orders, the writ is appropriate to review discovery orders that involve privilege where (i) the petition raises an issue of importance and of first impression; (ii) the petitioner's privilege will be lost if review must await final judgment; and (iii) immediate resolution will avoid the development of discovery practices or doctrine undermining the privilege. In re Steinhardt Partners, 9 F.3d 230, 233 (2d Cir.1993) (quoting In re W.R. Grace & Co., 984 F.2d 587, 589 (2d Cir.1993)); Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. v. Turner & Newall, PLC, 964 F.2d 159, 163 (2d Cir.1992); see also In re von Bulow, 828 F.2d 94, 96-100 (2d Cir.1987).

A. Important Issue of First Impression

This petition raises an issue of first impression: whether an employer waives the attorney-client privilege with respect to all Respondents argue that the issue is not novel because it can be resolved by applying two settled common-law principles: the joint-client rule and the fiduciary exception. Respondents therefore analogize this case to W.R. Grace, in which we refused to use the vehicle of mandamus to review an allegedly incorrect application of a well-developed principle on the ground that "we do not believe that determination of the doctrine's applicability in each case presents such a novel and important issue as to warrant mandamus review,...." 984 F.2d at 589. But this case more closely resembles In re von Bulow, in which we issued mandamus to review the extension of an established principle to an entirely new context. In re von Bulow, 828 F.2d at 97 (discussing district court's extension of the "fairness doctrine" to extra-judicial disclosures). Here we review the district court's extension of the fiduciary exception to compel disclosure of communications on non-fiduciary matters. Petitioners therefore prevail on the first prong of the test for availability of mandamus relief.

communications regarding a plan covered by ERISA by seeking advice as a plan fiduciary and as a non-fiduciary from the same attorney. It appears that the question has not been decided by any circuit, and has been touched on only indirectly by district courts.

B. Loss of the Privilege

If LILCO turns over the disputed documents, it will lose the privilege and will be unable to recoup the benefit of it on appeal. See, e.g., In re von Bulow, 828 F.2d at 99 ("[T]he concern that a remedy after final judgment cannot unsay the confidential information that has been revealed may account for the liberal use of mandamus in situations involving the production of documents or testimony claimed to be privileged...."). The absence of an effective remedy once the case reaches the appellate stage in the normal course of proceedings justifies the more liberal use of mandamus in the context of privilege issues.

C. Avoiding the Development of Discovery Practices or Doctrine Undermining the Privilege

We explained in In re von Bulow that mandamus may be justified by the potentially broad applicability and influence of the privilege ruling under attack:

[I]f the purpose for which the [attorney-client] privilege exists is to be effectuated, those discussions that are privileged must be predictable with some degree of certainty. An uncertain privilege ... is little better than no privilege. Because the district court's holdings establish a new attorney-client privilege rule of general applicability that threatens to upset this predictability, it merits prompt attention and resolution.

In re von Bulow, 828 F.2d at 100. Similarly, the district court's ruling here, in light of case law in other district courts, may call into question the status of confidences exchanged when employers seek legal counsel concerning ERISA plans, may cause prudent employers to retain alternate counsel, may prevent the most efficient use of an in-house law department, and may require calculation as to which lawyer to consult whenever advice is needed relating to a plan. Immediate resolution of this issue will prevent the development of doctrine and practices that unsettle the privilege.

II. The Discovery Order

Under ERISA, an employer may perform both fiduciary functions and non-fiduciary functions. In line with other circuits, we have held that an employer acts as an ERISA fiduciary only in plan management or administration, not in the plan's design or amendment. See Siskind, 47 F.3d at 505; Izzarelli v. Rexene Prods. Co., 24 F.3d 1506, 1524-25 & n. 33 (5th Cir.1994); Hozier v. Midwest Fasteners, Inc., 908 F.2d 1155, 1161 (3d Cir.1990). The employer's ability to invoke the attorney-client privilege to resist disclosure sought by plan beneficiaries turns on whether or not the communication concerned a matter as to which the employer owed a fiduciary obligation to the beneficiaries.

An ERISA fiduciary has an obligation to provide full and accurate information to the plan beneficiaries regarding the administration of the plan. See Martin v The district court's ruling relied entirely on Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild v. Washington Star Co., 543 F.Supp. 906 (D.D.C.1982), a case that predated Siskind, Izzarelli and Hozier. In Washington Star, former employees challenged an allegedly illegal amendment to a benefits plan that diminished the employees' interest in surplus funds, id. at 907, and they sought to submit testimony by the employer's former outside counsel, whose firm had served as the employer's general counsel as...