Intercontinental Properties, Inc. v. Samy, 96-3073
| Decision Date | 15 January 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-3073,96-3073 |
| Citation | 685 So.2d 1035 |
| Parties | 22 Fla. L. Weekly D203 INTERCONTINENTAL PROPERTIES, INC., Petitioner, v. Reynold SAMY, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Ribler, Gilmartin & Sanchez and Rebecca W. Ribler, Miami; Kimberly L. Boldt, Coconut Grove, for petitioner.
Robert G. Corirossi, Miami, for respondents.
Before NESBITT, GODERICH and GREEN, JJ.
Intercontinental Properties, Inc., petitions for a writ of certiorari to review an order denying its objection to production of documents on grounds of work product immunity. We grant the petition.
Plaintiff-respondent Reynold Samy was an employee working on the seventh floor of a building maintained by petitioner Intercontinental when, Samy maintained, he slipped and fell on an interior stairway as he was evacuating the building, when a fire alarm went off. Samy and his wife sued Intercontinental for negligence in the inspection, repair and maintenance of the stairway. As part of discovery Samy served a request for:
16. All accident and/or incident reports for all falls that occurred on the premises located at 701 S.W. 27th Avenue, Dade County, Florida during the three years prior to, and including September 2, 1994, except for the fall of Reynold Samy. (A.7)
Intercontinental objected, arguing that the incident reports were protected by the work product doctrine. The trial court ordered production of the incident reports, and Intercontinental filed the instant petition.
The Fifth District's observations in Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. v. Nakutis, 435 So.2d 307, 308-309 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983) review denied 446 So.2d 100 (Fla.1984), although concerning a slip and fall at a grocery store, are applicable to the instant question. Therein the court concluded:
Although the plaintiff urges the materials sought are not work product we cannot help but say otherwise. Work product is defined in Rule 1.280 as "... documents and tangible things ... prepared in anticipation of litigation...." It is hardly arguable that an accident report of a slip and fall incident in a grocery store, prepared by the grocery store employees or agents, is not a document prepared in anticipation of litigation. Those reports certainly are not prepared because of some morbid curiosity about how people fall at the market. Experience has shown all retail stores that people who fall in their stores try to be compensated for their injuries. Experience has also shown those stores that bogus or frivolous or exaggerated claims might be made. A potential defendant's right to fully investigate and memorialize the results of the investigation should not be restricted any more than should a potential plaintiff's. Our system of advocacy and dispute settlement by trial mandates that each side should be able to use its sources of investigation without fear of having to disclose it all to its opponents. This allows for free discussion and communication during preparation for litigation. If all reports and other communications of the litigants were available to the opposition then those communications would certainly be stilted, unrevealing and thus self-defeating in their purpose. So, absent a showing of (1) a need and (2) an inability to otherwise obtain the substantial equivalent without undue hardship, ...
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Privileges
...to its opponents, allowing for free discussion and communication during trial preparation.” Intercontinental Properties, Inc., v. Samy , 685 So.2d 1035, 1036 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997). Whealton v. Marshall The petitioner’s counsel’s mental impressions constitute protected work product and for the ......