Plaquemines Parish Com'n Council v. Delta Development Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 28 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | 84-CC-1906,Nos. 84-CC-1901,s. 84-CC-1901 |
| Citation | 472 So.2d 560 |
| Parties | PLAQUEMINES PARISH COMMISSION COUNCIL v. DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, INC. et al. 472 So.2d 560, 11 Media L. Rep. 2353 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Jack Pierce Brooks, John R. Schupp, Randall A. Karr, Broadhurst, Brook, Mangham & Hardy, New Orleans, Ernest R. Eldred, George Clauer, Jerry Davis, Baton Rouge, for relator in No. 84-CC-1901.
Daniel Lund, Harold Carter, Jr., Francis Accardo, Montgomery, Barnett, Brown & Read, New Orleans, J. Minos Simon, Lafayette, Peter Butler, Louis Lauricella, Butler & Hiebe, John McCollam, Marcel Garsaud, Jr., Andrew McCollam, III, Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Stewart & Duplantis, Gene Lafitte, William Pitts, Anne Tate, Liskow & Lewis, New Orleans, Stephen R. Remsberg, Lemle, Kelleher, Kohlmeyer & Matthews, New Orleans, for respondents in No. 84-CC-1901.
Jack M. Weiss, Mary Louise Strong, Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, New Orleans, for relators in No. 84-CC-1906.
Daniel Lund, Harold Carter, Jr., Francis Accardo, Montgomery, Barnett, Brown & Read, New Orleans, J. Minos Simon, Lafayette, Peter Butler, Louis Lauricella, John McCollam, Marcel Garsaud, Jr., Andrew McCollam, III, Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Stewart & Duplantis, Gene Lafitte, William Pitts, Anne Tate, Liskow & Lewis, New Orleans, for respondents in No. 84-CC-1906.
In two consolidated applications, the Plaquemines Parish Commission Council, plaintiff-relator, and the Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation, intervenor, asked this court to review the validity of the expansion of a protective order prohibiting public dissemination of information obtained through discovery. We granted writs of certiorari.
Plaquemines Parish Commission Council (PPCC) filed suit against the children of Leander H. Perez, Sr., their spouses and former spouses, and children, for recovery of revenues and mineral interests allegedly taken from Plaquemines Parish by Leander H. Perez, Sr. and his sons, Leander H. Perez, Jr. and Chalin O. Perez, while serving in high public office in the parish between 1924 and 1983.
Leander H. Perez, Sr. served as district attorney of Plaquemines Parish from 1924 through 1960. At the same time he also served as attorney for the Grand Prairie Levee Board, the Buras Levee Board and the Plaquemines Parish Police Jury (predecessor of PPCC). The suit specifically concerns mineral leases granted by the Grand Prairie Levee Board to Delta Development between 1936 and 1951 and by the Buras Levee Board between 1938 and 1964. Leander H. Perez, Sr. represented Delta Development during this period, and derived revenues from Delta. He was also, allegedly, the owner of Delta Development and beneficiary of its mineral royalties. After his retirement, the sons of Leander H. Perez, Sr. continued to administer Plaquemines Parish. Leander H. Perez, Jr. succeeded his father as district attorney in 1960. He also served as attorney for the levee boards and PPCC. Chalin O. Perez succeeded his father as member and president of PPCC in 1967. He served in this office until March 9, 1983. His responsibilities included the administration of all public lands and mineral interests held by PPCC and the levee boards. The suit also names as defendants the grandchildren of Leander H. Perez, Sr. who were beneficiaries of some of the revenues derived from these interests.
PPCC sought in discovery specific information concerning the revenues from the Grand Prairie and Buras leases. Defendants, from the beginning of litigation, sought to prevent disclosure of information to the public. In January, 1984 they requested a protective order limiting the persons who could attend depositions and sealing all depositions and attached documents. The trial court held a hearing and issued a protective order limiting the persons who could attend depositions, prohibiting dissemination of certain discovery materials, but permitting disclosure of information concerning mineral revenues from the disputed leases of public lands.
Defendants filed an application for supervisory writs to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. That court denied writs and remanded to the trial court for consideration of a protective order preventing dissemination of certain information. On remand, defendants requested a "blanket" protective order prohibiting dissemination of all discovery information. The Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation and two of its reporters intervened to oppose this request because such an order would block their ability to report on an important public issue. A hearing was held on May 1, 1984. The trial court denied the request for a "blanket" protective order, but established procedures for designating specific materials as "confidential" on an item-by-item basis. In June defendants sought a protective order, designating certain specific information requested in interrogatories and requests for production of documents as confidential. 1 That information concerned the amount of income received by Delta which was derived from the disputed mineral leases and the amounts of this money distributed to Perez family members. Protection was sought from four interrogatories and two orders to produce. 2 A closed hearing was held on June 11, 1984 and the trial court ordered that the information concerning those defendants who had been public officials, Leander H. Perez, Jr. and Chalin O. Perez, and their immediate families be open, but that information concerning other defendants be deemed confidential and sealed under protective order. Defendants appealed, and in July, 1984 the court of appeal expanded the protective order to include all defendants and all designated materials. That court held that a litigant has no constitutional right of access to discovery materials and that, even if there were such a right, it would be outweighed by defendants' right to privacy concerning their financial records.
The sole question under review by this court is the validity of the partial protective order granted by the trial court and its expansion by the court of appeal.
PPCC argues that the court of appeal committed three errors. First it claims that the court of appeal erred in failing to apply the appropriate standard for review of the trial court decision. Second, it found error in the appellate court's decision upholding and expanding of the trial court's protective order. Third, it claims the court of appeal erred in assessing court costs to a political subdivision of the state.
The court of appeal acknowledged in its opinion the discretionary right of the trial court and that an appellate court should not "ordinarily" modify or reverse a trial court in such matters absent an abuse of the trial court's discretion. Plaquemines Parish Commission Council v. Delta Development Company, Inc. et al., 458 So.2d 967, 969 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984). However, the court of appeal chose not to apply the abuse of discretion standard in this case because the trial judge had orally suggested the possibility of appellate review.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that:
"... The trial court is in the best position to weigh fairly the competing needs and interests of parties affected by discovery....
* * *
... It is sufficient ... that the highest court in the state found no abuse of discretion in the trial court's decision to issue a protective order ..." Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 2209, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 (1984).
We need not adjudicate the "appropriate standard of review" of the court of appeal, a matter which is sometimes helpful in deciding factual issues. Here, the issues are legal issues. The court of appeal did not upset the district court on factual matters, but on the correct selection and application of the governing rules of law.
A court has the authority to grant a protective order under the provisions of C.C.P. 1426 "for good cause shown" if justice requires such an order "to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression or undue burden or expense."
At the hearing on May 1, 1984 evidence was allegedly presented and the trial court granted a general protective order for specific materials designated confidential by the litigants. However, no transcript was made of this hearing, and no evidence is before this court. 3
At the hearing on June 11, 1984 at which a protective order was granted for information concerning the grandchildren, no evidence was presented to establish good cause or a possibility of embarrassment. Defendants relied on legal arguments based primarily upon Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, supra. The trial judge was also influenced by that case, which he understood to mean that:
"... the abuse of the legal process, that is, the possibility or probability of using material obtained through discovery which may be irrelevant or inadmissible in a lawsuit ... and the use of that information through dissemination prior to trial, that that is sufficient grounds for the court to grant a protective order, regardless of whether or not other good cause may be shown."
On this basis the trial court granted the partial protective order. However, that court did not think this rationale justified the same protection of those defendants who had been public officials, and their immediate families. Those persons were denied a protective order.
The issue is whether C.C.P. 1426 is satisfied when there is no evidence of good cause in the record of the court. The only "evidence" in the record consists of several newspaper clippings of articles concerning the Perez family which were attached to defendants' briefs. This court has ruled that protective orders:
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...also limited by society's right to be informed about legitimate subjects of public interest.'" Plaquemines Parish Comm. Council v. Delta Development Co., Inc., 472 So.2d 560, 567-68 (La.1985) (citing Parish Nat'l Bank v. Lane, 397 So.2d 1282, 1286 (La.1981)). As this Court pointed out in La......
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