OCTOBER 2017 BAD FAITH CASES: COURT ADDRESSES A WIDE RANGE OF BAD FAITH DISCOVERY ISSUES AS TO PRIVILEGE, WORK PRODUCT, AND RESERVES (Western District)

This is a discovery opinion addressing a wide range of issues including the attorney client privilege, work product doctrine and discovery of reserves. A number of rulings were held in abeyance pending in camera review, which are not addressed below

1. The attorney client privilege is not limited to claims handler communications with outside counsel.

“This Court is not aware of any authority that limits the attorney-client privilege to communications with outside counsel, as opposed to in-house counsel, and Plaintiff has cited none. Therefore, this Court rejects Plaintiffs’ claim that the attorney-client privilege could not have attached before Attorney McDonnell was retained as outside counsel to handle Plaintiffs’ claim.”

2. The privilege is not abrogated simply because a document is relevant to a bad faith claim.

“Plaintiffs next assert that the documents listed in the privilege log titled ‘Communications with counsel regarding the value and merits of claim’ are not privileged because they “go to the heart of this bad faith action[.]” (ECF No. 20 at 8.) However, as Defendant notes, the Third Circuit has unequivocally held that ‘[r]elevance is not the standard for determining whether or not evidence should be protected from disclosure as privileged, and that remains the case even if one might conclude the facts to be disclosed are vital, highly probative, directly relevant or even go to the heart of an issue.’ Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. v. Home Indem. Co., 32 F.3d 851, 864 (3d Cir. 1994). Moreover, ‘[a] party does not lose the privilege to protect attorney client communications from disclosure in discovery when his or her state of mind is put in issue in the action.’ Id. Thus, while Plaintiffs are correct that these communications ‘go to the heart’ of Plaintiffs’ bad faith claim, this fact does not change the analysis of whether these communications are protected by the attorney-client privilege.

3. Documents prepared by claims adjusters and sent to attorneys are privileged.

“Plaintiffs also claim that ‘communications made by the claims representatives are not immune from discovery.’ This argument is easily dismissed. ‘[T]he attorney-client privilege operates in a two-way fashion to protect confidential client-to-attorney or attorney-to-client communications made for the purpose of obtaining or providing professional legal advice.’ … The fact that the documents were prepared by the claims adjusters, rather than the attorney to whom the documents were sent, is immaterial to the analysis of whether those documents are protected under the attorney-client privilege.”

4. Reserves discoverable in bad faith action.

The court found reserve information discoverable in bad faith cases. It wrote the following in explaining its position:

“There is competing treatment of whether reserve information is discoverable in a bad faith lawsuit.” Shaffer v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 1:13-CV-01837, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30436, 2014 WL 931101, at *2 (M.D. Pa. 2014). “Some courts have noted a ‘tenuous link between reserves and actual liability given that numerous considerations factor into complying with this statutory directive.'” Sharp, 2014 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 282, 2014 WL 8863084 at *8, quoting Fidelity & Deposit Co., 168 F.R.D. at 525 (citing Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc. v. Home Indemnity Co., 139 F.R.D. 609, 613 (E.D. Pa. 1991)). However, as a court of common pleas recently stated:

Several trial courts, including this court, have reasoned that insurance reserves are discoverable in bad faith litigation against insurers, where liability for the underlying claim has already been established, since such information may be relevant to the issue of whether the insurer acted in bad faith in failing to settle or pay the original claim. See Consugar v. Nationwide Insurance Co. of America, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61756, 2011 WL 2360208, at * 5 (M.D. Pa. 2011) (‘Since plaintiff here claims that defendant acted [*19] in bad faith, a comparison between the reserve value of the claim and defendant’s actions in processing plaintiff’s claim could shed light on defendant’s potential liability.’); North River Ins. Co. [v. Greater New York Mut. Ins. Co.], 872 F. Supp. [1411] at 1412 [(E.D. Pa. 1995)] (finding reserve information “relevant to the question of whether or not [the insurer] acted in bad faith during the pre-trial settlement negotiations.”); McAndrew v. Donegal Mutual Ins. Co., 56 Pa. D. & C. 4th 1, 18 (Lacka. Co. 2002); Fretz v. Mutual Benefit Ins. Co., 37 Pa. D. & C. 4th 173, 180 (Alleg. Co. 1998). Sharp, 2014 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 282, 2014 WL 8863084 at *8.”

5. Reserves concerning insured’s claim are discoverable, but reserves concerning other claims are not, and court will not indulge fishing expedition on setting reserves for other claims.

“Defendant’s boilerplate responses also contend that Plaintiffs’ requests are overly broad. … This Court disagrees with Defendant’s contention in regards to Interrogatory No. 5, in which Plaintiffs’ seek information regarding the reserve history for [the insured’s] own claim. Because the gist of Plaintiffs’ complaint is that Defendant acted in bad faith in handling [the insured’s] underinsured motorists claim, Plaintiffs’ request for the reserve history for [her] claim is not overly broad.”

“However, this Court agrees with Defendant that RPD No. 4 is overly broad. While Plaintiffs have demonstrated the relevancy of the reserve amounts for [the insured’s] own claim, Plaintiffs have not shown — nor even argued in their Motion to Compel — that reserve information for other insureds is relevant to Plaintiffs’ claim. Therefore, Defendant will only be required to produce any relevant documentation of the reserve history for [the insured’s] claim.”

“RPD No. 4 asks for “all documents relating to or involving the process used from 2011 to the present in setting or otherwise establishing or determining reserves for underinsured motorists claims.” (ECF No. 20-2 at 4.) However, neither Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel nor Defendant’s Brief in Opposition contain any argument concerning whether or not discovery of Defendant’s reserve process for other insureds is appropriate. In other words, neither party addresses the issue of whether RPD No. 4 seeks documents that are outside of the context of Plaintiffs’ specific claim. To the extent that Plaintiffs’ ask for discovery of reserve information for other claims, this Court declines the invitation to allow Plaintiffs to embark on a fishing expedition.”

6. Work product doctrine not applicable to reserve information in this case.

“The only other objection that Defendant has put forth is its boilerplate response that the information requested by RPD No. 4 and Interrogatory No. 5 ‘is protected from discovery by the work-product doctrine.’ … However, Defendant’s threadbare and conclusory invocations of the work product doctrine fail to establish that Defendant is entitled to the privilege it asserts. Moreover, Defendant does not even argue in its Brief in Opposition that this information is protected by the work-product doctrine. Further, according to the reserve history for [the insured’s] claim, the reserve values were set by non-attorneys. … In fact, Defendant has not asserted that the reserve amounts were set or altered at the direction of, or with the cooperation of, counsel. Therefore, Defendant has failed to establish that the information Plaintiffs seek is protected by the work-product doctrine.”

Date of Decision: October 2, 2017

Parisi v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:16-179, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162131 (W.D. Pa. Oct. 2, 2017) (Gibson, J.)