Ocampo v. 455 Hospitality LLC
- Paul Davison
- 7:14-cv-09614
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ocampo v. 455 Hospitality, Judge Davison sustained privilege for two email chains but overruled it for four and ordered production.
The plaintiffs may receive the four email chains whose privilege claim was overruled. Accord/TriNet must produce those chains within five days, while the two chains for which privilege was sustained remain protected under this order. 455 Hospitality’s privilege position was partly upheld and partly rejected.
What happened
In Ocampo v. 455 Hospitality LLC, plaintiffs sought six email chains that defendants Accord Human Resources 14, Inc. and TriNet HR IIE, Inc. withheld as protected by attorney-client privilege.
The court found that two chains were shared to advance a common legal interest involving 455 Hospitality, LLC and Accord/TriNet. The other four chains were copied to Pete Civello, whom 455 could not show shared that legal interest.
Judge Paul E. Davison sustained the privilege objection for the two chains and overruled it for the four others. The court ordered Accord/TriNet to produce the four email chains to plaintiffs within five days.
The detailed version
- Ocampo v. 455 Hospitality LLC · No. 7:14-cv-09614
- Paul Davison
- Feb. 13, 2020
Background
This order addresses a discovery dispute over six email chains withheld by defendants Accord Human Resources 14, Inc. and TriNet HR IIE, Inc. based on attorney-client privilege. The emails were submitted to the court for private review. Because it appeared that any privilege might belong to 455 Hospitality, LLC, the court invited 455 to address the dispute and requested additional information.
The Court’s Analysis
The court divided the emails into two groups. The first group consisted of two email chains about a legal claim, beginning with an October 30, 2015 email from Levitan to Elchonen and later circulated to Leavery and O’Brien. The court agreed with 455 that these communications were made in furtherance of a common legal interest shared by 455 and TriNet/Accord. It therefore sustained the privilege claim as to those two documents.
The second group consisted of four email chains, each beginning with an October 31, 2015 email from Levitan to Elchonen. Elchonen circulated these messages to several recipients, including Pete Civello at the email address stated in the opinion. 455’s counsel represented that Civello had been a vice president of sales with Accord Human Resources of New York when 455 contracted with Accord in 2010, but, based on information and belief, was no longer employed by Accord when the emails were exchanged in autumn 2015. 455 did not explain why Civello was copied on the messages.
The court concluded that Civello appeared to be a stranger to the common legal interest between 455 and TriNet/Accord. Ordinarily, disclosing a privileged communication to a third party waives the privilege unless an exception applies. The court also noted that 455 had not shown that it took reasonable steps to prevent the disclosure or promptly correct it if the disclosure was inadvertent. The court therefore overruled the privilege claim as to the four email chains.
Disposition and Effect
The court sustained the privilege claim for two email chains and overruled it for four email chains. It ordered Accord/TriNet to produce the four email chains covered by the overruled privilege claim to plaintiffs within five days of the order. The opinion does not state a separate disposition of the underlying claims in the lawsuit.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.