Truck Ins. Exchange v. Super. Ct.
Petitioners Truck Insurance Exchange, Mid-Century Insurance Company, Farmers Insurance Exchange, and Farmers Group, Inc., seek a writ directing respondent court to vacate certain orders compelling responses to discovery propounded by real parties in interest Golden State Developers, Inc., Castro Valley Associates, LP, and Castro Valley, Inc. (hereafter collectively referred to as Golden State). In the pending litigation in respondent court, petitioners objected to the requested discovery (production of documents and responses to deposition questions) on the ground that it sought disclosure of communications that contravened their attorney-client privilege (Evid. Code, § 954). [1] Respondent court found Golden State met its burden of demonstrating that petitioners’ attorney-client privilege had been lost based on the crime-fraud exception codified in Evidence Code section 956.[2] For the reasons stated below, we conclude respondent court erred in concluding that Golden State had met its burden for applying the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. Therefore, we will issue the requested writ and direct respondent court to vacate its orders and issue new and different orders sustaining petitioners’ objections to discovery requests that contravene their attorney-client privilege.
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