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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Judge in Simon estate case gives widow access to 1 of 50 CEO e-mails"

The Indianapolis Star's Jeff Swiatek's report begins:

A Hamilton County judge ruled that the chairman and chief executive of Simon Property Group must turn over to his stepmother only one of 50 e-mails she wants to use as evidence in a lawsuit over billionaire Melvin Simon’s will.

Bren Simon isn’t entitled to read 49 other e-mails written by CEO David Simon because they are protected by attorney-client privilege, even though they were written on a company e-mail account, Superior Court Judge William J. Hughes said in a ruling this month in the case.

Attorney-client privilege is a legal protection used to keep communications between attorneys and their clients confidential. The privilege can be lost if the communication is done in public.

In explaining his ruling, the judge cited Simon Property Group’s practice of allowing employees access to their company computers for limited personal use, and testimony by the company’s information technology director that the company never monitored David Simon’s email account.

“Bren’s motion to compel should be denied because David did not waive confidentiality — that is, he reasonably expected the contested communications to be private,” the judge said.

ILB: I'd like to post a copy of Judge Hughes' ruling on e-mails. Please contact me if you can help.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 25, 2010 02:20 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts