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Hooser v. Superior Court of San Diego County11/13/2000
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
Proceedings in mandate after the trial court ordered an attorney judgment debtor to provide to his judgment creditor a list of his current clients, a list of all his current claims or cases, filed or unfiled, and bank statements relating to his attorney-client trust account. Linda B. Quinn, Judge. Petition granted in part, denied in part.
In this case, we decide the issue of whether a judgment debtor who is an attorney must disclose certain client information not subject to the attorney-client privilege in a judgment debtor examination. We conclude, based on the clients' privacy interests, that the attorney judgment debtor cannot be compelled to disclose to the judgment creditor (1) the identities of clients whose relationship with the attorney has not been disclosed to third parties or (2) client specific information regarding funds held by the attorney in a client trust account.
Eugene Hooser represented Andrea Ray, his former sister-in-law, in a personal injury action and obtained a $50,000 settlement on her behalf. Apparently as the result of a disagreement between Hooser and Ray regarding attorney fees, Hooser did not distribute any of the settlement funds to Ray. Ray ultimately sued Hooser for misappropriation of the funds and made an offer, pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 998, to settle the action for $79,999.99. Hooser accepted the offer and the court entered a judgment in Ray's favor.
To collect on the judgment, Ray served Hooser with an order to appear for a judgment debtor's examination and a subpoena duces tecum to produce certain documents at the examination, including:
"1. A list of your present clients for whom you are performing services[,] with their addresses and phone numbers.
". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"5. A list of all current claims or cases, both filed and unfiled, that you are handling on behalf of clients wherein you have a monetary interest or an expectation of receiving money for your services wherein you identify the names of the insurance adjusters, defense counsel, or entity that you expect payment to come from .
". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"10. All bank statements for bank accounts maintained by or on behalf of you for the last 5 years, including, but not limited to your attorney-client trust account.
"11. Any and all statements issued by the banking [institution] wherein you maintain your attorney-client trust account for the period of April 1, 1998 to the present that pertain to your attorney-client trust account."
Hooser filed a motion to quash the subpoena duces tecum, objecting, in part, to the foregoing requests. The superior court denied the motion except insofar as items 1 and 5 sought the addresses and telephone numbers of Hooser's clients. It held that, except as to the addresses and telephone numbers, Hooser failed to establish that the attorney-client privilege applied to the documents sought by items 1 and 5. As to items 10 and 11, the court found that Hooser failed to show that his attorney-client trust account was exempt from the enforcement of Ray's judgment.
Hooser filed a petition for writ of mandate seeking in part a reversal of the trial court's order denying his motion to quash. He contends that he is protected from responding to Ray's requests by virtue of the attorney-client privilege and his clients' rights of privacy. We issued a stay insofar as the superior court's order required disclosure of information sought in the items identified above and requested a r
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