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Catholic Mutual Relief Society v. Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles4/25/2005
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Diego (the Church) has been sued by numerous persons claiming they were the victims of childhood sexual abuse by various Church priests. Petitioners are the Church's insurer and the insurer's corporate parent. They seek to vacate a written order by a settlement judge denying their motion to quash deposition subpoenas from the plaintiffs aimed at obtaining documents concerning the insurer's financial condition, including its reserves and any reinsurance agreements. As set forth below, we conclude that the subpoenas sought items that were not discoverable. Accordingly, we grant the petition, reverse the settlement judge's order denying the motion to quash, and direct the court upon remand to enter a new and different order quashing the subpoenas.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The Church is the principal defendant in an action brought by approximately 140 persons (plaintiffs) for alleged childhood abuse by certain priests. Those cases, along with others involving the San Bernardino Archdiocese, are known collectively as Clergy Cases II, and were coordinated within the Los Angeles County Superior Court with claims against dioceses from other parts of the state.
In September 2003, pursuant to a stipulated order regarding settlement and mediation proceedings, the trial court issued an initial case management order which, among other things, directed the Church to turn over copies of all insurance policies that might provide coverage for plaintiffs' claims. Petitioner Catholic Mutual Relief Society (Relief Society) is a non-profit corporation that administers a self-insurance fund for more than three hundred archdioceses and other Catholic Church entities in the United States and Canada, including the San Diego Archdiocese. The Relief Society is not an insurance company, but its wholly-owned subsidiary, the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America (Relief Insurance) is. Relief Insurance is the Church's insurer. Petitioners are headquartered in Nebraska but maintain claim and risk management offices in San Diego and San Bernardino. All sexual abuse claims are handled by the home office in Nebraska, however.
In compliance with the case management order, the Church produced copies of its insurance policies from petitioners. Plaintiffs contended this information was insufficient. According to plaintiffs, they also needed to know whether petitioners were financially sound enough to cover their policy obligations. In April 2004, in an attempt to resolve the matter informally, the trial court allowed plaintiffs to serve petitioners a series of questions aimed at obtaining the desired information. Petitioners objected to those questions on several grounds: (1) they sought information concerning their financial condition, reserves, and reinsurance agreements, which was not relevant for discovery purposes or was otherwise not discoverable; (2) much of the material sought was privileged; (3) the requests were overbroad and ambiguous; and (4) the trial court lacked authority to require interrogatory responses from non-parties such as petitioners.
On May 6, 2004, the settlement judge issued an order permitting plaintiffs to serve deposition subpoenas on petitioners in an attempt to secure the information requested by plaintiffs' interrogatories. Those subpoenas sought the following documents:
"1. All WRITINGS PERTAINING TO the financial relationship between [the Relief Society and Relief Insurer] with respect to financial responsibility for sexual abuse claims brought against the [Church].
2. All WRITINGS PERTAINING TO the total amount of funds available to sat
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