PCHB237006518

v. ) ORDER ON MOTION TO STRIKE ) STATE OF WASHINGTON, ) DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY and THE ) PORT OF SEATTLE, ) ) Respondents. ) The Department of Ecology (Ecology) has moved to strike certain references to a document relied on in the Appellant Airport Communities Coalition (ACC) motion for stay and supportive reply materials. The basis of the request is that the document is attorney-client privileged and was inadvertently disclosed. Ray Hellwig, Ecology's NW Regional Director, prepared the document in question as a briefing paper for a senior management team meeting in April 2001. The document was intended to have certain paragraphs redacted before disclosure, but instead an un-redacted copy was inserted into the packet of documents disclosed as part of fulfilling a public disclosure request. Under the Public Disclosure Act, Chapter 42.17 RCW, an agency may exempt records from disclosure if those records would not be available to another party under the rules of pretrial discovery for causes pending in the superior courts, including attorney-client privileged communications. RCW 42.17.310(1)(j). Although the privilege can be waived voluntarily, it is not waived if the mistaken disclosure of the privileged information was "sufficiently involuntary PCHB 01-160 1 ORDER ON ECOLOGY'S MOTION TO STRIKE AN 006518 and inadvertent as to be inconsistent with a theory of waiver." United States v. Zolin, 809 F.2d 1141, 1415, 1417 (9th Cir. 1987). Although the Washington Courts have not addressed the question of whether the attomey-client privilege is waived by an inadvertent disclosure of the privileged…

Open full document

Upcoming Events

PSCAA Advisory Council Meeting Agenda
Add to CalendarMWednesday Mar 11, 9:00am - 11:35am
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 105, Seattle, WA 98101
Call to order – Roll Call – Quorum Established – Land Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge that our Agency operates in four present-day counties, which are the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people, past and present. This acknowledgement does not take the place of authentic relationships with indigenous communities in our jurisdiction and [...]