Koch Foods of Alabama, LLC v. General Electric Capital Corp.
United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
531 F. Supp. 2d 1318 (M.D. Ala. 2008)
Koch Foods (plaintiff) sued General Electric Capital Corp. (defendant) over ownership of poultry processing equipment. During discovery, Koch Foods produced more than 3,700 pages of documents, and buried in the middle of a 37-page lease agreement was the second page of a privileged three-page email exchange between Koch Foods' CFO and its counsel. Koch Foods only learned of the disclosure when the document surfaced at the CFO's deposition, immediately objected that it was privileged and inadvertently produced, noted the email had actually been listed on its privilege log, and moved for a protective order, which a magistrate judge granted.
Whether the attorney-client privilege is waived when disclosure was inadvertent, reasonable precautions were taken to prevent it, and the producing party promptly acted to rectify the error.