RALPH F. BOYD, JR.

Assistant Attorney General

Civil Rights Division

JOHN S. GORDON

United States Attorney

JOHN L. WODATCH, Chief

RENEE M. WOHLENHAUS, Deputy Chief

Disability Rights Section

LEON M. WEIDMAN

Assistant United States Attorney

MICHELE MARCHAND

Assistant United States Attorney

California Bar No. 93390

Room 7516, Federal Building

300 North Los Angeles Street

Los Angeles, California 90012

Telephone:	(213) 894-2727

Facsimile:	(213) 894-7819

GRETCHEN E. JACOBS

PHYLLIS M. COHEN

KATHLEEN S. DEVINE

DOV LUTZKER

KRISTAN S. MAYER

JOHN A. RUSS IV

JOSEPH RUSSO

Trial Attorneys

U.S. Department of Justice

Civil Rights Division

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

1425 N.Y. Avenue Building

Disability Rights Section

Washington, D.C. 20530

Telephone:	(202) 514-9584

Facsimile:	(202) 616-6862

Counsel for Plaintiff

United States of America

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,	)	Case No.: CV-99-01034-FMC (SHx)

)

)	PLAINTIFF UNITED STATES' SUPPLEMENTAL

Plaintiff,	)	MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF ITS

)	MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER FROM

v.	)	DEFENDANT'S NOTICES OF DEPOSITION OF

)	FIVE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EMPLOYEES

)

AMC ENTERTAINMENT, INC.,	)	DATE:	April 15, 2002

et al.,	)	TIME:	2:00 p.m.

)	JUDGE:	Magistrate Judge Stephen J. Hillman

)

Defendants.	)	DISCOVERY CUTOFF:	May 1, 2002

)	PRE-TRIAL CONFERENCE:	Sept. 16, 2002

)	TRIAL DATE:	Oct. 22, 2002

On March 21, 2002, the United States filed a motion for a protective order from AMC Entertainment, Inc.'s ("AMC") deposition notices issued to five current and former Department of Justice [hereinafter "DOJ" or "Department"] employees. In its portion of the joint stipulation, AMC (i) attempts to avoid application of law of the case principles; (ii) claims that AMC does not bear the burden to justify deposing DOJ opposing counsel; and (iii) asserts that collateral estoppel precludes the United States from seeking the instant protective order based on non-final and unpublished discovery orders from another ADA action to which AMC is not a party. In addition, in its portion of the Joint Stipulation, AMC requests sanctions against the United States on the ground that DOJ acted in "bad faith" when filing its motion for protective order. AMC's arguments are meritless.1

1.	AMC's Attempt to Avoid Application of Law of the Case Principles Are Meritless. Without addressing – or even distinguishing – the "law of the case" principles cited by DOJ, AMC simply claims that law of the case does not apply here because: (i) the United States' current counsel was allegedly "not even associated with this action" at the time this Court's discovery rulings were issued in 2000; and (ii) these prior rulings do not expressly preclude AMC from deposing DOJ employees. Joint Stip. at 5, 46-47. This Court's prior discovery rulings upholding the United States' privilege claims and otherwise limiting the scope of discovery in this action, however, are not so easily dispatched. First, nowhere does AMC cite any caselaw for its novel proposition that a party's counsel must be the same at all times during the litigation for law of the case principles to apply. Simply put, this argument is frivolous since the law of the case doctrine depends on the identity of issues, not counsel. Joint Stip. at 14-15.2

AMC's second argument against applying law of the case principles is equally deficient. As an initial matter, it is not surprising that the Court in 2000 did not expressly preclude AMC from deposing DOJ employees since, at that time, AMC had not even issued any Rule 30(b)(1) deposition notices of DOJ employees. Jacobs Dec. ¶ 10. Rather, the parties' discovery battles in 2000 focused on the propriety of the DOJ's interrogatory responses and document requests. Joint Stip. at 7-10. The fact that the Court's rulings in 2000 arose out of discovery disputes concerning written discovery, however, in no way undermines the applicability of law of the case principles. The law of the case doctrine stands for the common-sense principle that the same issue presented a second time in the same case in the same court should lead to the same result. Joint Stip. at 15. Here, AMC's five disputed deposition notices raise the same issues addressed by this Court's prior discovery rulings – namely, the discoverability of information held by the United States (or its employees) that is protected by the work product, deliberative process, settlement negotiation, and law enforcement investigative privileges, or that is otherwise protected from disclosure. App. I, Ex. 16 (June 200 Minute Order). Law of the case principles foreclose AMC from seeking through oral deposition information that the Court has already ruled to be privileged, or otherwise protected from disclosure, when the information was in written form. See United States v. Alexander, 106 F.3d 874, 876-77 (9th Cir. 1997) (holding prior evidentiary ruling in same action to be law of the case).

AMC's arguments ignore and/or mischaracterize the substance of many of the Court's prior discovery rulings in this case. For example, AMC claims that DOJ has issued conflicting interpretations of Standard 4.33.3, and that, as a consequence, AMC should be permitted to depose DOJ witnesses relating to other assembly areas such as sports arenas. See Joint Stip. at 48. However, in its June 2000 Minute Order, this Court expressly rejected both of these arguments. App. I, Ex. 16, ¶ 6; see also United States v. Farley, 11 F.3d 1385, 1391 (7th Cir. 1993).3 Likewise, AMC's argument that the deliberative process privilege cannot apply to decisions made after the promulgation of Standard 4.33.3 in 1991, Joint Stip. at 53, ignores this Court's ruling upholding this privilege as applied to the United States' "additional, subsequent decisions as to the enforcement of the standard in Technical Assistance publications, and with regard to decisions to commence investigations and lawsuits." App. I, Ex. 16 at ¶ 8. AMC even claims that DOJ failed to make a formal claim of privilege by the head of the Department, Joint Stip. at 54, n.20, despite the fact that DOJ previously filed the declaration of the Assistant Attorney General asserting the deliberative process and other privileges during the parties' discovery disputes in 2000. App. I, Ex. 11A. Finally, AMC selectively quotes from the February 2000 Order to justify obtaining information on communications with theater owners, Joint Stip. at 47, yet it ignores the fact that (i) DOJ did turn over public information on its communications with theater owners, App. I, Ex. 19, and (ii) two subsequent orders in this case rejected AMC's efforts to compel further responses on such communications. App. I, Ex. 16, at 15; App. II, Ex. 23, ¶ 5. In light of these considerations, the Court should preclude AMC from re-litigating the privilege and other discovery issues that are now law of the case.4

2.	AMC Fails to Carry Its Heavy Burden of Justifying the Depositions of DOJ's Counsel. Courts strongly disfavor allowing depositions of opposing counsel, and the party that seeks to depose an opposing counsel bears a heavy burden to justify the deposition. Shelton v. American Motors Corp., 805 F.2d 1323, 1327 (8th Cir. 1986) (requiring party seeking deposition to meet three-factor test). Undoubtedly, AMC's "task in preparing for trial would be much easier if [it] could . . . simply depose opposing counsel in an attempt to identify the information that opposing counsel has decided is relevant and important to his legal theories and strategy," yet AMC cannot meet any of the Shelton factors for allowing depositions of opposing counsel, including that the material be non-privileged.5 Id. at 1327. While AMC claims it does not seek work product, AMC argues it should have Section Chief John Wodatch's testimony on his legal theory of Standard 4.33.3, by describing him as the "author" of an amicus brief filed in a private lawsuit in Texas, see Joint Stip. at 5, 38, notwithstanding the fact that a group of attorneys participated in the drafting of that brief. Nothing could be more protected by the work product doctrine than the mental impressions and legal theories of attorneys preparing a brief in
litigation.6 Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 510 (1947).

3.	DOJ Is Not Bound by Non-Final and Unpublished Discovery Orders Issued in the Hoyts Litigation. Without citing to legal authority, AMC baldly contends that DOJ should be collaterally estopped from "re-litigating" issues that have allegedly "been litigated and rejected in identical motions" in Hoyts. Joint Stip. at 3-4, 45-46. AMC's estoppel claim against the United States is meritless. First, since AMC is not a party to the Hoyts action, collateral estoppel is inapplicable; the federal government can only be estopped when there is mutuality of the parties – i.e., the litigants in the first and second actions are the same. See, e.g., United States v. Mendoza, 464 U.S. 154, 159-163, 104 S. Ct. 568, 572-574 (1984) (discussing prudential considerations and holding that nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel does not apply against the federal government); American Fed'n of Gov't Employees v. FLRA, 835 F.2d 1458, 1462 (D.C. Cir. 1987) ("Collateral estoppel will apply against the government only if mutuality of parties exists."); Hercules Carriers, Inc. v. Claimant State of Florida, 768 F.2d 1558, 1578-79 (11th Cir. 1985) (applying Mendoza and holding that nonmutual defensive collateral estoppel cannot be applied to the federal government); Reich v. D.C. Wiring, Inc., 940 F. Supp. 105, 106-07 (D. N.J. 1996) (same).7

Second, even assuming AMC could overcome this hurdle, collateral estoppel is still improper, because it cannot exist unless "'an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment.'" Arizona v. California, 530 U.S. 392, 414 (2000); see also 18 Charles A. Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 4416 (1988). Here, the "rulings" cited by AMC plainly fall outside these requirements, as (i) the Hoyts court issued no written rulings to accompany the cited discovery orders, thereby making it impossible to discern what issues were actually and necessarily determined by the court; (ii) the matters at issue in Hoyts were not, in any event, identical to the issues raised by DOJ's instant motion for protective order since none of the five DOJ employees that AMC seeks to depose here were the subject of the motions for protective order in Hoyts; and (iii) non-final and unpublished discovery orders, such as those in Hoyts, lack the finality necessary for application of collateral estoppel.8 See App. III, Ex. 51; Jacobs Dec. ¶ 3; Kay-R Electric Corp. v. Stone & Webster Constr. Co., Inc., 23 F.3d 55, 59 (2nd Cir. 1994) (holding that unpublished ruling denying motion for summary judgment lacked finality necessary for the application of collateral estoppel).

4.	AMC's "Motion" for Sanctions Against the United States is Procedurally Improper and Meritless. AMC's assertions notwithstanding, DOJ filed the instant motion for protective order as soon as it became apparent that the parties' meet-and-confer efforts were not going to resolve their discovery dispute over the five deposition notices. See Jacobs Dec. ¶¶ 8-9. AMC's unsupported claim that DOJ was dilatory in filing this motion is frivolous and should be summarily rejected.9

DATED: April 3, 2002

Respectfully submitted,

RALPH F. BOYD, JR.

Assistant Attorney General

Civil Rights Division

JOHN S. GORDON

United States Attorney

JOHN L. WODATCH, Chief

RENEE M. WOHLENHAUS, Deputy Chief

Disability Rights Section

GRETCHEN E. JACOBS

JOHN A. RUSS IV

PHYLLIS M. COHEN

KATHLEEN S. DEVINE

JOSEPH RUSSO

DOV LUTZKER

Disability Rights Section

Civil Rights Division

U.S. Department of Justice

Counsel for Plaintiff

United States of America

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on this 3rd day of April, 2002, true and correct copies of Plaintiff United States' Supplemental Memorandum in Support of Its Motion for Protective Order From Defendant's Notices of Deposition of Five Department of Justice Employees were served by Federal Express, postage pre-paid, on the following parties:

Gregory F. Hurley

Kutak Rock LLP

Suite 450

620 Newport Center Drive

Newport Beach, CA 92660

facsimile: (949) 718-6708

Robert J. Harrop

Lathrop & Gage L.C.

Suite 2500

2345 Grand Boulevard

Kansas City, MO 64108-2684

facsimile: (816) 292-2001

John Albert Russ IV