Glickman, M.D. v. First UNUM Life Insurance Company

USDC SDNY DOCUMENT UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ELECTRON SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ICALLY FILED DOC #: Lawrence T. Glickman, M.D., DATE FILED: 4/16/2020 Plaintiff, 1:19-cv-05908 (VSB) (SDA) -againstORDER First UNUM Life Insurance Company, Defendant. STEWART D. AARON, United States Magistrate Judge: On April 2, 2020, the Court issued an Opinion and Order requiring, among other things, that Defendant email to the Court for its in camera privilege review all pre-March 8, 20191 documents reflected on Defendant’s Amended Privilege Log. (4/2/20 Opinion and Order, ECF No. 31, at 12.) Defendant today emailed to the Court unredacted copies of such documents, which the Court has reviewed. Based upon the Court’s review, the Court concludes that the redacted portions of such documents are not subject to the attorney-client privilege, given the fiduciary exception to the privilege in ERISA cases. “Under this exception, when legal advice is given to a client who is a fiduciary and concerns the exercise of fiduciary duties, the legal advice is subject to disclosure to the beneficiary.” McFarlane v. First Unum Life Ins. Co., 231 F. Supp. 3d 10, 13-14 (S.D.N.Y. 2017). Here, the legal advice was provided to Defendant regarding the exercise of Defendant’s fiduciary duties. The Court also concludes that the work product doctrine does not apply to these documents. The Court finds that these documents relate to the administrative record and were * According to Plaintiff, March 8, 2019 is the date when Unum made a final decision regarding Plaintiff’s benefits. not created because of litigation. Thus, the Court hereby ORDERS that unredacted versions of the documents provided to the Court today be produced to Plaintiff within fourteen (14) days of the date of this Order. SO ORDERED. DATED: New York, New York April 16, 2020 STEWART D. AARON United States Magistrate Judge