In re ISN Software Corp. Appraisal Litigation, C.A. No. 8388-VCG (April 10, 2014)
By Kristy Harlan and Eric Taylor
This is a dispute about whether attorney-client privilege applies to certain draft documents, and whether a waiver of privilege was made with respect to certain other communications, in connection with an appraisal action. The petitioners are a number of venture capital funds seeking a determination of the fair value of their shares in ISN Software Corp. (“ISN”) following a freeze-outmerger in early 2013.
The petitioners contend that ISN has improperly claimed attorney-client privilege over certain draft documents, including draft board minutes, created by management but sent to legal counsel for review. The draft minutes in question were authored by management for meetings that legal counsel did not attend. ISN claimed privilege over the draft minutes because they were forwarded to counsel for review prior to finalization and are, according to ISN, therefore per se not discoverable. Citing its decision in Jedwab v. MGM Grand Hotels, Inc., 1986 WL 3426 (Del. Ch. Mar. 20, 1986), the Court held that this was incorrect–where drafts were not prepared by a lawyer in a setting in which they were intended to remain confidential and where attorneys did not gather the information contained therein, work-product doctrine does not shield documents from production.
The petitioners also sought to compel the production of documents reflecting otherwise-privileged communications evidencing how the ISN board arrived at its merger price. The petitioners sought to rely on the “at-issue” exception to privilege–that is, that the privileged communications are required in order to arrive at the truthful resolution of an issue injected into the litigation by a party–contending that ISN placed the merger price “at issue.” However, the Court disagreed and noted that the petitioners had adequate information sources to establish whether the merger price was indicative of fair value (including depositions of ISN managers and directors, board resolutions approving the merger agreement, and a valuation opinion obtained by the ISN board).