California Court of Appeal

The tax return privilege is inapplicable where a fraud defendant precluded plaintiffs from obtaining relevant nonprivileged financial information necessary to support a punitive damages claim, and no less intrusive alternative for plaintiffs to obtain the information exists.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/20/2002
• Published 09/20/2002

Judges

• HALLER, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
•  Lewis, D'Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, R. Gaylord Smith, Alan E. Greenberg, San Diego, Jeffrey A. Miller, Lisa Willhelm Cooney;  Greenberg and Traurig and Vincent H. Chieffo, Los Angeles, for Petitioner., Niddrie & Hegemier, David A. Niddrie;  Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, Steven M. Strauss, Frank L. Tobin, San Diego, and Paul A. Tyrell for Real Party in Interest.


• For Appellees:
  
• No appearance for Respondent.