Payless Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court

Petitioner, a corporate employer, seeks prohibition to prevent respondent court from enforcing its order issued November 5, 1975, which granted real party’s motion to compel production of an accident report prepared by an employee of petitioner. We may properly entertain a petition for extraordinary relief when, as here, the petitioning party asserts that to compel production would violate a privilege. (Sav-On Drugs, Inc. v. Superior Court (1975) 15 Cal.3d 1, 5 [ 123 Cal.Rptr. 283 , 538 P.2d 739 ].)

The record shows that on October 7, 1975, real party plaintiff noticed a motion to compel production of accident reports dated February 16, 1974 and April 4, 1974, prepared by petitioner’s employees after a slip and fall accident. A declaration by real party’s attorney declared that the reports in question “contain and constitute relevant evidence in that they will establish the time of the accident, the time the salad oil was cleared away, the identity of the person clearing up the salad oil and the identity of any witnesses known to defendant.”

Petitioner opposed the motion, asserting that the reports were privileged under the attorney-client privilege. In support of its…