Fischel

ORDER DENYING IN PART AND GRANTING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO COMPEL

Plaintiffs move to compel defendant The Equitable Life Assurance Society to produce 184 documents withheld on grounds of attorney-client privilege and work product. Plaintiffs are former Equitable life insurance agents who allege that defendant violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and its contractual obligations by eliminating certain methods for qualifying for continued health care coverage under the Equitable’s health care plan. Specifically, plaintiffs claim that the Equitable breached its fiduciary duties either by falsely representing that agents would receive benefits after meeting certain production requirements, or by repudiating its promise to provide such benefits. In the course of conducting discovery, this dispute arose over defendant’s response to plaintiffs’ request for production of documents.

The documents in question comprise an assortment of communications between The Equitable and its inside and outside counsel that relate in some way to the health care plan. In opposition to this motion to compel, defendant argues that all of the documents are subject to…