In re CBS Corporation Litigation ( 2018 )


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  •                              COURT OF CHANCERY
    OF THE
    STATE OF DELAWARE
    ANDRE G. BOUCHARD                                              LEONARD L. WILLIAMS JUSTICE CENTER
    CHANCELLOR                                                  500 N. KING STREET, SUITE 11400
    WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 19801-3734
    Date Submitted: July 9, 2018
    Date Decided: July 13, 2018
    David E. Ross, Esquire                   Myron T. Steele, Esquire
    Bradley R. Aronstam, Esquire             Donald J. Wolfe, Jr., Esquire
    Garrett B. Moritz, Esquire               Matthew E. Fischer, Esquire
    S. Michael Sirkin, Esquire               Michael A. Pittenger, Esquire
    Roger S. Stronach, Esquire               Jacqueline A. Rogers, Esquire
    Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP               Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP
    100 S. West Street, Suite 400            Hercules Plaza, 6th Floor
    Wilmington, DE 19801                     1313 N. Market Street
    Wilmington, DE 19899
    RE:    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    Dear Counsel:
    This letter constitutes the court’s ruling on the motion of National
    Amusements, Inc. (“National Amusements” or “NAI”), NAI Entertainment
    Holdings LLC, Sumner M. Redstone, and Shari Redstone (collectively, the “NAI
    Parties”) to compel CBS Corporation and eleven members of its board of directors
    not affiliated with NAI (collectively, the “CBS Parties”) to produce certain
    documents that are expected to be withheld on privilege grounds.1 For the reasons
    explained below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.
    1
    Dkt. 106.
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    I.       Background
    CBS Corporation and Viacom Inc. were part of one company before they were
    split into standalone entities in 2005. CBS has two classes of stock, both of which
    are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The Class A common stock
    has voting power; the Class B common stock does not. Ms. Redstone, through her
    control of NAI, effectively controls approximately 79.7% of the voting power of
    CBS. In contrast to its voting power, NAI owns only approximately 10.3% of the
    economic stake in CBS.
    Since 2006, the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz has served as
    outside counsel to CBS and, from time to time, served as counsel to the nominating
    and governance committee and the compensation committee of the CBS board of
    directors (the “Board”).2 Martin Lipton, a founding partner of Wachtell Lipton, has
    been the primary partner handling the CBS representation.
    Wachtell Lipton has represented CBS in connection with a range of matters,
    some of which have implicated the relationship between CBS and its controlling
    stockholder and some of which have not.3 With respect to the latter category, for
    example, Wachtell Lipton represented CBS in the divestiture of CBS Radio in 2017,
    2
    Affidavit of Martin Lipton ¶ 3 (Dkt. 118).
    3
    Lipton Aff. ¶¶ 4-5.
    2
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    in the split-off of its billboard advertising business in 2014, and in various “typical
    corporate finance matters as well as disclosure and SEC filing questions that arise in
    the ordinary course.”4 With respect to the former category, Mr. Lipton described
    Wachtell Lipton’s role, in relevant part, as follows:
    Wachtell Lipton has also advised CBS regarding the company’s control
    relationship with National Amusements and individuals who control or
    could potentially control National Amusements, namely, Sumner
    Redstone and Shari Redstone. The topics of that advice have included
    the options available to the company vis-à-vis its controller as a legal
    matter, encompassing both National Amusements’ obligations to the
    company and the company’s other stockholders as a matter of Delaware
    law and the options available to CBS in dealing with its controller under
    Delaware law and the company’s bylaws and certificate of
    incorporation. There were any number of times over the years when
    the company sought legal advice arising from concern that National
    Amusements and its principals might take actions that were not in the
    best interests of CBS and its stockholders and that would go against the
    long-standing and public representations regarding CBS’s independent
    governance under an independent board of directors.5
    On September 27, 2016, NAI’s outside counsel (Cleary Gottlieb Steen &
    Hamilton LLP) sent Wachtell Lipton a draft of a letter from NAI requesting that
    CBS consider a potential combination with Viacom.6 The draft letter stated: “In
    light of [NAI’s] controlling interest in each of [CBS] and [Viacom], we expect that
    4
    Lipton Aff. ¶ 4.
    5
    Lipton Aff. ¶ 5.
    6
    Affidavit of Roger S. Stronach Ex. 2 (Dkt. 118).
    3
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    each company will establish a special committee to evaluate, explore, consider and,
    if they determine advisable, negotiate a potential combination[.]”7
    On September 29, 2016, the Board adopted resolutions authorizing a special
    committee of independent directors (the “2016 Special Committee”) “to act as a
    disinterested body for the purpose of considering, negotiating and overseeing the
    Potential Transaction, including if appropriate recommending in favor of or against
    the Potential Transaction to the Board and stockholders (the ‘Special Committee
    Matters’).”8 The Board resolutions included a broad delegation of authority to the
    2016 Special Committee:
    [T]he Committee shall have the full powers, authorities, duties, rights
    and responsibilities of the Board with respect to matters relating to, or
    arising from, any Special Committee Matters including, without
    limitation, that the Committee shall be authorized and empowered to
    (a) take such actions as it may deem necessary or desirable to consider,
    negotiate and oversee the Potential Transaction, including with respect
    to making recommendations to the Board and stockholders with respect
    to the Potential Transaction to do or not to do the Potential Transaction,
    (b) determine whether any such Special Committee Matters are in the
    best interest of the Corporation and its stockholders and to report its
    recommendation to the Board and/or the stockholders of the
    Corporation, and (c) assist in the preparation and filing of any
    7
    Stronach Aff. Ex. 2 at 2. This text was removed from the final version of the letter sent
    on September 29, 2016. The final version instead stated: “We therefore request the board
    of each company take the appropriate steps to consider the proposed transaction.” 
    Id. Ex. 3
    at CBS00000925.
    8
    Stronach Aff. Ex. 7 at CBS00000231.
    4
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    documents as may be required with respect to matters relating to, or
    arising from, any such Special Committee Matters[.]9
    The Board resolutions authorizing the 2016 Special Committee and the
    charter for the committee that the Board approved both required that the directors,
    officers, and agents of CBS cooperate with it so that it could carry out its duties:
    [T]he directors, officers, employees and agents of the Corporation . . .
    hereby are authorized and directed to cooperate fully with the
    Committee and its advisors to facilitate the matters within the scope of
    its authorities and responsibilities, including to provide the Committee
    with business, financial and other information as reasonably requested
    by the Committee[.]10
    *****
    All officers, employees and agents of the Corporation shall supply any
    information and take all appropriate actions as reasonably requested by
    the Committee or its representatives and to otherwise assist the
    Committee in carrying out its duties pursuant to this Charter.11
    The work of the 2016 Special Committee apparently ended in December 2016.12
    By early January 2018, Ms. Redstone again formally approached the boards
    of CBS and Viacom and pressed for a combination of the two companies. 13 On
    9
    
    Id. (emphasis added).
    10
    Stronach Aff. Ex. 7 at CBS00000232 (Board resolutions).
    11
    
    Id. at CBS00000234
    (charter).
    12
    Tr. 56 (July 9, 2018); see also Am. Compl. ¶ 47 (referring to December 12, 2016 as the
    date “merger talks were called off”).
    13
    Am. Compl. ¶ 49 (Dkt. 42).
    5
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    February 1, 2018, the Board adopted resolutions to form a second special committee
    (the “2018 Special Committee”) “for the purpose of considering, negotiating and
    overseeing the potential combination” of CBS and Viacom.14 The delegation of
    authority to the 2018 Special Committee is substantively the same as the delegation
    of authority to the 2016 Special Committee.15 The Board resolutions authorizing,
    and the charter for, the 2018 Special Committee also contain identical directives
    requiring the full cooperation of directors, officers, employees, and agents of CBS
    as were adopted for the 2016 Special Committee.16
    The 2018 Special Committee remains active.17 I refer to the 2016 and 2018
    Special Committees hereafter collectively as the “Special Committees.”
    On or about May 13, 2018, the 2018 Special Committee determined that a
    CBS/Viacom merger is not in the best interests of CBS stockholders, other than
    NAI.18 The 2018 Special Committee also recommended that the Board consider the
    issuance of a dividend of Class A voting stock to all holders of Class A voting and
    Class B non-voting stock (the “Stock Dividend”).19         The Stock Dividend, the
    14
    Stronach Aff. Ex. 8 at CBS00000111.
    15
    Compare Stronach Aff. Ex. 7 at CBS00000231 with Ex. 8 at CBS00000108-109.
    16
    Compare Stronach Aff. Ex. 7 at CBS00000232, 34 with Ex. 8 at CBS0000109, 111.
    17
    Tr. 93 (July 9, 2018).
    18
    Am. Compl. ¶ 67.
    19
    Am. Compl. ¶ 75.
    6
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    implementation of which is subject to judicial approval,20 would have the effect of
    reducing NAI’s voting power from approximately 80% to 20% if implemented, but
    would not dilute the economic ownership interests of any CBS stockholder,
    including NAI.21
    On May 16, the day before a Board meeting requested by the 2018 Special
    Committee, NAI executed and delivered written consents to amend CBS’s bylaws
    to, among other things, require approval by 90% of the directors then in office at two
    separate meetings held at least twenty business days apart in order to declare a
    dividend (the “90% Bylaw”). On May 17, the Board voted to approve the Stock
    Dividend by a vote of 11-3.22 NAI’s three designees to the fourteen-person Board—
    Ms. Redstone, David Andelman, and Robert Klieger (the “NAI Affiliated
    Directors”)—cast the only dissenting votes.23
    This litigation commenced on May 14, 2018. An expedited trial to adjudicate
    the validity of the Stock Dividend and 90% Bylaw, among other matters, is
    scheduled to commence on October 3, 2018.
    20
    CBS Corp. v. Nat’l Amusements, Inc., 
    2018 WL 2263385
    , at *2 (Del. Ch. May 17,
    2018).
    21
    Am. Compl. ¶ 7.
    22
    Am. Compl. ¶¶ 9-10, 93.
    23
    
    Id. 7 In
    re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    II.       The Parties’ Contentions
    In its motion, the NAI Parties seek to compel the CBS Parties to produce two
    categories “of privileged materials involving communications with CBS Counsel
    from before May 14, 2018:”
    1. Communications with and between CBS Counsel and any officer or
    director of CBS.
    2. Communications between the (i) members of the special committees
    of the CBS Board formed to consider a potential CBS/Viacom
    transaction or committee counsel, on the one hand, and (ii) CBS
    Counsel, on the other hand.24
    The term “CBS Counsel” is defined as “in-house and outside counsel to CBS and its
    board,”25 which means, for purposes of this motion, in-house counsel and Wachtell
    Lipton.26 The NAI Parties contend that the NAI Affiliated Directors are entitled to
    the above two categories of documents on the theory that they have a right as
    directors of a Delaware corporation to unfettered access to any legal advice rendered
    to CBS or other members of its Board as joint clients of CBS Counsel.
    The CBS Parties advance essentially four arguments in response. First, they
    contend that the NAI Parties have no right to privileged communications concerning
    the “use or abuse of NAI control” from 2005 forward because NAI and its designees
    24
    Mot. to Compel ¶ 6.
    25
    
    Id. ¶ 2.
    26
    Tr. 5-6 (July 9, 2018).
    8
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    on the Board would have been adverse to CBS on this issue “from the get-go” and
    thus “could not have reasonably expected that they were represented by CBS’s
    outside counsel as to these issues.”27
    Second, focusing on a shorter time period beginning in September 2016, the
    CBS Parties contend that “the NAI Parties have no right to CBS’s privileged
    documents concerning the CBS/Viacom merger proposals, whether emanating from
    the Special Committee or not” because “[a]dversity on that subject was obvious from
    the moment in 2016 when NAI first placed itself across the negotiating table from
    CBS.”28
    Third, in a narrower variation of its second argument, the CBS Parties contend
    that the “NAI Parties have no right to privileged documents related to the Special
    Committees’ processes,” meaning “privileged communications (1) between the
    Special Committee and CBS’s inside and outside counsel and (2) between CBS
    management and CBS’s counsel in aid of the Special Committee process.”29
    According to the CBS Parties, these communications are protected by the Special
    27
    Tr. 66 (July 9, 2018); Opp’n to Mot. to Compel ¶ 8.
    28
    Opp’n to Mot. to Compel ¶ 9.
    29
    
    Id. ¶ 10.
    9
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    Committees’ privilege because the Special Committees were “explicitly authorized
    to work with and direct ‘directors, officers, employees and agents’” of CBS.30
    Finally, the CBS Parties contend that “even if certain NAI Affiliated Directors
    were entitled to access CBS’s privileged documents in their capacities as directors,
    the other NAI Parties—including NAI and its counsel—have no right to such
    information [because] NAI lacks the contractual designation rights required to
    access such information.”31
    III.      Analysis
    The key legal principles relevant to this motion were explained cogently in
    Vice Chancellor Laster’s decision in Kalisman v. Friedman.32 He first summarized
    a director’s general right of access to privileged board information under Delaware
    law, as follows:
    A director’s right to information is essentially unfettered in nature. The
    right includes equal access to board information. A company cannot
    pick and choose which directors will receive which information.
    The director’s right to information extends to privileged material. As a
    general rule, a corporation cannot assert the privilege to deny a director
    access to legal advice furnished to the board during the director’s
    tenure. The rationale for this rule is that all directors are responsible
    for the proper management of the corporation, and thus, should be
    30
    
    Id. ¶¶ 35-36.
    31
    
    Id. ¶ 11.
    32
    
    2013 WL 1668205
    (Del. Ch. Apr. 17, 2013).
    10
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    treated as a joint client when legal advice is rendered to the corporation
    through one of its officers or directors.33
    Vice Chancellor Laster then identified the following “three recognized limitations
    on a director’s ability to access privileged information”:
    First, the director’s right can be diminished by an ex ante agreement
    among the contracting parties . . .
    Second, a board can act pursuant to 
    8 Del. C
    . § 141(c) and openly with
    the knowledge of the excluded director to appoint a special committee.
    A committee would be free to retain separate legal counsel, and its
    communications with that counsel would be properly protected, at least
    to the extent necessary for the committee’s ongoing work, such as
    conducting a special committee investigation or negotiating an
    interested transaction . . .
    Third, a board or a committee can withhold privileged information once
    sufficient adversity exists between the director and the corporation such
    that the director could no longer have a reasonable expectation that he
    was a client of the board’s counsel.34
    With respect to the third category, Kalisman cites SBC Interactive, Inc. v.
    Corporate Media Partners, where Justice Jacobs, writing as a Vice Chancellor,
    explained that “appropriate governance procedures” must be employed in this
    situation:
    Normally a director will be entitled to equal access to legal advice
    furnished to the other board members, because normally the interests
    of all directors are identical. Where, however, a director’s interests
    come into conflict with the interests of the corporation on a given issue,
    33
    
    Id. at *3-4
    (internal quotations and citations omitted).
    34
    
    Id. at *4–5.
    11
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    the board is entitled to deliberate—and receive legal advice—in
    confidence and without having to share that advice with the director
    whose interests are adverse, so long as the board employs appropriate
    governance procedures.35
    The example of “appropriate governance procedures” discussed in SBC Interactive
    was to openly form a special committee, which would ensure that the director
    involved had no reasonable expectation that he was a client of the board’s counsel:
    [I]f the board, in the presence of the plaintiff’s designee, had openly
    (i.e., with the disfavored director’s knowledge) voted to establish a
    special committee to consider this question in confidence, it could
    properly have done so, and any advice rendered by legal counsel to that
    committee would have been protected by the attorney-client privilege.
    Had that process been employed, the plaintiff’s director designee would
    have had no reasonable expectation that he was a client of the board’s
    counsel on a par with the remaining directors.36
    Referencing his prior decision in Moore Business Forms, Inc. v. Cordant Holdings
    Corp.,37 Justice Jacobs further explained in SBC Interactive that concealing the
    existence of adversity may create a reasonable (although mistaken) expectation on
    the part of a director that he was being treated identically with the other directors
    thus entitling that director to access the privileged information provided to the other
    directors:
    To express it differently, although in Moore the interests of the
    plaintiff’s director designee and the remaining directors were in fact
    35
    
    1997 WL 770715
    , at *6 (Del. Ch. Dec. 9, 1997) (emphasis added).
    36
    
    Id. at *6
    (footnote omitted).
    37
    
    1996 WL 307444
    (Del. Ch. June 4, 1996).
    12
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    adverse, the remaining directors and the corporation’s management
    deliberately concealed the adversity until a time of their choosing, and
    created a reasonable expectation (and reliance) on the director
    designee’s part that the “normal” attorney-client relationship existing
    in the absence of adverse interests would prevail.             In those
    circumstances, the Court held that the plaintiff was a “client” of the
    board’s counsel and that the attorney-client privilege could not be
    asserted against it.38
    When the corporation seeks to assert privilege against a director, the
    corporation “has the burden to establish when sufficient adversity existed.”39
    *****
    The NAI Parties ask the court to apply the legal principles summarized above
    in connection with its motion at the outset of discovery in an expedited case.
    Although this court has recognized the benefit of doing so in certain circumstances,
    it is problematic to do so here for the eleven-year period predating the formation of
    the 2016 Special Committee. This is because the record is too undeveloped to make
    informed judgments in the abstract about (i) when moments of adversity may have
    arisen between CBS and the NAI Affiliated Directors concerning a given issue
    during this period and, if they did, (ii) whether the NAI Affiliated Directors were (or
    reasonably should have been) aware of the existence of such adversity such that they
    could not have had a reasonable expectation that they were clients of CBS Counsel
    38
    
    1997 WL 770715
    , at *6.
    39
    In re Oxbow Carbon LLC, 
    2017 WL 898380
    , at *1 (Del. Ch., Mar. 07, 2017) (ORDER).
    13
    In re CBS Corporation Litigation
    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    at a given time. Accordingly, the court declines to rule on the motion with respect
    to this time period. Instead, the parties should do what litigants normally do during
    discovery: the party wishing to challenge the assertion of privilege should do so
    after the assertion actually has been made so that the challenge can be considered in
    a more specific factual context.
    Turning to the period from when the 2016 Special Committee was formed in
    September 2016 until May 14, 2018, a sufficient record exists in my view for the
    court to provide guidance on the two categories of information the NAI Parties seek
    for that time period. I begin with the second category. To repeat, that category seeks
    “communications between the (i) members of the special committees of the CBS
    board formed to consider a potential CBS/Viacom transaction or committee counsel,
    on the one hand, and (ii) CBS Counsel, on the other hand.”40 In my opinion, the
    NAI Affiliated Directors (and thus the NAI Parties) are not entitled to this
    information.
    In asking the Board to consider a potential combination of CBS and Viacom,
    the NAI Parties placed themselves across the negotiating table from CBS. As such,
    the NAI Parties created sufficient adversity with CBS such that the NAI Affiliated
    Directors could not—to use the court’s words from Kalisman—“have a reasonable
    40
    Mot. to Compel ¶ 6.
    14
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    expectation that [they were] a client of the board’s counsel or the Special
    Committee’s counsel with respect to” matters delegated to the Special Committees.41
    In forming a Special Committee in 2016 and again in 2018 to consider a potential
    combination, CBS employed appropriate governance procedures that openly put the
    NAI Affiliated Directors on notice that they would be segregated from the CBS side
    of the deliberations, including privileged information relating thereto. At that point,
    the Board—operating through the Special Committees—was “entitled to
    deliberate—and receive legal advice—in confidence and without having to share
    that advice with the director whose interests are adverse[.]”42
    Consistent with the foregoing, the NAI Parties do not take issue with being
    segregated from advice provided by counsel that the Special Committees separately
    retained (White & Case LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP). Indeed, the NAI
    Parties concede that adversity was “manifest” between the NAI Affiliated Directors
    and the Special Committees and their separate counsel.43              The NAI Parties
    nevertheless assert that the NAI Affiliated Directors are entitled to access
    communications between CBS Counsel, on the one hand, and the Special
    Committees and/or their separate counsel, on the other hand. Although no precedent
    41
    Kalisman, 
    2013 WL 1668205
    , at *5 (emphasis added).
    42
    See SBC Interactive, 
    1997 WL 770715
    , at *6.
    43
    NAI Parties’ Reply in Supp. of Mot. to Compel ¶ 16 (Dkt. 127).
    15
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    has been cited analyzing this specific issue, I am not persuaded by the NAI Parties’
    argument and believe that the adversity should have been equally manifest to the
    NAI Affiliated Directors in this situation as well.
    To start, it is logical to expect that a special committee charged with
    evaluating a proposed transaction (including matters “relating to” and “arising from”
    such proposed transaction) may wish or may need to confer with the corporation’s
    in-house lawyers and outside counsel to discharge their duties in an informed and
    responsible manner. That appears to be particularly true here, where Wachtell
    Lipton possessed extensive historical knowledge about CBS and its relationship with
    NAI from having represented CBS virtually from the date it became a separate public
    company.
    Apart from being logical, none of this could be a surprise to the NAI Affiliated
    Directors because, as discussed above, the authorizing resolutions and charters that
    the Board approved in forming both Special Committees specifically directed “that
    the directors, officers, employees and agents of the Corporation” must cooperate
    fully with the Special Committees and their advisors so that they could carry out
    their duties.44 It would make no sense to direct these persons, which plainly include
    outside counsel as an “agent” of CBS, to cooperate fully with the Special
    44
    Stronach Aff. Ex. 7, at CBS00000232; Ex. 8, at CBS00000109 (emphasis added).
    16
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    Committees only to expose to an adverse party what they shared with the Special
    Committees.
    In short, given the adversity of interests that prompted the creation of the
    Special Committees and given the mandate they were provided as part of a
    transparent process, the NAI Affiliated Directors could not have had a reasonable
    expectation that they were clients of CBS Counsel insofar as CBS Counsel was
    acting in aid of the process undertaken by either of the Special Committees. To
    reach the opposite conclusion would undermine the legitimate expectation that the
    Special Committees’ deliberative processes would be held in confidence and would
    not be shared with designees of the party whose adverse interests necessitated their
    formation in the first place. Accordingly, the NAI Parties’ request to compel the
    second category of information is denied.
    The first category of information the NAI Parties seek is “communications
    with and between CBS Counsel and any officer or director of CBS.”45 My reasoning
    with respect to the second category dictates my disposition of this request as well.
    That is, insofar as the first category seeks any communications between CBS
    Counsel and an officer or director of CBS that was undertaken in aid of the process
    of either of the Special Committees, the motion to compel will be denied for the
    45
    Mot. to Compel ¶ 6.
    17
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    July 13, 2018
    reasons discussed previously. Otherwise, the motion will be granted because no
    factual basis has been identified to support the conclusion that the NAI Affiliated
    Directors were made aware (or reasonably should have been aware) that CBS
    Counsel was not representing them jointly with the other CBS directors with respect
    to any matter other than the matters falling within the purview of the Special
    Committees for which CBS Counsel provided assistance.
    Finally, I reject the CBS Parties’ request that access to any CBS privileged
    information that may be provided as a result of this ruling be limited to the NAI
    Affiliated Directors and not shared with the NAI Parties or their counsel. Apart from
    the fact that no clear precedent has been cited supporting the imposition of such a
    condition,46 practical considerations dictate this conclusion.         Given that Ms.
    Redstone is one of the NAI Affiliated Directors (as well as one of the NAI Parties)
    and, by all accounts, is the key decision-maker for NAI, it is simply not realistic or
    practical to believe that any information to which she may become privy as a result
    of this ruling could be segregated from her thought process as an adversary of CBS
    46
    The weight of precedent seems to support the opposite conclusion as a general matter.
    See Kalisman, 2013 WL at *6 (“When a director serves as the designee of a stockholder
    on the board, and when it is understood that the director acts as the stockholder’s
    representative, then the stockholder is generally entitled to the same information as the
    director.”) (citing Moore, 
    1996 WL 307444
    , at *4; KLM v. Checchi, 
    1997 WL 525861
    , at
    *2-3 (Del. Ch. July 23, 1997); AOC Ltd. P’ship v. Horsham Corp., 
    1992 WL 97720
    , at *1
    (Del. Ch. May 5, 1992)).
    18
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    Consol. C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB
    July 13, 2018
    in this case. That said, all of the NAI Parties and the NAI Affiliated Directors are
    bound by the confidentiality order governing the use of discovery material in this
    action.47
    IV.      Conclusion
    For the reasons explained above, the NAI Parties’ motion to compel is granted
    in part and denied in part. The parties are directed to confer and submit a form of
    order implementing this decision within two business days.
    Sincerely,
    /s/ Andre G. Bouchard
    Chancellor
    AGB/gm
    47
    Dkt. 89 (C.A. No. 2018-0342-AGB).
    19
    

Document Info

Docket Number: CA 2018-0342-AGB

Judges: Bouchard C.

Filed Date: 7/13/2018

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 7/13/2018