Plaintiff brought a subrogation claim against defendants to recoup insurance benefits it paid to its insured on account of damage caused by a fire at a construction site. In an effort to obtain relevant information pertaining to the cause of the fire, the civil action parties served a subpoena duces tecum on the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office (SCPO), a non-party law enforcement agency, and moved to compel production of its criminal investigation file relating to the ongoing prosecution of the individual who was suspected of starting the fire. The trial judge rejected the SCPO's claim that the criminal investigation materials were privileged and confidential, and ordered it to turn over to the civil action parties: (1) videos and photographs depicting the events giving rise to the criminal prosecution, (2) the suspect's statement to police, and (3) witness statements, or alternatively, witness contact information.
The court granted the SCPO's motion for leave to appeal and reversed the disclosure order. Because the materials sought were subject to a qualified privilege, the court determined that the trial judge failed to properly balance the competing interests at stake. The court held that the civil action parties' discovery interests were subordinate to the State's paramount interest in preserving the integrity of an ongoing criminal prosecution and the underlying evidential record. The court acknowledged that the privilege was not absolute but pointed out that the materials were not essential to the resolution of the subrogation claim and the presence of significant monetary damages did not of itself outweigh the SCPO's interests in protecting and maintaining the confidentiality of its criminal investigation materials. Further, the civil parties failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that at least some of the information could not be obtained from other sources.
