A federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected CVS Health’s “ploy” of claiming privilege and work-product protection over communications with a third party about flash freezing shipping processes in a qui tam action against the retail pharmacy chain.
Concluding a majority of the communications did not pertain to any legal advice or questions that required the information to be privileged, U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in an Aug. 15 opinion, in part granted a motion to compel by the plaintiff, Stan Ellis. The documents at issue involved communications over CVS’ flash shipping process with a “cold chain” shipping expert, The Illuminate Group.