In Copyright Since September 11, 2000
This web site is in no manner affiliated with any Kaiser entity and the for profit Permanente
Link for Translation of the Kaiser Papers 

kaiserpapers.com/downey

Dear Dr. Philips:

I have just reviewed materials on your website concerning Downey 
Studios' legal action against the IATSE union which include a 
confidential transcript of a settlement hearing ordered strictly 
confidential by the Los Angeles Superior Court.  These could get you 
and anybody else connected with this website into very serious trouble 
with the Judge whose confidentiality order was intentionally 
violated.  The punishment for violating a court order is contempt, 
which can include both fines and imprisonment.

Further, you have other materials posted on the website which must 
have been posted by Leonard Martin, one of the plaintiffs in a pending 
Los Angeles Superior Court action against Downey Studios, including 
court papers and defamatory charges and allegations by Mr. Martin 
concerning parties to the case.  You should know that the privilege 
shielding a publisher from defamation liability in connection with a 
legal matter in which the publisher of the defamatory material is a 
party, does not extend to Mr. Martin literally venting his spleen on 
this website and making some wild and unsubstantiated allegations 
which, because they are not privileged, constitute defamation against 
Downey Studios and lawyers involved in the case.

  It is not clear why anything involving Downey Studios and the old 
NASA site which it partially occupies, also partially occupied by a 
Kaiser hospital (the ONLY connection between Downey Studios and 
Kaiser, ie., there is no connection!) is even posted on your website, 
which seems to be devoted to issues involving peoples' negative 
experiences with Kaiser.  It is your website and I do not presume to 
tell you how to run it as I totally lack any personal knowledge of 
Kaiser having never dealt with the organization.

It would be wise to remove those materials from this website.

Sincerely yours,

David S. White

RESPONSE FROM DR. CHARLES PHILLIPS:

Mr. White,

 

As I spend time some in court as an expert witness, the arena does not bother me.  And when I checked with an attorney friend - I am only a law student - I was told that you might want to send me some more information:

 

Chuck:

    Have you ever been served with a confidentiality order?

    Usually, such orders are binding only on the parties to the dispute
before the judge. Was this order any broader than that?

    Who is this David White, and what is his connection with the case?
Perhaps you should ask him to send you a copy of the gag order.

    How come he sent this complaint about the Kaiserpapers website to YOU?

    Ordinarily ANYTHING said in court papers is privileged, and there is no
libel liability in quoting these public documents. Is there some reason that
Mr. Martin's allegations are not privileged?

I look forward to your sending me a copy of the gag order and giving me an opinion, Mr. White, on how the judge has acquired dominion over anyone beyond the parties.  I do agree that your LA office appears in the picture on your website to be higher up than mine.  But, then, our traffic is better here.

 

                                                                      Dr. Phillips