Selby Kean Thompson v. Robert Mason Thompson, III

Supreme Court of Louisiana
May 24, 2022
Chief Deputy Clerk of Court
For the Court
The Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana
SELBY KEAN THOMPSON
VS.
ROBERT MASON THOMPSON, III
No. 2022-CC-00620
_ _ _ _
_ _
IN R
E: TB Services, LLC - Applicant Other; Applying For Supervisory Writ, Parish
of East Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Family Court Number(s) 226,162, Court of
Appeal, First Circuit, Number(s) 2022 CW 0017;
_ _ _ _ _ _
May 24, 2022
Writ application granted. See per curiam.
WJC
JLW
JDH
SJC
JTG
JBM
PDG
05/24/2022 "See News Release 024 for any Concurrences and/or Dissents."

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No. 2022-CC-00620
SELBY KEAN THOMPSON
VS.
ROBERT MASON THOMPSON, III
On Writ of Certiorari to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit,
Parish of East Baton Rouge
PER CURIAM
In this domestic litigation, plaintiff directed a subpoena duces tecum and
subpoena for deposition to a third party, TB Services, LLC (“TB Services”).
Plaintiff alleged defendant had an interest in TB Services and sought to compel
production of certain financial records for the period between 2018 and 2021,
including its federal and state income tax returns. TB Services filed a motion
to quash and motion for protective order. The family court denied the motion
to quash and ordered production of all corporate records listed in the subpoena,
although it allowed redaction of social security, tax identification, and financial
account numbers. After a divided panel of the court of appeal denied relief,
TB Services now applies to this court.
Generally, a showing of relevancy and good cause for pro duction has
been required in cases where a party seeks production of records from a non -
party. Stolzle v. Safety & Sys tems Assurance Consultants, Inc., 02-1197 (La.
5/24/02), 819 So. 2d 287, 289 . In cases where a party requests sensitive
financial information such as tax returns, the court must “m ake a finding of
whether the party requesting these tax returns has demonstrated good cause for
their production and whether the information sought could be discovered in a
05/24/22

2

less intrusive manner. ” In re Ma rshall Legacy Foundation , 16-0215 (La.
2/12/16), 186 So.3d 1171. Based on our review, we find the family court failed
to perform an adequate review of the documents at issue to determine whether
there is good cause for their production and whether they ar e relevant to the
litigation.
Accordingly, the writ is granted. The judgment of the family court
ordering production of the documents is vacated and set aside. The case is
remanded to the family court to conduct an in camera inspection of the
documents at issue. If the court determines good cause exists for production,
the court’s order should be narrowly tailored to redact a ny confidential or
irrelevant materials.