Green Acres Trust v. London

In Green Acres Trust v. London, 141 Ariz. 609, 613, 688 P.2d 617, 621 (1984), the Arizona Supreme Court stated, "both content and manner of extra-judicial communications must bear 'some relation to the proceeding.'" 141 Ariz. at 614, 688 P.2d at 622. And, the court further stated, "the recipient of the extra-judicial communication must have some relationship to the proposed or pending judicial proceeding for the occasion to be privileged." Id. The court also cited with approval Troutman v. Erlandson, 286 Ore. 3, 593 P.2d 793, 795 (Or. 1979), which "required a recipient to have a 'close or direct' relationship to the proceedings" for the privilege to apply. Green Acres, 141 Ariz. at 614, 688 P.2d at 622. More recently, in Johnson v. McDonald, 197 Ariz. 155, P2, 3 P.3d 1075, 1077 (App. 1999), Division One of this court recognized as controlling law the Green Acres standard requiring that the recipient have some relationship to the proceeding. 197 Ariz. 155, P13, 3 P.3d at 1078-79. After examining several out-of-state cases involving communications to non-parties, the Johnson court concluded, "for the judicial privilege to apply, the recipient of the communications must have a direct interest in the litigation or possess evidentiary information directly relevant to it." Id. P 19.