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Tesoro Petroleum Corporation v. State2/15/2002
tate also argued that Hosie should be considered an "authorized employee or designee" under the statute, and that he is therefore permitted to receive responsive documents.
On October 7, 1999, Judge Michalski issued a Memorandum and Order deciding Tesoro's petition. The superior court determined that a reference to Hosie as an "independent contractor" in the contract between Hosie and the State is not relevant to the CID statute. Therefore, the superior court found that "Spencer Hosie is considered an 'employee of the State' in his role as outside counsel in the Attorney General's Alaska Petroleum Products Pricing Investigation for the purposes of AS 45.50.592(e)." The court also determined that "the 'consent' restriction and the term 'authorized employee or designee' was not meant to apply to situations where the state employs outside counsel."
Additionally, the superior court held that "as a whole the CIDs are not 'unreasonable and oppressive.'" Based on "the scope of the Attorney General's authority under the statute, and the deference given to agencies with statutory investigative powers," the court found that the CIDs were neither unreasonable nor improper. The superior court did, however, modify the CID in several ways. It permitted Tesoro to produce responses on a rolling basis, starting ten days following the issuance of the order. The court also limited the CID to cover documents held by personnel with decision-making authority, rather than documents held by any Tesoro employees. In response to Tesoro's complaints about the geographical scope of the CID, the superior court also held that Tesoro did not need to submit documents regarding operations in the Far East. Finally, the superior court struck two demands as confusing and internally inconsistent.
III. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
Whether the superior court correctly interpreted AS 45.50.592 to hold that Spencer Hosie was an "authorized employee of the state" is a question of statutory construction. We exercise our independent judgment in matters of statutory interpretation. The related issues of Tesoro's right to petition for relief and the appropriate relief under AS 45.50.592(e) are also matters of statutory construction to which we apply our independent judgment.
We have previously reviewed superior court orders granting access to documents produced pursuant to AS 45.50.592 under an abuse of discretion standard. More generally, we commonly "review rulings on discovery for an abuse of discretion." Because we hold that the superior court applied the appropriate standard to its review of the CID, we review the superior court's order under an abuse of discretion standard.
B. The Superior Court Did Not Err by Allowing the Attorney General to Pass Documents to its Outside Counsel Because Hosie Is an "Authorized Employee of the State" and a "Designee" Under AS 45.50.592(e).
Tesoro argues that the superior court erred by holding that Hosie is an "authorized employee" of the state under AS 45.50.592(e) and allowing him, therefore, to review the CID documents. Alaska Statute 45.50.592(e) establishes the situations in which documents produced in response to a CID may be disclosed or used:
Documentary material produced pursuant to a demand, or copies of it, unless otherwise ordered by a superior court for good cause shown, may not be produced for inspection or copying by, nor may its contents be disclosed to, anyone other than an authorized employee of the state without the consent of the person who produced the material. However, under those reasonable terms and conditions the attorney general prescribes, copies of the documentary ma
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