Opinion

Berry v. Board of Governors of the Registered Dentists

  • 611 P.2d 628
  • 1980 OK 45
  • 1980 Okla. LEXIS 253
Court
Supreme Court of Oklahoma
Filed
Mar 25, 1980
Status
Published
Author
Irwin
On the bench
Hodges, Lavender, Williams, Barnes, Simms, Doolin, Har-Grave, Opala, Irwin
Cited by
9 cases
Authority
More cited than 4.8%

reversing granting of injunction because board failed to vote to seek injunctive relief in a public meeting

How later courts described this case

  • reversing granting of injunction because board failed to vote to seek injunctive relief in a public meeting

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

IRWIN, Vice Chief Justice,

dissenting.

In discussing the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act in connection with the attorney-client confidentiality rule, the majority states:

“Although the municipal attorneys’ case ( 577 P.2d 1310 ) permits executive sessions on the advice of counsel in certain specified instances, it does not abrogate the statutory requirement that minutes be kept and recorded; . . . Even if an executive session is properly held and minutes are recorded which might be determined to qualify under the attorney-client privilege of confidentiality, the statute requires that any vote or action taken in an executive session must be in a public meeting with the vote of each member publicly cast and recorded.”

In my opinion, the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act has no application whatsoever in those instances when an executive session is “properly held” 1 for confidential communications between a public body and its attorney because the attorney-client privilege of *633 confidentiality extends to all phases of such sessions. I respectfully dissent.

I am authorized to state that OPALA, J., concurs in the views expressed herein.

. “Properly held” as used herein means within the limitation set forth in Oklahoma Ass’n of Municipal Attorneys v. State, Okl., 577 P.2d 1310 (1978).

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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