Brunton v. Kruger

Illinois Supreme Court
Civil Court
Accountants
Citation
Case Number: 
2015 IL 117663
Decision Date: 
Thursday, March 19, 2015
District: 
4th Dist.
Division/County: 
McLean Co.
Holding: 
Appellate court affirmed; circuit court affirmed; remanded.
Justice: 
GARMAN
Court held attorney for accounting firm in civil contempt for refusing to comply with order to disclose documents requested in discovery in a will contest. Privilege created in Section 27 of Public Accounting Act belongs to accountant, not client, and there is no testamentary exception to the privilege. Because accountant waived privilege by disclosing information to one party in underlying litigation, he cannot claim privilege to avoid disclosure of same information to other party. Testamentary exception to attorney-client privilege may not be used to defeat accountant privilege of Section 27. (FREEMAN, THOMAS, KILBRIDE, KARMEIER, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)