MCKESSON CORP. V. CAMPBELL, 2022 OK 6

Opinion:McKesson Corp. v. Campbell, 2022 OK 6
Subject matter:Discovery
Date Decided:January 18, 2022
Trial Court:District Court of Bryan County
Route to this Court:An original proceeding on a Petition for Writ of Prohibition. 
Facts:McKesson Corporation, a defendant in a negligence and public nuisance case (a/k/a “opioid litigation”) brought by the State of Oklahoma, seeks production of de-identified data held in a repository created by the Oklahoma Anti-Drug Diversion Act, the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP). The trial court issued an order sustaining the Attorney General’s objection to production of the data, reasoning that as the statute made the data confidential and McKeeson was not included in the statute’s list of authorized accessors, McKeeson was not entitled to discover the information. McKeeson then filed an original proceeding in the Oklahoma Supreme Court seeking an extraordinary Writ of Mandamus against the State of Oklahoma to produce the data and a Writ of Prohibition to prevent the trial court from enforcing its order. 
Standard of Review:Not specified. 
Analysis:The Court does not entertain original actions complaining of a district court’s discovery order unless the case is aberrant (meaning that it departs from an accepted standard). However, the issue presented here is both rare and affects the public interest. The Oklahoma Anti-Drug Diversion Act’s PMP collects data on all valid prescriptions of certain drugs in Oklahoma. The Act declares said data is confidential, not open to the public, and only specific persons are allowed access to the data. “Confidential” does not equate to “privileged.” The Oklahoma Discovery Code provides sufficient legal authority for a party to seek discovery of the data in the PMP (and for its protection from public disclosure by use of a protective order). The trial court’s order placing the data in the PMP beyond discovery is an abuse of discretion. 
Outcome:Writ of Mandamus and Writ of Prohibition issued. 
Vote:All Justices concur. 
Other: N/A