What are the privileges of a witness against a witness as to confidential communications?

The statutory privileges set forth in section 1881, Code of Civil Procedure, provide against the examining of a witness as to confidential communications between husband and wife, attorney and client, confessor and confessant, physician and patient, public officers and certain newspaper personnel. As said in Samish v. Superior Court, 28 Cal.App.2d 685, 695, 83 P.2d 305, 310: 'Since the protection against privileged communications often leads to a suppression of the truth and to a defeat of justice, the tendency of the courts is toward a strict construction of such statutes.

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