Open Records Decision No. 258
October 29, 1980

	Re:  Whether records relating to transportation of patients by a city operated 
emergency medical service are public under the Open Records Act

Mr. Brent P. Burford
Assistant City Attorney
City of Irving
825 West Irving Boulevard
Irving, Texas  75060

Dear Mr. Burford:

	You have requested our decision under the Open Records Act, article 6252-17a, 
V.T.C.S., as to whether records relating to transportation of patients by a city operated 
emergency medical service are available to the public.  The records in question consist of 
incident reports filed by employees of the City of Irving Fire Department.  The reports 
identify the patient, provide a physical description of him, and describe the emergency 
treatment administered.

	In Open Records Decision No. 237 (1980), we held that certain incident reports 
filed by ambulance attendants of the El Paso City-County Health Unit were excepted 
from disclosure by section 3(a)(1) of the Open Records Act, by either a common law or 
constitutional right of privacy.  The reports at issue concerned emergency medical 
treatment of persons who had given birth under the care of lay midwives.  Not only were 
the reports much more detailed than those under consideration here, but each was related 
to childbirth, one of the constitutional zones of privacy specifically recognized by the 
United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 152-153 (1973), and by the 
Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation of the South v. Texas Industrial Accident 
Board, 540 S.W. 2d 668, 678-681 (Tex. 1976).

	In our opinion, the reports you have submitted must be disclosed unless they 
reveal information excepted by a constitutional or common law right of privacy.  A 
constitutional right of privacy will ordinarily exist if the information relates to marriage, 
procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education.  Paul v. 
Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 713 (1976).  Since the reports provide relatively little detail, it 
seems unlikely that a common law privacy interest can ordinarily be demonstrated.  
Nevertheless, you should routinely determine, before disclosing any incident report, that 
it does not reveal information which contains such highly intimate or embarrassing facts 
about a person that its disclosure would be “highly objectionable to a person of ordinary 
sensibilities.”  Industrial Foundation, supra, at 683.  For example, reports of treatment for 
childbirth, venereal disease, female complaints, psychiatric conditions or suicide attempts 
may raise an issue of common law or constitutional right of privacy.  The city should in 
each instance make the initial determination regarding both constitutional and common 
law privacy.

Very truly yours,

Mark White
Attorney General of Texas

John W. Fainter, Jr.
First Assistant Attorney General

Richard E. Gray III
Executive Assistant Attorney General

Prepared by Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General

APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE

Susan Garrison, Acting Chairman
Jon Bible
Rick Gilpin