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Office of the Attorney General - State of Texas John Cornyn |
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April 15, 2002 Ms. Amanda Crawford
OR2002-1862 Dear Ms. Crawford: You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 161622. The Office of the Attorney General (the "OAG") received a request for ten categories of information related to several named individuals and the tobacco litigation. You state that most of the responsive information has been made available to the requestor. By letter dated March 11, 2002, you inform us that "[t]he requestor has agreed to limit his request to exclude information excepted from required public disclosure under sections 552.101 (tax information), 552.117 (personal information about public employee), and 552.136 (credit card numbers)." This ruling does not, therefore, address the disclosure of such records. You claim that a portion of the requested information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.103 and 552.108 of the Government Code in accordance with several previous determinations of this office. A governmental body may withhold requested information from public disclosure without asking this office for a ruling if this office has previously determined that the requested information is excepted from disclosure. See Gov't Code § 552.301(a). You state that the information at issue was the subject of four previous rulings from this office. In Open Records Letter Nos. 99-3218 (1999), 99-2626 (1999), 99-2310 (1999), and 99-1828 (1999), we concluded that the OAG was required to withhold the submitted information under sections 552.103 and 552.108 of the Government Code. We understand you to represent that the circumstances existing at the time of the issuance of these rulings have not changed and that, consequently, the four criteria for a "previous determination" established by this office in Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001) have been met in this situation. Therefore, in reliance on that representation, we conclude that the OAG may withhold the information at issue in accordance with Open Records Letter Nos. 99-3218 (1999), 99-2626 (1999), 99-2310 (1999), and 99-1828 (1999).(1) See Gov't Code § 552.301(f); Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001). This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances. This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must appeal by filing suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such an appeal, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a). If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, within 10 calendar days of this ruling, the governmental body will do one of the following three things: 1) release the public records; 2) notify the requestor of the exact day, time, and place that copies of the records will be provided or that the records can be inspected; or 3) notify the requestor of the governmental body's intent to challenge this letter ruling in court. If the governmental body fails to do one of these three things within 10 calendar days of this ruling, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at 877/673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e). If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can appeal that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Department of Public Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408,411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ). Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Texas Building and Procurement Commission at 512/475-2497. If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. We note that a third party may challenge this ruling by filing suit seeking to withhold information from a requestor. Gov't Code § 552.325. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling. Sincerely, Cindy Nettles
c: Mr. Marc D. Murr
Footnotes 1. The four criteria for this type of "previous determination" are 1) the records or information at issue are precisely the same records or information that were previously submitted to this office pursuant to section 552.301(e)(1)(D) of the Government Code; 2) the governmental body which received the request for the records or information is the same governmental body that previously requested and received a ruling from the attorney general; 3) the attorney general's prior ruling concluded that the precise records or information are or are not excepted from disclosure under the Act; and 4) the law, facts, and circumstances on which the prior attorney general ruling was based have not changed since the issuance of the ruling. See Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001). POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |