April 25, 2011

Ms. Monica Hernandez

Assistant City Attorney

City of San Antonio

P.O. Box 839966

San Antonio, Texas 78283-3966

OR2011-05592

Dear Ms. Hernandez:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 415451 (COSA File No. 11-0034).

The City of San Antonio (the "city") received a request for "all medical records" made by the city or a private veterinarian pertaining to an injured dog. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information. You state you notified the veterinarian and the dog's owner of the request and of their right to submit arguments to this office as to why information pertaining to them should not be released. We have also considered comments submitted by the owner of the dog. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (providing that interested party may submit comments stating why information should or should not be released).

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information that other statutes make confidential. You raise section 552.101 in conjunction with section 801.353 of the Occupations Code, which provides in part:

(a) A veterinarian may not violate the confidential relationship between the veterinarian and the veterinarian's client.

(b) A veterinarian may not be required to release information concerning the veterinarian's care of an animal, except on the veterinarian's receipt of:

(1) a written authorization or other form of waiver executed by the client; or

(2) an appropriate court order or subpoena.

Occ. Code § 801.353(a)-(b). This section limits a veterinarian's release of information concerning the veterinarian's care of an animal to certain circumstances. Id. However, section 801.353 does not prohibit the release of information that has been provided to a governmental body. Moreover, section 801.353 does not expressly make information confidential. A statutory confidentiality provision must be express, and a confidentiality requirement will not be implied from a statutory structure. See Open Records Decision No. 658 at 4 (1998); see also Open Records Decision No. 478 at 2 (1987) (statutory confidentiality requires express language making certain information confidential or stating that information shall not be released to the public). Therefore, because section 801.353 does not make information confidential for purposes of the Act, the submitted information may not be withheld under section 552.101 on that basis.

Section 552.101 also encompasses section 58.007 of the Family Code, which provides in part:

(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), law enforcement records and files concerning a child and information stored, by electronic means or otherwise, concerning the child from which a record or file could be generated may not be disclosed to the public and shall be:

(1) if maintained on paper or microfilm, kept separate from adult files and records;

(2) if maintained electronically in the same computer system as records or files relating to adults, be accessible under controls that are separate and distinct from controls to access electronic data concerning adults; and

(3) maintained on a local basis only and not sent to a central state or federal depository, except as provided by Subchapters B, D, and E.

Fam. Code § 58.007(c). Section 58.007(c) is applicable to records of juvenile delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. For purposes of section 58.007, "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age at the time of the reported conduct. See id. § 51.02(2). We note section 58.007(c) is only applicable to law enforcement records and files. Upon review, we find the information you seek to withhold under section 58.007 consists of administrative records that are not law enforcement records for purposes of section 58.007. As such, this information is not confidential under section 58.007, and none of it may be withheld under section 552.101 on that basis.

The city and the owner of the dog claim the submitted information is subject to the doctrine of common-law privacy, which is also encompassed by section 552.101 of the Government Code. Common-law privacy protects information that (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). The type of information considered intimate and embarrassing by the Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation included information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in the workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs. Id. at 683. We note the doctrine of common-law privacy generally protects the identifying information of juvenile offenders. See Open Records Decision No. 394 (1983); cf. Fam. Code § 58.007.

Upon review, we find no portion of the submitted information is highly intimate or embarrassing and not of legitimate public interest. Accordingly, the information at issue is not private, and it may not be withheld under section 552.101 on that basis. As you raise no further exceptions to disclosure, the submitted information must be released to the requestor.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Cindy Nettles

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CN/dls

Ref: ID# 415451

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Dog Owner

c/o Animal Emergency Room

4315 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 2

San Antonio, Texas 78201

(w/o enclosures)

Devlon Hogue

Hospital Administrator

Animal Emergency Room

4315 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 2

San Antonio, Texas 78201

(w/o enclosures)

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