October 12, 2011

Mr. Ronald J. Bounds

Assistant City Attorney

City of Corpus Christi

P.O. Box 9277

Corpus Christi, Texas 78469-9277

OR2011-14834

Dear Mr. Bounds:

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# 432819.

The Corpus Christi Police Department (the "department") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident. You state you have redacted a driver's license number under section 552.130 of the Government Code pursuant to Open Records Decision No. 684 (2009). ⁽¹⁾ You claim some of the submitted 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.

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 section encompasses the doctrine of common-law privacy, which 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. This office has found that some kinds of medical information or information indicating disabilities or specific illnesses are excepted from required public disclosure under common-law privacy. See Open Records Decision Nos. 470 (1987) (illness from severe emotional and job-related stress), 455 (1987) (prescription drugs, illnesses, operations, and physical handicaps). Upon review, we agree the department must withhold the information you have marked, in addition to the information we have marked, under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy. The department must release the remaining submitted information.

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,

Paige Lay

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

PL/ag

Ref: ID# 432819

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Open Records Decision No. 684 is a previous determination to all governmental bodies authorizing them to withhold ten categories of information, including Texas driver's license numbers under section 552.130 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision. However, on September 1, 2011, the Texas legislature amended section 552.130 to allow a governmental body to redact the information described in subsections 552.130(a)(1) and (a)(3) without the necessity of seeking a decision from the attorney general. See Act of May 30, 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., S.B. 602, § 22 (to be codified at Gov't Code § 552.130(c)). If a governmental body redacts such information, it must notify the requestor in accordance with section 552.130(e). See Act of May 30, 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., S.B. 602, § 22 (to be codified at Gov't Code § 552.130(d), (e)). Thus, the statutory amendments to section 552.130 of the Government Code supercede Open Records Decision No. 684 on September 1, 2011. Therefore, a governmental body may only redact information subject to subsections 552.130(a)(1) and (a)(3) in accordance with section 552.130, not Open Records Decision No. 684.

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