June 26, 2012

Ms. Michelle M. Kretz

Assistant City Attorney

City of Fort Worth

1000 Throckmorton Street, Third Floor

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

OR2012-09833

Dear Ms. Kretz:

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# 457152 (PIR No. W016241).

The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for a specified report. You have marked for redaction motor vehicle information in accordance with section 552.130(c) and previous determinations issued to the city. ⁽¹⁾ You claim some of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ 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 exception encompasses the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information if it (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). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be satisfied. Id. at 681-82. The type of information considered intimate or 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. Upon review, we find some of the submitted information is highly intimate or embarrassing and not of legitimate public concern. Thus, the city must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy. However, we find you have failed to demonstrate any of the remaining information you seek to withhold is highly intimate or embarrassing and not of legitimate public concern. Therefore, the city may not withhold any of the remaining information you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code on this basis.

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,

Jennifer Burnett

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JB/dls

Ref: ID# 457152

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.130 permits a governmental body to redact the information described in subsections 552.130(a)(1) and (a)(3), such as driver's license numbers, without the necessity of seeking a decision from the attorney general. See 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 id. § 552.130(d), (e). Open Records Letter Nos. 2007-00198 (2007) and 2006-14726 (2006) are previous determinations authorizing the city to withhold certain information subject to section 552.130 of the Government Code without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision.

2. Although you raise section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 826.0311 of the Health and Safety Code, you make no arguments to support this exception. Therefore, we assume you have withdrawn your claim this section applies to the submitted information.

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