CAL HENDERSON, AS SHERIFF OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, PETITIONER,
v.
GUSTAVO PEREZ, RESPONDENT

Fla. 2d DCA | 2003-01-31
No. 2D01-3468
BLUE, C.J., and DAVIS, J., Concur.
835 So. 2d 390 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2003) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida District Court of Appeal quashed a trial court discovery order requiring the Sheriff to disclose home addresses and photographs of active law enforcement officers in a civil lawsuit. The court held that information exempted from disclosure under Florida's public records law may only be discovered upon a showing of exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances, which the plaintiff failed to demonstrate.


Holding

The court held that exempted information may only be discovered upon a showing of exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances. Because Perez failed to make such a showing, the trial court's order compelling disclosure of the officers' home addresses and photographs was improper and must be quashed.


Headnotes

[1] Information exempted from disclosure under chapter 119, Florida Statutes, may be discovered upon a showing of exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances.

[2] A plaintiff in a civil lawsuit must demonstrate exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances to obtain disclosure of home addresses and photographs of active law…

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Key Quotes

“Such material may be discovered upon a showing of "exceptional necessity" or "extraordinary circumstances."”

Establishes the legal standard for obtaining exempted information in civil discovery

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Facts & Procedural History

Gustavo Perez filed a civil lawsuit against the Sheriff alleging false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and battery arising from an arrest for off…

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Opinion of the Court
FULMER, Judge.

FULMER, Judge.

Cal Henderson, as Sheriff of Hillsbor-ough County, petitions this court for a writ of certiorari to quash that portion of a discovery order of the trial court which compels the sheriffs office to produce the home addresses and photographs of ten active law enforcement officers in a civil lawsuit filed by the respondent, Gustavo Perez. Because Perez did not make the showing of exceptional necessity . or extraordinary circumstances that is required in order to obtain information exempted from disclosure by chapter 119, Florida Statutes (2001), we grant the’petition, issue the writ, and quash that portion of the order which is the basis of the petition.

Perez filed a three-count complaint against the Sheriff alleging false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and battery. His claims arose from an incident in which he was arrested for offenses that he did not commit. During the course of the litigation, Perez sought the personnel files of all of the Sheriffs employees who had any connection to his arrest. After redacting specific information, such as the employees’ social security numbers, their children’s day care facilities, their home addresses, and their photographs, the Sheriff made available the files of these employees, all of whom are active law enforcement officers. Perez filed a motion to compel the Sheriff to provide the redacted information, and the petitioner filed a response to the motion to compel and a motion for a protective order alleging that the redacted information is specifically exempted from disclosure under section 119.07(3)ffi(l).

The trial court, after a hearing on the motions, ordered the Sheriff to provide the law enforcement officers’ home addresses and photographs.

An order of the trial court in a civil case which requires a governmental or law enforcement agency to provide information that is exempt from disclosure under chapter 119 is renewable pursuant to a petition for writ of certiorari. See Dep’t of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Krejci Co., 570 So. 2d 1322 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990).

Such material may be discovered upon a showing of “exceptional necessity” or “extraordinary circumstances.” Id. at 1324.

In Krejci, the Krejci Company was sued by a plaintiff who had sustained injuries in an accident after leaving a bar owned by the company where she had been served alcoholic beverages while still a minor. The defense of the Krejci Company was that the plaintiff had used her sister’s driver’s license to purchase the alcoholic beverages. The only record of the sister’s license and photograph as it was at the time of the accident was in the possession of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The trial court ordered the Department to produce the driver’s license photographic records of the plaintiff and her sister, and the Department sought certiorari review of the trial court’s order. This court, in denying the petition for writ of certiorari, held that the materials sought were exempt from inspection under chapter 119 but that the Krejci Company had shown the exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances sufficient to require production of the documents.

In the present case, Perez asserted below that the requested materials were “essential to the plaintiff’ without making any showing of necessity. In his response to the petition, he argues that without the home addresses and photographs of the ten law enforcement officers, he will be unable to effectively investigate them and attack their credibility should they be witnesses. In Krejci the information sought was shown to be essential to the Krejci Company’s defense, whereas, in the present case, Perez has not shown that the photographs and home addresses of the law enforcement officers are essential to the prosecution of his suit.

Accordingly, because Perez made no showing of exceptional necessity or extraordinary circumstances, we grant the petition, issue the writ, and quash that portion of the order of the trial court requiring the disclosure of materials exempted from disclosure by section 119.07(3)©(1).

Petition granted.

BLUE, C.J., and DAVIS, J., Concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • King v. Clark (M.D. Fla. 2021)
    …isclosure under the Florida Public Records Act ... upon a showing of ‘exceptional necessity’ or ‘extraordinary circumstances.’” Crews v. Hensley, No. 3:05-CV-1288-J-12MCR, 2006 WL 1679596, at *1 (M.D. Fla. June 13, 2006) (citing Henderson v. Perez, 835 So. 2d 390, 392 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)). The defendants cannot identify witnesses to the accident without the unredacted CAD notes and the 911 audio recordings. (Doc. 25, p. 7). The information is not readily obtainable from any other source…

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