Opinion ID: 1922462
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Medical Examiners Statute

Text: Title 29, Chapter 47 of the Delaware Code is titled Medical Examiners. This statute sets forth the powers and responsibilities of the Chief Medical Examiner and his or her Assistants and Deputies (collectively, Medical Examiners), including the power to investigate deaths and conduct autopsies. [5] Under title 29, sections 4707(e) and 4710(b) and (c), only certain persons are entitled to receive the report of an autopsy performed by the Medical Examiner: the next of kin and the Attorney General. [6] Title 29, section 4707(e) of the Delaware Code provides that upon written request: the next of kin of the deceased shall receive a copy of the postmortem examination report, the autopsy report and the laboratory reports, unless there shall be a criminal prosecution pending in which case no such reports shall be released until the criminal prosecution shall have been finally concluded ... [7] Accordingly, Mrs. Lawson was entitled to, and has received, a copy of the autopsy report issued in connection with Mr. Lawson's death. Under to title 29, sections 4710(b) and (c), the Attorney General may also receive copies of autopsies and other records if: (i) further investigation is deemed advisable in the judgment of the Medical Examiner; or (ii) the Attorney General requests any such records from the Medical Examiner. [8] According to Dr. Tobin's deposition testimony, the Attorney General did not request copies of the autopsy report, nor did she send copies to the Attorney General, because she concluded that Mr. Lawson's death was accidental. Mrs. Lawson argues that under the Medical Examiners Statute the Medical Examiner has the authority to provide autopsy reports or information derived therefrom only to the Attorney General and the family of the decedent. The Court of Chancery acknowledged that that ... is a possible reading of this law. Nevertheless, the Court of Chancery concluded that: reading this statute to strictly limit the ability of the Medical Examiners to share information with other officials would doubtless interfere with the normal functioning of Medical Examiners by preventing them from sharing potentially important information with police in the course of an investigation, except through the intermediation of the Attorney General. In this case, the Police Department and the Medical Examiner both properly began an investigation that required them, in the performance of their duties, to share information about the cause of Mr. Lawson's death. The interpretation of the statute advocated by Mrs. Lawson would effectively end communication, between the Medical Examiner, conducting a statutorily mandated investigation into the medical cause of death and the police, unless the Attorney General intervened. The Court of Chancery noted that such an interpretation of the statute would provide great protections for the privacy of certain information contained in autopsy reports and related documents, but would do so only at great cost to efficient communication between and among responsible public officials. The record reflects how the Medical Examiner's Office conducts its investigations. Dr. Tobin testified that she typically begins her investigation by speaking to the police officers investigating the case. Dr. Tobin also testified that she regularly takes blood samples and gives them to the police so that DNA and blood typing tests can be performed. Thereafter, it is typical for the Medical Examiner and police departments to routinely exchange information on a confidential basis during the course of an investigation. Dr. Tobin is familiar with the Medical Examiners Statute, having been a Medical Examiner for decades. She considers autopsy reports to be confidential. That is why, when she sent Mr. Lawson's autopsy report to the Police Department, she marked it Confidential Information. Dr. Tobin did not consider it a violation of the Medical Examiners Statute, however, to give the autopsy report to the Police Department, on a confidential basis, to explain the results of her investigation. The Court of Chancery concluded that the relevant provisions of the Medical Examiners Statute neither require nor support an interpretation that would prevent a Medical Examiner from sharing Autopsy Information with a police agency on a confidential basis, when that Medical Examiner is discharging the statutory mandate to investigate the medical cause of death. We agree. Nevertheless, we disagree with the Court of Chancery's holding that the Medical Examiners Statute creates no privacy right in the Autopsy Information under the circumstances of Mr. Lawson's death. [9] We note that the Attorney General has issued an opinion that concludes autopsy reports are exempt from the Delaware Freedom of Information Act as investigatory files. [10] Investigatory files are not public information. [11] A fortiori, any information gathered during the course of an investigation is not public information. Therefore, the Medical Examiners Statute permitted Dr. Tobin to communicate with the Police Department on a confidential basis during the course of her investigation into the medical cause of Mr. Lawson's death. Accordingly, any Autopsy Information that Dr. Tobin gathered and disclosed to the Police Department during her investigation into the medical cause of Mr. Lawson's death remained confidential. We hold, therefore, that when the Police Department received the autopsy report from Dr. Tobin on a confidential basis to explain the results of her investigation, it was not public information and it may not be disclosed in whole or in part.