Court Opinion

ID: 9558065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:02:23.764261+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:13.372974
License: Public Domain

HANSEN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the court’s judgment because our panel is bound by the broad holding of Olberding, where our court agreed with the district court’s conclusion “ ‘that the only disclosure actionable under § 552a(b) is one resulting from a retrieval of the information initially and directly from the record contained in the system of records.’ ” Olberding v. U.S. Dep’t of Def., 709 F.2d 621, 622 (8th Cir.1983) (per curiam) (quoting Olberding v. U.S. Dep’t of Def., 564 F.Supp. 907, 913 (S.D.Iowa 1982)). There is no evidence that Dr. Hall retrieved the information he disclosed about Doe “initially and directly from the record,” and therefore the appellees are entitled to summary judgment on Doe’s claim under § 552a(b) of the Privacy Act. I write separately because, in my view, Olberding’s holding is broader than necessary for its underlying facts, and if we were writing on a clean slate, I would recognize a “scrivener’s exception” to the judge-created retrieval rule.
The Privacy Act prohibits federal agencies from “disclosing] any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains,” 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b), unless certain enumerated exceptions exist. “Congress passed the Act ‘to protect the privacy of individuals identified in information systems maintained by Federal agencies’ by preventing the ‘misuse’ of that information.” Thomas v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, 719 F.2d 342, 345-46 (10th Cir. 1983) (quoting Privacy Act of 1974, Pub.L. No. 93-579, § 2, 88 Stat. 1896 (1974)). As explained by the Joint House and Senate Report, “[t]his would cover such activities as ... reporting personal disclosures contained in personnel and medical records....” S.Rep. No. 93-1183, H.R.Rep. No. 93-1416, at 51 (1974), reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6916, 6966.
The Privacy Act itself does not define “disclose” and does not specifically require that the information disclosed be retrieved directly from the record, but courts generally apply some type of retrieval requirement to give effect to the meaning and purpose of the Privacy Act. See Orekoya v. Mooney, 330 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.2003) (“The Privacy Act prohibits ... ‘nonconsensual disclosure of any information that has been retrieved from a protected record.’ ”) (quoting Bartel v. FAA, 725 F.2d 1403, 1408 (D.C.Cir.1984)), abrogated on other grounds by Doe v. Chao, 540 U.S. 614, 124 S.Ct. 1204, 157 L.Ed.2d 1122 (2004). Courts have consistently recognized that the Privacy Act does not prohibit the disclosure of information that also happens to be contained in a system of records when the information disclosed was actually *465learned from an independent source. See Thomas, 719 F.2d at 345 (collecting cases). And rightly so, as doing so “would impose an ‘intolerable burden, and would expand the Privacy Act beyond the limits of its purpose.’ ” Wilborn v. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs., 49 F.3d 597, 600 (9th Cir. 1995) (quoting Olberding, 709 F.2d at 622), abrogated on other grounds by Doe, 540 U.S. 614, 124 S.Ct. 1204, 157 L.Ed.2d 1122. The court in Olberding rejected a similar proposed rule where the plaintiff urged the court to broadly hold that a disclosure has been made any time “agency personnel disclose information they possess by means other than retrieval from a system of records if they know or have reasonable grounds to believe that the information may also be found in a record contained in a system of records.” Olberding, 709 F.2d at 622.
Nonetheless, there are limited circumstances that justify an exception to the general retrieval rule, particularly where “a mechanical application of that rule would thwart, rather than advance, the purpose of the Privacy Act.” Wilbom, 49 F.3d at 600 (recognizing an exception to the retrieval rule where an agency employee discloses information about a report he authored even though he “may not have physically retrieved the disclosed information from” the agency’s records); see also Bartel, 725 F.2d at 1409 (recognizing an exception for “disclosure by an agency official of his official determination made on the basis of an investigation which generated a protected personnel record”). Strict adherence to the retrieval rule would “allow[] an official to ‘circumvent the Act with respect to a record he himself initiated by simply not reviewing the record before reporting its contents or conclusions,’” thereby “ ‘depriving] the Act of all meaningful protection of privacy.’ ” Pilon v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 73 F.3d 1111, 1118 (D.C.Cir.1996) (quoting Bartel, 725 F.2d at 1409, 1411).
The “scrivener’s exception” to the general retrieval rule I would apply is narrow, based on the facts of the case before us, and it is limited only to disclosures made by the author of a record of information the author learned and recorded in the course of creating the record.6 A record cannot exist without someone creating it, and it cannot be created without the author first learning the information to put into the record. Here, Dr. Hall learned of Doe’s medical condition and marijuana use only for the purpose of and while creating a medical history report, which the parties concede is a record contained in the VAMC’s system of records. This is the exact type of information Congress intended to protect. See S.Rep. No. 93-1183, H.R.Rep. No. 93-1416, at 51 (“This would cover such activities as ... reporting personal disclosures contained in personnel and medical records.... ”). Dr. Hall did not learn the information independently of the record, nor did he later learn it from the record. His knowledge was acquired only in the course of creating the record. To exempt the author of a record that is contained in a system of records from the disclosure rules because the author could not have made the record until he first learned the information to be included in the record turns the Privacy Act on its head. It exempts anyone who creates a record from the disclosure rules as long as he can later remember the information he learned while creating the record without *466refreshing his memory with the record. This is to my mind an absurd result. In my view, a scrivener’s exception fits neatly within the necessary and narrowly-defined exception recognized by the D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, an exception that furthers rather than thwarts the purpose of the Privacy Act without imposing an intolerable burden on federal agencies, while at the same time including conduct that clearly should fall within the Act.
Because we are bound by Olberding’s holding, see United States v. Vertac Chem. Corp., 453 F.3d 1031, 1048 (8th Cir.2006) (“A panel of this Court is bound by a prior Eighth Circuit decision unless that case is overruled by the Court sitting en banc.” (internal marks omitted)), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2098, 2099, 167 L.Ed.2d 812 (2007), I concur in the court’s judgment.
GRUENDER, Circuit Judge, concurring in the judgment and in the opinion except as to parts II.C and II.D.

. The scrivener’s exception does no harm to the outcome in Olberding, where General Shea disclosed information he learned not from creating a record, but from his firsthand knowledge from issuing his own order that Olberding submit to the psychiatric exam. See Olberding, 709 F.2d at 622.