Court Opinion

ID: 9900369
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-18 22:11:46.232137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:21:04.846767
License: Public Domain

No. 457             September 13, 2023                   57

          IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE
                  STATE OF OREGON

                 In the Matter of C. E. S.,
                          a Child.
          DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES,
                  Petitioner-Respondent,
                             v.
                          C. E. S.,
                         Appellant.
             Clackamas County Circuit Court
                   19JU00942; A180562

  Heather Karabeika, Judge.
  Argued and submitted July 24, 2023.
   Ginger Fitch argued the cause for appellant. Also on the
brief was Youth, Rights & Justice.
   Dustin E. Buehler, Assistant Attorney General, argued the
cause for respondent. On the brief were Ellen F. Rosenblum,
Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General,
and Jona J. Maukonen, Assistant Attorney General.
  Before Mooney, Presiding Judge, and Lagesen, Chief
Judge, and Armstrong, Senior Judge.
  MOONEY, P. J.
  Affirmed.
58                       Dept. of Human Services v. C. E. S.

        MOONEY, P. J.
         C was made a ward of the juvenile court when she
was 14 years old because there were conditions and circum-
stances in her parents’ home that endangered her welfare,
ORS 419B.100(1)(c). Shortly after she turned 18, C and the
Department of Human Services (DHS) both moved the
court for an order dismissing jurisdiction and terminat-
ing wardship under ORS 419B.328(2)(c). The court granted
those motions. C also asked the court to (1) order DHS to
provide her with her health records and to (2) destroy “any
remaining copies, digital or otherwise[.]” The juvenile court
ordered DHS to provide C with a copy of the health records
it had in its case file, but it denied C’s request for an order
directing DHS to destroy any health records remaining in
its possession. C appeals from the juvenile court’s order and
judgment terminating jurisdiction, assigning error only to
the court’s (1) denial of her request for an order directing
DHS to destroy records and, in the alternative, to the court’s
(2) failure to seal the health records still retained by DHS.
DHS responds that C’s records qualify as public records that
DHS was required to retain under the public records law
and that, in view of that retention requirement, the juvenile
court lacked authority to order DHS to destroy the records.
DHS argues further that C did not preserve the argument
that the court should order the records sealed. We agree with
DHS on both points. We conclude that the juvenile court did
not err in denying the request for an order requiring DHS
to destroy health records. We decline to reach the unpre-
served question of whether the court should have ordered
the remaining health records sealed, with this explanation:
C did not ask the court for an order sealing the records and
she did not develop that issue, factually or legally, when the
possibility of sealing the records was raised by the court. We
affirm.
        C argues that “health records created during her
wardship belong to her.” She contends that because she
asserted her privacy interest in those records when she
moved to have wardship terminated, she was still a ward of
the court whose interests the court was obligated to protect.
The court’s refusal to order DHS to destroy the remaining
Cite as 328 Or App 57 (2023)                                 59

health records in DHS’s file was, according to C, a failure
of the court to protect her interests and, therefore, it consti-
tuted legal error. DHS counters that the health records in
its case file are public records subject to retention accord-
ing to state retention guidelines. DHS argued then, and
now, that the juvenile court was without authority to order
destruction of those records.
         Whether the juvenile court has authority to order
the destruction of health records collected and maintained
by DHS in the course of its work as C’s legal custodian is a
legal question which we review for legal error. See Dept. of
Human Services v. T. B., 326 Or App 192, 194, 531 P3d 718
(2023) (“Whether the juvenile court has authority to make
a particular order is reviewed for legal error.”). If we deter-
mine that the juvenile court has authority to issue such an
order, we review that order for abuse of discretion. Id.
         C points to no statutory provision that gives her a
possessory or other ownership interest in the health records
in DHS’s case file. There is no question that she has a pri-
vacy interest in the personal health information contained
within those records. DHS does not dispute that. But the
existence of a privacy interest in personal health informa-
tion is not the same as a possessory or other ownership
interest in records that contain that information. The par-
ties did not create an evidentiary record on the motion for
destruction of records and, thus, the exact nature of the
records in question is not entirely clear. As framed by the
parties, we understand that the records contain information
about medical and mental healthcare conditions for which
C received care and treatment while she was a ward of the
court and records created by third-party healthcare provid-
ers that were provided to DHS as C’s legal custodian and
made a part of DHS’s dependency file on C. Thus, it is the
collection of third-party health records maintained by DHS
in its case file that C sought to have destroyed.
         C argues that because the health records were not
created by DHS, they are not “the property of [DHS],” and
now that C has reached the age of majority, they should be
turned over to her without DHS retaining any copies. But C
did not create the health records in question any more than
60                              Dept. of Human Services v. C. E. S.

DHS did. The records are about her, but they were created
by her healthcare providers, who are generally required to
maintain such records for each of their patients, as a mat-
ter of licensure. For example, the Oregon Health Authority
requires licensed hospitals to maintain medical records for
every patient admitted to a hospital for care. OAR 333-505-
0001; OAR 333-505-0050; see also Classen v. Arete NW, LLC,
254 Or App 216, 232 n 2, 294 P3d 520 (2012) (discussing
record-keeping standards required of licensed physicians).
C’s contention that health records that are about her “are
her individual records” and, thus, belong to her does not
square with the fact that such records are created by her
providers for their own business and licensure purposes. C
undoubtedly benefits from the existence of those records in
terms of any ongoing care she receives from her providers,
and she clearly has a privacy interest in the information
contained in those records, but that does not confer posses-
sory rights upon her.
         C’s privacy interest is significant, and there is no
dispute that state and federal laws exist to protect her inter-
est in the personal health information contained within
health records created and maintained by her healthcare
providers. But such laws protect a patient’s privacy interests
by prohibiting the unlawful disclosure of health records;
they do not transfer ownership of the records to the patient.1
It is important to note that C does not claim that DHS came
into possession of the health records by unlawful means.
Indeed, there is no dispute that, in the course of its work
investigating reports of child abuse, filing petitions to estab-
lish dependency jurisdiction, carrying out its duties as legal
custodian for children made wards of the court, planning
for permanency, and facilitating transitions leading up to
     1
      For example, ORS 192.553(1) provides:
         “It is the policy of the State of Oregon that an individual has:
         “(a) The right to have protected health information of the individual
    safeguarded from unlawful use or disclosure[.]”
Also, ORS 192.553(2) expressly recognizes that the federal Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes “additional rights and
obligations regarding the use and disclosure of protected health information and
the rights of individuals regarding the protected health information of the indi-
vidual.” HIPAA restricts a “covered entity” from using “protected health informa-
tion” without the “written authorization of the individual.” 45 CFR § 164.512(a).
Cite as 328 Or App 57 (2023)                                      61

and including the final plan, DHS is required to obtain a
wide variety of highly confidential records, including health
records, and to maintain those records in its case files along
with its own records and reports. In short, there is no dis-
pute that DHS was in lawful possession of the records C
sought to have destroyed.
        The issue, then, is whether the juvenile court had
authority to direct DHS to destroy health records that were
lawfully disclosed to DHS while it was serving as C’s legal
custodian. C’s health records, as collected and maintained
by DHS, qualify as public records under ORS 192.005(5)(a)
because they include “information” that:
      “(A) Is prepared, owned, used or retained by a state
   agency or political subdivision;
      “(B) Relates to an activity, transaction or function of a
   state agency or political subdivision; and
      “(C) Is necessary to satisfy the fiscal, legal, adminis-
   trative or historical policies, requirements or needs of the
   state agency or political subdivision.”
C does not dispute that the health records in DHS’s file ful-
fill the requirements of (A) and (B) because they were used
and retained by DHS in the course of its functions as a state
agency. C disputes only that the records continue to be nec-
essary for DHS to satisfy its official functions because juris-
diction is now dismissed, and she is no longer a ward of the
court and is no longer in DHS’s legal custody. But Oregon’s
public records law expressly acknowledges that the state has
“a responsibility to ensure orderly retention and destruction
of all public records, whether current or noncurrent, and to
ensure the preservation of public records of value for admin-
istrative, legal and research purposes.” ORS 192.001(1)(c)
(emphases added). Thus, regardless of whether the health
records maintained in DHS’s dependency file concerning C’s
wardship are ever used again by DHS in the scope of its
official work, they are public records subject to retention by
the state.
        C is understandably concerned about maintaining
her privacy. Now that the DHS case is closed, she wishes
to prevent the release of her childhood health records,
62                       Dept. of Human Services v. C. E. S.

maintained by DHS, to any other person or entity. Oregon’s
public records law already exempts health records from dis-
closure “if public disclosure would constitute an unreason-
able invasion of privacy, unless the public interest by clear
and convincing evidence requires disclosure in the partic-
ular instance. The party seeking disclosure shall have the
burden of showing that public disclosure would not consti-
tute an unreasonable invasion of privacy.” ORS 192.355(2)(a).
We acknowledge that, by its terms, that exemption is not
absolute, and DHS does not say that it will never seek to
disclose the health records in its file on C. But the burden
of proof required to overcome the exemption builds in a sig-
nificant evidentiary barrier that would protect C’s privacy
interest in the face of a request for the health records in
question.
         C’s reliance on Dept. of Human Services v. E. J.,
316 Or App 537, 504 P3d 1262 (2021), rev dismissed, 370 Or
740 (2023), does not support her position that the juvenile
court had the authority to order the destruction of records
in DHS’s possession. In E. J., we held that DHS could not
defeat the privilege that attaches to certain juvenile court
records concerning a ward’s “history and prognosis” under
ORS 419A.255 simply because the records in the court’s files
originated from “its own files that it still possesses.” Id. at
550. In the context of this case, E. J. supports the idea that
possession of health records alone does not defeat or override
important protections, such as privilege and confidentiality,
that might apply to such records. But neither E. J. nor ORS
419A.255 support C’s request for an order directing DHS to
destroy records. Therefore, the court did not err in declining
to order their destruction.
         Notwithstanding the absence of statutory authority
for an order requiring the destruction of health records that
are public records maintained in DHS’s case file, C argues
on appeal that such authority may be inferred from ORS
419B.343(4) and OAR 413-030-0460. C did not raise that
argument before the juvenile court. But even if she had, ORS
419B.343(4) simply provides that DHS’s case planning efforts
must include “health and education records of the ward[.]”
It mentions nothing about the retention or destruction of
Cite as 328 Or App 57 (2023)                              63

health records. OAR 413-030-0460(2), likewise says noth-
ing about the destruction of public records. It does list the
type of “written records” that DHS must “provide” to a ward
who “reach[es] independence.” OAR 413-030-0460(3) also
requires DHS to “retain the records” and to provide them
to the ward at a later time “when the whereabouts of the
child or young adult are unknown[.]” (Emphasis in original.)
But, again, the obligation to keep records for a particular
purpose says nothing about whether and when such records
might be destroyed.
         C also belatedly raises ORS 419A.269(4) in support
of her argument that the court erred in not ordering the
destruction of DHS records. But ORS 419A.269(4) autho-
rizes the juvenile court to order the destruction of records
in the context of expungements. We decline, on this limited
record, to address that argument beyond noting its lack of
preservation and relevance.
        Affirmed.