Opinion

State ex rel. Wallace v. State Medical Board

  • 89 Ohio St. 3d 431
  • 732 N.E.2d 960
Court
Ohio Supreme Court
Filed
Aug 16, 2000
Status
Published
Author
Cook
On the bench
Cook, Douglas, Moyer, Pfeifer, Resnick, Stratton, Sweeney
Cited by
61 cases
Authority
More cited than 15.2%

“‘Waiver’ is defined as a voluntary relinquishment of a known right.”

How later courts described this case

  • “‘Waiver’ is defined as a voluntary relinquishment of a known right.”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Cook, J.,

concurring in part and dissenting in part. I agree that the Medical Board’s investigative records are not public records and that the Medical Board waived its own — and only its own — confidentiality privilege with respect to the Medical Board records discussed in Part IA of the majority opinion.

I respectfully dissent, however, from the majority’s judgment that the insurance department records discussed in Part IB might be subject to public disclosure under the Public Records Act. Former R.C. 3901.44 explicitly categorizes the insurance department documents at issue as “confidential law enforcement investigatory records [and thereby excepted from public disclosure as ‘public records’] under section 149.43,” which precludes the judiciary from reaching a contrary result. The majority analyzes the applicability of the “confidential law enforcement investigatory records” exception and concludes that it does not apply, when the statute plainly states otherwise.

We are not privileged to ignore the plain and unambiguous language of a statute. State v. Krutz (1986), 28 Ohio St.3d 36, 38 , 28 OBR 96, 97, 502 N.E.2d 210, 211 . To hold as the majority does is to do just that.

Lundberg Stratton, J., concurs in the foregoing opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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