A.C. V. ERICA CORTEZ, No. 19-55895 (9th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiffs in this action are minors who resided in San Diego County. Plaintiffs sued the County and County social workers for allegedly violating their Fourth Amendment rights by interviewing them without a court order or parental consent during the course of a child-abuse investigation. During that investigation, the County created and maintained files related to the alleged child abuse. Attorneys defending the County reviewed the child-abuse investigation file without first obtaining a court order. Plaintiffs then brought an action, alleging that the attorneys who accessed the file violated their right to privacy.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the action. The court held that, contrary to Plaintiffs’ argument, Gonzalez v. Spencer, 336 F.3d 832 (9th Cir. 2003) (per curiam), abrogated on other grounds by Filarsky v. Delia, 566 U.S. 377 (2012) does not stand for the proposition that a right to privacy necessarily attaches to the type of records at issue here. Further, even if Plaintiffs were entitled to informational privacy, the balancing test recognized in Seaton v. Mayberg, 610 F.3d 530 (9th Cir. 2010), showed the County’s interest in defending this litigation outweighed Plaintiffs’ asserted privacy interest. Even assuming that the social workers’ records comprised sensitive medical and psychological records, there was no constitutional violation because the County’s need to access the records was high. Plaintiffs initiated that need, and the professional obligations that lawyers owe their clients minimized the risk of misuse, harassment, or embarrassment. Thus, the district court properly dismissed Plaintiffs’ Monell claim.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that attorneys for the County of San Diego, in defending the County against plaintiffs’ earlier lawsuit, reviewed plaintiffs’ juvenile case files without first obtaining a court order, in violation of plaintiffs’ privacy rights. In a previously issued memorandum disposition, the panel held that the individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity for the reasons stated in Nunes v. Arata, Swingle, Van Egmond & Goodwin (PLC), 983 F.3d 1108, 1113–14 (9th Cir. 2020) (per curiam). The panel’s previous disposition did not address plaintiffs’ claim brought pursuant to Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978), and after plaintiffs moved for reconsideration, rehearing, and rehearing en banc, the panel invited supplemental briefing on the Monell claim. ** The Honorable Richard Seeborg, Chief United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation. A.C. V. CORTEZ 3 The panel held that, contrary to plaintiffs’ argument, Gonzalez v. Spencer, 336 F.3d 832 (9th Cir. 2003) (per curiam), abrogated on other grounds by Filarsky v. Delia, 566 U.S. 377 (2012) does not stand for the proposition that a right to privacy necessarily attaches to the type of records at issue here. Thus, Gonzalez did not recognize a per se constitutional right in juvenile records that is always violated by third-party access. Further, even if plaintiffs were entitled to informational privacy, the balancing test recognized in Seaton v. Mayberg, 610 F.3d 530, 539 (9th Cir. 2010), showed the County’s interest in defending this litigation outweighed plaintiffs’ asserted privacy interest. Even assuming that the social workers’ records comprised sensitive medical and psychological records, there was no constitutional violation because the County’s need to access the records was high. Plaintiffs initiated that need, and the professional obligations that lawyers owe their clients minimized the risk of misuse, harassment, or embarrassment. Thus, the district court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ Monell claim.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on October 8, 2021.
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