Rasmussen v. South Florida Blood Service, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 January 1987
• Docket Number: No. 67081,67081
• Citation: 12 Fla. L. Weekly 33,500 So.2d 533,56 A.L.R.4th 739
• Parties: , 55 USLW 2376, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 33 Donald RASMUSSEN, Petitioner, v. SOUTH FLORIDA BLOOD SERVICE, INC., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 533

500 So.2d 533

56 A.L.R.4th 739, 55 USLW 2376, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 33

Donald RASMUSSEN, Petitioner, v. SOUTH FLORIDA BLOOD SERVICE, INC., Respondent.

No. 67081.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Jan. 5, 1987.

George C. Bender of Bender, Bender and Chandler, Coral Gables, for petitioner.

James E. Tribble and Diane H. Tutt of Blackwell, Walker, Fascell and Hoehl, Miami, for respondent.

Richard J. Ovelmen, General Counsel, Miami, and Edward Soto of the Law Offices of Edward Soto, P.A., Miami, for The Miami Herald Pub. Co., amicus curiae.

David E. Willett of Hassard, Bonnington, Rogers and Huber, San Francisco, Cal., for American Ass'n of Blood Banks, amicus curiae.

Michael H. Cardozo, Washington, D.C., for American Blood Com'n, amicus curiae.

B.J. Anderson and Kirk Johnson, Chicago, Ill., for American Medical Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Karen Shoos Lipton, Asst. General Counsel, Washington, D.C., for American Nat. Red Cross.

H. Robert Halper and Christina W. Fleps of O'Connor and Hannan, Washington, D.C., for Council of Community Blood Centers, amicus curiae.

Roger G. Welcher of the Law Offices of Roger G. Welcher, and Betsy E. Gallagher and Gail L. Kniskern of Talburt, Kubicki, Bradley and Draper, Miami, for Dade County Medical Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Thomas J. Guilday and Ralph A. DeMeo of Akerman, Senterfitt and Eidson, Tallahassee, for Florida Ass'n of Blood Banks, amicus curiae.

John Thrasher, Jacksonville, for Florida Medical Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Abby R. Rubenfeld, Managing Atty., Abraham L. Clott and Kevin Kopelson, Cooperating Attys., New York City, for Lambda Legal Defense and Educ. Fund, Inc., amicus curiae.

BARKETT, Justice.

We have for review South Florida Blood Service, Inc. v. Rasmussen, 467 So.2d 798 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985). In that decision, the district court certified the following as a question of great public importance:

Do the privacy interests of volunteer blood donors and a blood service's and society's interest in maintaining a strong volunteer blood donation system outweigh a plaintiff's interest in discovering the names and addresses of the blood donors in the hope that further discovery will provide some evidence that he contracted AIDS from transfusions necessitated by injuries which are the subject of his suit?

Id. at 805 n. 13. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla.Const. We answer the question in the affirmative.

On May 24, 1982, petitioner, Donald Rasmussen, was sitting on a park bench when he was struck by an automobile. He sued the driver and alleged owner of the automobile for personal injuries he sustained in the accident. While hospitalized as a result of his injuries, Rasmussen received fifty-one units of blood via transfusion. In July of 1983, he was diagnosed as having "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome" (AIDS) and died of that disease one year later. ¹ In an attempt to prove that the source of his AIDS was the necessary medical treatment he received because of injuries sustained in the accident, Rasmussen served respondent, South Florida Blood Service (Blood Service), with a subpoena duces tecum requesting "any and all records, documents and other material indicating the names and addresses of the blood donors." (South Florida Blood Service is not a party to the underlying personal injury litigation, and there has been no allegation of negligence on the part of the Blood Service.)

The Blood Service moved the trial court to either quash the subpoena or issue a protective order barring disclosure. That court denied the motion and ordered the Blood Service to disclose the subpoenaed information. On certiorari review, the Third District Court of Appeal, applying the balancing test that courts have traditionally performed under the Florida discovery rules, concluded that the requested material should not be discovered. Although we agree with respondent's contention that Rasmussen's blood donors' rights of privacy are protected by state and federal constitutions, we need not engage in the stricter scrutiny mandated by constitutional analysis. We find that the interests involved here are adequately protected under our discovery rules and approve the decision of the district court. This opinion in no way changes or dilutes the compelling state interest standard appropriate to a review of state action that infringes privacy rights under article I, section 23 of the Florida Constitution as established in Winfield v. Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, Department of Regulation, 477 So.2d 544, 547 (Fla.1985).

The potential for invasion of privacy is inherent in the litigation process. Under the Florida discovery rules, any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to the subject matter of the action is discoverable. Fla.R.Civ.P. 1.280(b)(1). The discovery rules also confer broad discretion on the trial court to limit or prohibit discovery in order to "protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense." Fla.R.Civ.P. 1.280(c). Under this authority, a court may act to protect the privacy of the affected person. Springer v. Greer, 341 So.2d 212, 214 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), appeal dismissed, 351 So.2d 406 (Fla.1977).

In deciding whether a protective order is appropriate in a particular case, the court must balance the competing interests that would be served by granting discovery or by denying it. North Miami General Hospital v. Royal Palm Beach Colony, Inc., 397 So.2d 1033, 1035 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); Dade County Medical Association v. Hlis, 372 So.2d 117, 121 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979). Thus, the discovery rules provide a framework for judicial analysis of challenges to discovery on the basis that the discovery will result in undue invasion of privacy. This framework allows for broad discovery in order to advance the state's important interest in the fair and efficient resolution of disputes while at the same time providing protective measures to minimize the impact of discovery on competing privacy interests.

Accordingly, we must assess all of the interests that would be served by the granting or denying of discovery--the importance of each and the extent to which the action serves each interest. In undertaking this analysis, we begin by examining the nature and importance of the donors' rights.

The Supreme Court first recognized a right of privacy based on the United States Constitution in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965). This right of privacy has been described as "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized man." Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 564, 89 S.Ct. 1243, 1248, 22 L.Ed.2d 542 (1969) (citing Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478, 48 S.Ct. 564, 572-73, 72 L.Ed. 944 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)). In recent cases, the Court has discussed the privacy right as one of those fundamental rights that are " 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' such that 'neither liberty nor justice would exist if [they] were sacrificed.' " Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S.Ct. 2841, 2844, 92 L.Ed.2d 140 (1986) (quoting Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325-26, 58 S.Ct. 149, (1937)). See Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 152, 93 S.Ct. 705, 726, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). In Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 599-600, 97 S.Ct. 869, 876-77, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977), the Supreme Court specifically recognized that the right to privacy encompasses at least two different kinds of interests, "the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and ... the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions." ² In Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 457-458, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 2797-98, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977), the Supreme Court reaffirmed the confidentiality strand of privacy. Lower federal courts have recognized that the essential core of this zone of privacy is the right "to prevent disclosure of ... identity in a damaging context." E.g., Lora v. Board of Education of City of New York, 74 F.R.D. 565, 580 (1977). These cases clearly establish that the federal right to privacy extends protection in some circumstances against disclosure of personal matters.

Moreover, in Florida, a citizen's right to privacy is independently protected by our state constitution. In 1980, the voters of Florida amended our state constitution to include an express right of privacy. Art. V, § 23, Fla.Const. ³ In approving the amendment, Florida became the fourth state to adopt a strong, freestanding right of privacy as a separate section of its state constitution, ⁴ thus providing an explicit textual foundation for those privacy interests inherent in the concept of liberty which may not otherwise be protected by specific constitutional provisions. ⁵

Although the general concept of privacy encompasses an enormously broad and diverse field of personal action and belief, ⁶ there can be no doubt that the Florida amendment was intended to protect the right to determine whether or not sensitive information about oneself will be disclosed to others. The proceedings of the Constitution Revision Commission reveal that the right to informational privacy was a major concern of the amendment's drafters. At the opening session of Florida's 1977-78 Constitution Revision Commission, then Chief Justice Ben F. Overton remarked:

[W]ho, ten years ago, really understood that personal and financial data on a substantial part of our population could be collected by government or business and held for easy distribution by computer operated information systems? There is a public concern about how personal information concerning an individual citizen is used, whether it be collected by government or by business. The subject of individual privacy and privacy law is in a developing stage.... It is a new problem that should probably be addressed. (Emphasis added.)

Address by Chief Justice Ben F. Overton to the Constitution Revision Commission (July 6, 1977). Thus, a principal...