Guillen v. Pierce County
| Decision Date | 06 August 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 22614-6-II, No. 24021-1-II. |
| Citation | 96 Wash.App. 862,982 P.2d 123 |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Ignacio GUILLEN, as legal guardian for Jennifer Guillen and Alma Guillen, minors; and Mariano Guillen, as legal guardian for Paulina Guillen and Fatima Guillen, Respondents, v. PIERCE COUNTY, a municipal corporation, Petitioner. |
Susan Paula Jensen, Pierce Co. Prosecuting Atty., Daniel Ray Hamilton, Deputy Pros. Atty., Tacoma, for Petitioner.
David Knox Dewolf, Casey, Gore & Grewe, Spokane, Salvador Alejo Mungia, Juliana Theresa Kendall, Darrell L. Cochran, Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell, et al., Tacoma, for Respondents.
The question for decision is whether the entire accident history of a Pierce County intersection is exempt from discovery by virtue of 23 U.S.C. § 409. The answer is no.
In May 1995, Pierce County applied for federal highway funds to improve the intersection of 168th Street East and B Street East. It supported its application with various documents, including:
1. Motor vehicle traffic accidents by location—County of Pierce—prepared by Records Section, Washington State Patrol [WSP], [1/90]-6/30/96.
10. Collision diagram dated 1/5/89 prepared by Georgia Fischer.
11. Collision diagram dated 7/18/88 prepared by Georgia Fischer.
13. Police Traffic Collision Reports and Motor Vehicle Reports from 1/1/90 prepared by [various] law enforcement agencies.
15. Draft letter to Barbara Gelman from Frederick L. Anderson with note to file signed by Jim Ellison on 3/6/89.[1]
According to the County's Public Works Engineer, item 13 "is a collection of the accident reports for the subject intersection from 1990 through 1996." Item 1 "is a list of those same accidents showing the location, time, date, and nature of the accident." "Items 10 and 11 are collision diagrams prepared by a County employee who is responsible for investigating accidents at the intersection."2 Item 15 [3] The record does not contain the documents themselves.4 On July 5, 1996, Ignacio Guillen's wife was killed as she drove through the intersection of 168th Street East and B Street East. Her passengers were injured. On July 26, 1996, Pierce County's application for federal funds was granted.
By letters dated August 16 and October 28, 1996, Guillen asked Pierce County to disclose certain accident reports. The reports he wanted described accidents that had occurred at the intersection between 1990 and 1996. His second letter stated in part:
I want to make the record clear that we are not seeking any reports that were specifically written for developing any safety construction improvement project at the intersection at issue. However, on behalf of our clients, we are seeking a copy of all documents that record the accident history of the intersection that may have been used in the preparation of any such reports. In other words, we are simply seeking information as to when accidents have occurred at the intersection for the last ten years. This would include any documents that record (1) the date of any such accidents, (2) the parties involved at each such accident, (3) the date of each such accident, (4) fatalities, if any, at each such accident, (5) the identification of all known [witnesses] at each such accident, (6) copies of photographs taken at each such accident, (7) the configuration of the intersection (what traffic signs existed) at the time of each such [accident], and (8) documents recording traffic counts at the intersection.[5]
The County refused to disclose the requested information.
On December 5, 1996, Guillen sought judicial review pursuant to the Public Disclosure Act, RCW 42.17.6 In June 1997, the County made a motion for summary judgment, based on 23 U.S.C. § 409 and the declarations of various officials. The declarations stated that the County's Public Works Department had collected and compiled documents 1, 10, 11, 13 and 15 for use in its 1995-96 application for federal funding. In July 1997, Guillen made a cross-motion for summary judgment.
In September and October 1997, the trial court heard the parties' motions. It was undisputed that a number of accidents had occurred at the intersection, and that law enforcement officers had generated written accident reports. Guillen pleaded orally to the trial court:
The trial court granted Guillen's motion and denied the County's. In November 1997, it signed a written order requiring the County to disclose the requested information and pay reasonable attorneys fees pursuant to RCW 42.17.340(4).9 The County then filed this appeal.
On April 10, 1998, during the pendency of the County's appeal from the public disclosure action, Guillen filed a separate negligence action in which he alleged that the County had failed to erect proper traffic controls at the intersection.10 He also propounded interrogatories seeking the intersection's accident history and related information. The County refused to answer the interrogatories, again citing 23 U.S.C. § 409.
On September 28, 1998, Guillen moved for an order compelling the County to answer his interrogatories. The trial court granted the motion and directed the County to disclose:
On December 7, 1998, Pierce County moved for discretionary review of the trial court's order compelling it to answer Guillen's interrogatories. A commissioner of this court granted the motion and consolidated the negligence case with the public disclosure case that was already pending. We now review both cases.
The issue on appeal is whether the information Guillen seeks is privileged from discovery by virtue of 23 U.S.C. § 409. To resolve that issue, we focus on 23 U.S.C. § 152 and 23 U.S.C. § 409. Hereafter, we refer to those provisions as Section 152 and Section 409.
Section 152 describes a funding program under which the federal government will pay much of the cost of improving hazardous public roads. Section 152 provides in part:
One possible effect of Section 152 is to make it easier for injured persons to sue the state or its subdivisions. Section 152 requires a state to identify, and plan for the improvement of, "hazardous locations" on "all public roads." To comply with it, a state and its subdivisions must collect and compile information. If a person injured on a public road is given access to that information, it will be easier than otherwise for him or her to prove a claim that the road was hazardous.
Section 409 is designed to neutralize this effect of Section 152. It provides:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, reports, surveys, schedules, lists, or data compiled or collected for the purpose of identifying evaluating, or planning the safety enhancement of potential accident sites, hazardous roadway conditions, or railway-highway crossings, pursuant to sections 130, 144, and 152 of this title or for the purpose of developing any highway safety construction improvement project which may be implemented utilizing Federal-aid highway funds shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location mentioned or addressed in such reports, surveys, schedules, lists, or data.13
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Neighborhood Alliance of Spokane County v. County of Spokane
...Ctr., 94 Wash.2d 559, 618 P.2d 76 (1980); Gronquist v. Dep't of Corr., 159 Wash.App. 576, 247 P.3d 436 (2011); Guillen v. Pierce County, 96 Wash.App. 862, 866, 982 P.2d 123 (1999), rev'd in part on other grounds, 537 U.S. 129, 123 S.Ct. 720, 154 L.Ed.2d 610 (2003); cf. Newman v. King County......
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Guillen v. Pierce County
...not reports or data `collected or compiled' by the Public Works Department `pursuant to' Section 152." Guillen v. Pierce County, 96 Wash.App. 862, 873, 982 P.2d 123 (1999). In the final footnote of its opinion, though, the court raised a more fundamental question regarding the constitutiona......
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Neighborhood Alliance of Spokane Cnty. v. Cnty. of Spokane
...Ctr., 94 Wn.2d 559, 618 P.2d 76 (1980); Gronquist v. Dep't of Corr., 159 Wn. App. 576, 247 P.3d 436 (2011); Guillen v. Pierce County, 96 Wn. App. 862, 866, 982 P.2d 123 (1999), rev'd in part on other grounds, 537 U.S. 129, 123 S. Ct. 720, 154 L. Ed. 2d 610 (2003); cf. Newman v. King County,......
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Pierce County v. Guillen
...sheriff or other law enforcement agencies, not reports or data `collected or compiled' by the Public Works Department." 96 Wash. App. 862, 873, 982 P. 2d 123, 129 (1999). The appellate court also expressed doubt about the constitutionality of § 409 as applied in state courts, but decided no......
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Supreme Court Docket Report - 2001 Term, Number 15 / April 29, 2002
...most of the documents, and the County appealed. The Court of Appeals for the State of Washington affirmed. See Guillen v. Pierce County, 982 P.2d 123 (Wash. Ct. App. 1999). The court concluded that Section 409 covered only documents actually in the hands of the road department, but did not ......