State ex rel. Clay v. Cuyahoga Cnty. Med. Examiners Office

• Decision Date: 03 February 2016
• Docket Number: No. 103514.,103514.
• Citation: 58 N.E.3d 552
• Parties: STATE of Ohio, ex rel. Michael CLAY, Relator v. CUYAHOGA COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS OFFICE, Respondent.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

58 N.E.3d 552

STATE of Ohio, ex rel. Michael CLAY, Relator

v.CUYAHOGA COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS OFFICE, Respondent.

No. 103514.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County.

Feb. 3, 2016.

Michael Clay, Mansfield, OH, for Relator, pro se.

Timothy J. McGinty, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor by Barbara R. Marburger, Assistant County Prosecutor, Cleveland, OH, for Respondent.

KATHLEEN ANN KEOUGH, P.J.

{¶ 1} Michael Clay has filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus. Clay seeks an order from this court that requires the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office (“coroner”) to provide him with all x-rays, photographs, and written reports that were created during the autopsy of his daughter in Cuyahoga Coroner Case No. IN00260612–Autopsy No. AU000082729. The coroner has filed a motion for summary judgment, which we deny for the following reasons.

{¶ 2} In order for this court to issue a writ of mandamus, Clay must establish a clear legal right to the requested autopsy file, a clear legal duty on the part of the coroner to provide the requested autopsy file, and the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law. State ex rel. Waters v. Spaeth, 131 Ohio St.3d 55, 2012-Ohio-69, 960 N.E.2d 452 ; State ex rel. Husted v. Brunner, 123 Ohio St.3d 288, 2009-Ohio-5327, 915 N.E.2d 1215. Herein, Clay's request for all x-rays, photographs, and written reports, that were created during the autopsy of his deceased daughter, is premised upon R.C. 313.10.

{¶ 3} Ordinarily, many of the autopsy records maintained by the coroner are not considered “public records” and are exempted from release to the general public. R.C. 313.10 provides in pertinent part that:

(A)(2) Except as otherwise provided in division (D) or (E) of this section, the following records in a coroner's office are not public records:

(a) Preliminary autopsy and investigative notes and findings made by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision;

(b) Photographs of a decedent made by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision;

(c) Suicide notes;

(d) Medical and psychiatric records provided to the coroner, a deputy coroner, or a representative of the coroner or a deputy coroner under section 313.091 of the Revised Code ;

(e) Records of a deceased individual that are confidential law enforcement investigatory records as defined in section 149.43 of the Revised Code ;

(f) Laboratory reports generated from the analysis of physical evidence by the coroner's laboratory that is discoverable under Criminal Rule 16.

* * * (C)(1) The coroner shall provide a copy of the full and complete records of the coroner with respect to a decedent to a person who makes a written request as the next of kin of the decedent. The following persons may make a request pursuant to this division as the next of kin of a decedent:

(c) * * *, the parents of the decedent, with each parent having an independent right to make a request pursuant to this division

* * *

(G) As used in this section:

(1) “Full and complete records of the coroner” includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(a) The detailed descriptions of the observations written by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision during the progress of an autopsy and the conclusions drawn from those observations that are filed in the office of the coroner under division (A) of section 313.13 of the Revised Code ;

(b) Preliminary autopsy and investigative notes and findings made by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision;

(c) Photographs of a decedent made by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision;

(d) Suicide notes;

(e) Medical and psychiatric records provided to the coroner, a deputy coroner, or a representative of the coroner or a deputy coroner under section 313.091 of the Revised Code ;

(f) Records of a deceased individual that are confidential law enforcement investigatory records as defined in section 149.43 of the Revised Code ;

(g) Laboratory reports generated from the analysis of physical evidence by the coroner's laboratory that is discoverable under Criminal Rule 16.

* * *

{¶ 4} Attached to Clay's complaint for a writ of mandamus is a sworn affidavit and a birth certificate that establish that Clay is the biological father of the deceased child subject to an autopsy by the coroner. Thus, Clay has established that he possesses a clear legal right to the complete autopsy file of his deceased child per R.C. 310.10(C)(1). In addition, Clay possesses no other adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law to obtain the autopsy records from the coroner. Thus, we must determine whether the coroner possesses a clear legal duty to provide the complete autopsy file to Clay.

{¶ 5} The coroner, in an attempt to establish that it possesses no duty to provide Clay with the complete autopsy file, argues that when R.C. 149.43 (Ohio Public Records Statute), R.C. 2105.19 (Ohio Slayer Statute), and R.C. 313.10 (Coroner Public Records Statute) are read in pari materia, it is clear that no duty exists to provide Clay with the complete autopsy file. Specifically, the coroner argues in its motion for summary judgment that:

The body of laws governing the same subject must be read in pari materia. In re Z.R. , 2015-Ohio-3306 [44 N.E.3d 239], ¶ 19, citing In re C.W., 104 Ohio St.3d 163, 2004-Ohio-6411, 818 N.E.2d 1176, ¶ 7. The General Assembly has clearly and specifically limited incarcerated persons' access to investigative records concerning their cases. Furthermore, the law clearly provides that a person, such as the Relator, who has caused the death of another shall not “in any way benefit by the death.” R.C. 2105.19(A). It would be a brutal irony if, as a consequence of

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