Doe v. Stincer

175 F.3d 879, 9 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 664, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 8414, 1999 WL 269679
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided May 4, 1999·No. 98-4027·Published·Cited by 74 cases

Opinions

BARKETT, Circuit Judge:

The Attorney General of the State of Florida appeals the district court’s order permanently enjoining the enforcement of Fla. Stat. Ann. § 395.3025(2) as preempted by the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq. (“ADA”). The Attorney General argues that the district court erred in enjoining the statute because the Advocacy Center for Persons With Disabilities, Inc. (“Advocacy Center”) lacked standing and because the grant of injunctive relief was an abuse of discretion. [881] We vacate the injunction granted by the district court and remand for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

On August 7, 1996, Chris Doe filed this action against the Attorney General of Florida, Mercy Hospital, and two psychiatrists, Dr. Caídos Stincer and Dr. Hugo Gonzalez, who examined and treated Doe at Mercy Hospital. Doe claimed that the failure of the hospital and its doctors to provide her with her medical records violated the ADA and that the Florida statute permitting them to do so, § 395.3025(2), was preempted by the ADA. In an amended complaint, Doe added as plaintiffs the American Civil Liberties Union and the Advocacy Center, a federally-authorized protection and advocacy organization established under the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act (“PAMII”), 42 U.S.C. § 10801, and the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act (“PAIR”), 29 U.S.C. § 794e.

Section 395.3025 provides hospital patients with a right to obtain their medical records. Under its terms, “[a]ny licensed facility, shall, upon written request, and only after discharge of the patient, furnish, in a timely manner, without delays for legal review, to any person admitted therein for care or treatment or treated thereat ... a true and correct copy of all patient records, ..., which ... are in the possession of the licensed facility....” § 395.3025(1). However, § 395.3025(2) states that “[tjhis section does not apply to records maintained at any licensed facility the primary function of which is to provide psychiatric care to its patients, or to records of treatment for any mental or emotional condition at any other licensed facility....” While this case was pending in the district court, the Florida legislature enacted Fla.Stat.Ann. § 394.4615, spelling out a patient’s right of access to mental health records, amending § 395.3025(1) in accordance with § 394.4615.1 Under § 394.4615,

Patients shall have reasonable access to their clinical records, unless such access is determined by their patient’s physician to be harmful to the patient. If the patient’s right to inspect his or her clinical record is restricted by the facility, written notice of such restriction shall be given to the patient and the patient’s guardian, guardian advocate, attorney, and representative. In addition, the restriction shall be recorded in the clinical record, together with the reasons for it. The restriction of a patient’s right to inspect his or her clinical record shall expire after 7 days but may be renewed, after review, for subsequent 7-day periods.

§ 394.4615(9).

This case was resolved on motions for summary judgment. On December 2, 1997, the district court granted Advocacy Center’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that the Advocacy Center had standing to sue and that § 395.3025(2) was preempted by the ADA. Accordingly, the district court permanently enjoined its enforcement. On the same day, the district court denied summary judgment both to Doe and the American Civil Liberties Union, concluding that additional discovery was necessary to determine whether either of them had standing to sue. The district court also dismissed Doe’s complaint against Dr. Gonzalez, finding that it did not state a claim under the ADA. The Attorney General then filed this interlocutory appeal. We have jurisdiction over the Attorney General’s appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), which gives us appellate jurisdiction over orders granting injunctions. Because the district court did not enter a final judgment as to the claims of Doe and the American Civil Liberties Union, their claims are not before us.

[882] DISCUSSION

I.

This case presents the question, one of first impression in this Circuit, whether a federally-authorized protection and advocacy organization established under PA-MII and PAIR has standing to challenge a state statute limiting access to mental health records on behalf of individuals with mental health disabilities. Before turning to PAMII and PAIR and their grant of standing to protection and advocacy systems, we review the well-established general principles governing associational or organizational standing.

A.

It has long been settled that an organization has standing to sue to redress injuries suffered by its members without a showing of injury to the association itself and without a statute explicitly permitting associational standing. In Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975), the Supreme Court first explicitly recognized that “[e]ven in the absence of injury to itself, an association may have standing solely as the representative of its members.” Id. at 511, 95 S.Ct. 2197. The Court stated that “[t]he association must allege that its members, or any one of them, are suffering immediate or threatened injury as a result of the challenged action of the sort that would make out a justiciable case had the members (themselves brought suit.” Id. “So long as this can be established, and so long as the nature of the claim and of the relief sought does not make the individual participation of each injured party indispensable ..., the association may be an appropriate representative of its members, entitled to invoke the court’s jurisdiction.” Id.

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Doe v. Stincer, 175 F.3d 879, 9 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 664, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 8414, 1999 WL 269679 (11th Cir. 1999).

175 F.3d 879 (Doe v. Stincer) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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