Smith v. Northside Hosp., Inc. — Mar. 2016 (Summary)

PUBLIC/GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL

Smith v. Northside Hosp., Inc.
Nos. A15A2303, A15A2304 (Ga. Ct. App. Mar. 30, 2016)

The Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled that a hospital’s records concerning its acquisition of four physician practices were not “public records” subject to the Georgia Open Records Act (“GORA”). This litigation arose from a hospital’s acquisition of four privately owned physician groups.  After learning of these transactions, an attorney sent an open records request to both the state’s Hospital Authority and to the hospital, requesting financial statements and other documents related to the acquisitions. In response to this request, the Authority stated that it did not possess any records or documents that were responsive to his request and that the private, nonprofit hospital was not subject to GORA. The attorney filed a complaint against the hospital, requesting that the trial court compel it to comply with his GORA request.

The court stated that two issues had to be determined:  (1) whether the documents in question were “public records” under GORA; and (2) if so, whether the records contained GORA-exempted trade secrets. The court ruled that the documents were not “public records.” It reasoned that the commercial transactions in question were between private entities, and no evidence was presented that any public official participated in the negotiation. Furthermore, there were no public funds used to finance the acquisitions.