M. G. v. Cuomo

Background

This proposed class action alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The proposed classes concern people with serious mental illnesses who allegedly were or may be held in prison beyond their release dates because of inadequate community-based mental-health housing, and people allegedly placed at serious risk of institutionalization after release because needed housing and supportive services were unavailable.

Plaintiffs requested 179 unredacted “census documents” maintained by the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The documents concern people released from prison to homelessness, people held in prolonged incarceration, and people held in prison on residential treatment facility status after the maximum expiration dates of their sentences. Defendants had produced versions with nearly all individually identifying information redacted. Plaintiffs sought the unredacted records to assess the number of individuals in the proposed classes and to determine whether entries in different records referred to the same people.

The parties had previously agreed to a protective order, entered by Judge Seibel on May 15, 2019, limiting the use and disclosure of personal health information produced in the litigation. Plaintiffs had not yet moved for class certification.

Discovery standards and analysis

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, discovery may cover nonprivileged information relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case. A party seeking to block discovery may request a protective order by showing good cause. The court also discussed federal protections governing medical information in cases involving federal claims, including disclosure authorized by a court order under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and its regulations.

The court found the requested records directly relevant to class certification, particularly the requirement that a proposed class be so numerous that joining all members individually would be impracticable. The redacted documents did not allow plaintiffs to determine whether repeated entries represented the same individuals or different individuals, or to accurately compare information from the two agencies. The court concluded that the records were also proportional because they were important to determining the size of the proposed classes, the issues in the case involved the civil rights of a vulnerable population, and defendants had already gathered and produced the records in redacted form.

The court rejected defendants’ argument that the redacted records were sufficient. Although those records included some information such as counts, release dates, and facility information, defendants acknowledged that some censuses lacked identifying information needed to quantify the proposed classes. The court also found that the protective order reduced concerns about disclosure of nonparty medical information and that disclosure served the interests of the people whose rights plaintiffs sought to protect.

The court did not decide defendants’ argument that class certification was unnecessary because named plaintiffs sought injunctive relief against the state. It stated that issue was better addressed in a future class-certification motion. Because the court ordered production of unredacted records, it also did not address plaintiffs’ alternative request for records using anonymized unique identifiers.

Ruling

Judge Andrew E. Krause granted plaintiffs’ motion to compel discovery. He further stated that, even if New York Mental Hygiene Law § 33.13(c)(1) applied, the interests of justice significantly outweighed the need for confidentiality. The order required defendants to produce the documents listed in ECF No. 227-1 in unredacted form, designated confidential under the existing protective order, no later than October 21, 2022. The Clerk was directed to terminate the motions at ECF Nos. 220 and 224.