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Records/Archives in the News Part 02 01/20/00
Records/Archives in the News r991221b
There are 8 stories in this posting
Reuters 12/21/99
Argentine judge seizes documents in health probe
The Australian 12/22/99
Court rules for easier secrecy
Southam News (Canada) 12/21/99
Judge rules AECL must disclose Candu documents
Philadelphia Daily News 12/21/99
Judge: SEPTA is in contempt
Akron Beacon Journal 12/21/99
Ohio State writes off mailing of grades
CNET News.com 12/15/99
Getty Images readies business-use portal
Philadelphia Daily News 12/18/99
Where were files?
The Irish Times 12/18/99
Civil servant gets all personnel records
________________________________________________________________
Reuters 12/21/99
Argentine judge seizes documents in health probe
by Jason Webb
<SNIP>
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina said on Tuesday it plans to stiffen
corruption penalties, just as a judge seized a huge cache of documents he
suspects were hidden to foil a major graft probe into the state health
service.
Following an anonymous tip-off, a judge raided a Buenos Aires apartment and
seized 80 boxes of documents believed to have been secreted out of the PAMI
health service days before the center-left Alliance government took office on
Dec. 10.
The Alliance has denounced PAMI as a ``symbol of corruption?? during the
10-year Peronist Party government of former President Carlos Menem, and one
of its first acts in power was to fire its top managers.
Social Development Minister Graciela Fernandez Meijide said the man in charge
of the PAMI in the last period of the Menem government, Victor Alderete, was
named in the tip-off made to Alliance members of Congress.
``They said that Victor Alderete himself had been selecting files up until
two days before he handed over control of the PAMI, and that two vans (with
boxes) had driven off to a private address,?? Fernandez Meijide told local
radio.
Alderete faces corruption charges
Alderete, a close associate of Menem?s, faces several corruption charges from
his time in charge of the PAMI, which has failed spectacularly in its mission
to provide medical care for 4 million pensioners. He denies all wrongdoing.
Federal Judge Gabriel Cavallo said it was still too early to have much of an
idea of the contents of the boxes, other than that they were PAMI documents
removed earlier this month.
Private clinics occasionally refuse to attend pensioners in protest at the
PAMI?s failure to pay them, despite its annual income of $2 billion. A 1995
audit estimated that PAMI lost $40 million a month to fraudulent claims by
nonexistent retirees, that it was wildly overcharged for medical services,
and that up to a third of its registered clinics did not exist.
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
The Australian 12/22/99
Court rules for easier secrecy
by Bernard Lane
<SNIP>
LITIGANTS will find it easier to keep confidential documents secret after a
High Court judgment yesterday.
By a 4-2 majority, the court overturned a 23-year-old decision to make it
easier to deny an opposing litigant access to documents involving legal
advice.
But the dissenting judges in yesterday?s Esso case said it went against the
spirit of the information age to claw back from the courts material relevant
to deciding cases.
It would work in favour of big corporations and bureaucracies and lead to
costly pre-trial skirmishing over confidential documents, the dissenters
said.
In a dispute with the Tax Office, Esso Australia Resources had claimed
privilege for 577 confidential documents, only some of which were solely to
do with legal advice.
Upholding Esso?s appeal, the court adopted a new test so that a document will
be safe from discovery and inspection as long as its ?dominant purpose? was
legal advice.
Under the discarded 1976 rule, legal advice had to be the ?sole purpose? of
the document for it to be protected by client legal privilege.
The new test would bring Australia into line with common law countries,
including Britain and New Zealand, the majority judges said.
It would harmonise Australian common law with legislation federally and in
the ACT and NSW, they said.
<SNIP>
_________________________________________________________________
Southam News (Canada) 12/21/99
Judge rules AECL must disclose Candu documents
by Andrew Duffy
<SNIP>
OTTAWA - A Federal Court judge has refused a request from Atomic Energy of
Canada Ltd. to keep secret a series of Chinese government documents related
to that country?s purchase of Candu nuclear reactors.
Judge Denis Pelletier rejected the request for secrecy after weighing the
public interest in disclosure against the harm done to the nuclear agency?s
commercial interests.
?I am not satisfied that the need for confidentiality exceeds the public
interest in open justice,? Judge Pelletier concluded in a recent ruling that
could expand public interest rights.
?The issue of Canada?s role as a vendor of nuclear technology is one of
significant public interest with animated positions being taken on both sides
of the question. The burden of justifying a confidentiality order in such
circumstances is very onerous.?
Earlier this year, Judge Pelletier rejected AECL?s request to keep its
application for a confidentiality order secret.
AECL has appealed the latest decision, arguing that it cannot provide the
court with a full picture of the sale of two Candu reactors to China in 1996
without reference to the documents. The documents belong to the Chinese
government which has approved their use by the court only if they remain
confidential.
AECL wants to use the material as part of a potentially explosive court case
launched two years ago by the Sierra Club of Canada.
The environmental group has challenged the federal government?s decision not
to conduct a full-scale environmental assessment of the Candu sale to China.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Since joining the case, AECL lawyers have challenged the Sierra Club?s legal
standing and brought motions to strike out affidavits and introduce
voluminous Chinese-language records.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
At AECL?s appeal of Judge Pelletier?s ruling, the Sierra Club will argue that
the Chinese documents should be rejected as irrelevant to the case.
In his initial ruling, Judge Pelletier said the documents could be relevant
if AECL decides to argue that the Chinese regulators performed the
?functional equivalent? of an environmental assessment, satisfying the spirit
of the Canadian legislation.
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Daily News 12/21/99
Judge: SEPTA is in contempt
$1M for tampering and hiding memos
by Chris Brennan
<SNIP>
SEPTA entered a personal injury trial two weeks ago, confident it could be
held liable for only $250,000 in damages for a 1996 subway escalator accident
that tore off a 4-year-old boy?s foot.
What a difference two weeks and $52 million makes.
Among the lessons SEPTA learned in 14 days: Judges and juries don?t like it
when state agencies hide, lose and tamper with evidence or launch
counterattack lawsuits on victims.
Common Pleas Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson yesterday fined SEPTA $1
million, finding the agency in contempt of court.
That follows a $51 million verdict against SEPTA last week.
In a 12-page ruling released yesterday, the judge wrote:
The ?paper trail? of reports and memos detailing the Nov. 27, 1996, accident
that caused Shareif Hall to lose his right foot reaches ?SEPTA management at
the highest levels.?
Requests for information about the accident were made in May 1997 but SEPTA
documents were not turned over to the boy?s attorneys until halfway through
the trial.
The judge called that obstruction of justice by SEPTA.
One of those documents, a 1994 report saying several subway escalators needed
repairs, showed ?SEPTA had actual knowledge of the deteriorating escalators
two and a half years before Shareif Hall?s accident.?
That, Massiah-Jackson decided, showed a ?cavalier disregard for the court
process? and ?extraordinary bad faith? by SEPTA.
Shareif Hall?s attorney, Thomas Kline, asked the judge to give SEPTA a
?wake-up call? with a contempt of court ruling.
SEPTA General Manager Jack Leary, the last of 13 agency employees to turn
over documents and to testify in four days of contempt hearings, said after
the verdict he got the message.
?This is clearly a wake-up call for SEPTA,? Leary said. ?Something good can
come out of something bad. We will fix what was broken at SEPTA, and it won?t
happen again.?
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
A jury last Tuesday awarded Shareif Hall $25 million for pain and suffering
and another $25 million, ruling SEPTA violated the boy?s civil rights with a
?deliberate indifference? to a ?state-created? danger.
The jury also ruled SEPTA should pay Deneen Hall $1 million, plus $65 for the
sneakers her son wore that day.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Kline said ?SEPTA believes it is immune to the laws we all live by? and
emboldened by a state law limiting the amount of damages in personal injury
cases against state agencies to $250,000.
He referred to a startling memo released Friday by Robert Allman, SEPTA?s
former director of systems safety, who complained that ?critical physical
evidence was withheld? from investigators by SEPTA, other evidence was lost
and facts were changed in the agency?s reports.
?They didn?t try to fix the escalators. They tried to fix the report,? Kline
told the judge. ?It?s a fraud and a phony and a fix.?
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Leary said some employees could lose their jobs, and deliberately hiding
documents ?would constitute a criminal offense.?
A series of documents released by SEPTA since Dec. 15 show the agency has
known for at least five years that some of its escalators needed repairs.
SEPTA employees brought the memos and reports to court in envelopes, file
folders, briefcases and, in one case, a large Macy?s department store
shopping bag.
One SEPTA memo, written 19 days before Shareif Hall?s accident at the Cecil
B. Moore station of the Broad Street subway, said that escalator needed
immediate repairs or it would not be safe to operate.
Shareif?s foot snagged in the machinery at the top step.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
SEPTA?s attorney, Gino Benedetti, told the judge SEPTA regrets not turning
over the documents. But he disputed claims that the documents were
?willfully? hidden since they were ?littered throughout SEPTA.?
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
Akron Beacon Journal 12/21/99
Ohio State writes off mailing of grades
by Katie Byard
<SNIP>
Ohio State University is giving the U.S. Postal Service the heave-ho when it
comes to a crucial batch of mail: student report cards.
The state?s largest public university is among a growing number of
institutions opting to use the Internet to distribute grades.
OSU recently e-mailed report cards for the recently completed fall quarter to
about 55,000 students, including about 3,500 from the Akron-Canton area.
The reason? Money.
The university figures it can save $19,000 in mailing costs by using
cyberspace to deliver the grades each quarter.
It costs less than $1,000 to run a software program to distribute the grades
via e-mail, said Michael George, associate registrar for student support at
OSU?s main campus in Columbus.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
This month is not the first time the university has used the Internet as a
grade-delivery system. But earlier, report cards were sent two ways: regular
mail and e-mail.
Parents who want copies of grade reports will have to ask their children. A
federal law prohibits colleges and universities from releasing grades to
anyone but the student unless the student gives written permission for the
release.
University of Akron students still get their grades by regular mail. But they
can also tap into a Web site to get grades. A security system prevents the
students from peeking at others? grades.
<SNIP>
________________________________________________________________
CNET News.com 12/15/99
Getty Images readies business-use portal
by Greg Sandoval
<SNIP>
Getty Images is creating a business-to-business portal for downloading
digital photographs and images, in an effort to distinguish itself from the
competition.
Gettyone.com will launch sometime early next year, catering to creative
professionals who buy photographs, artwork and designs as part of their work.
Customers will be able to choose from the 1.2 million images the Seattle
company has digitized, according to Getty executives.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
The industry frontrunner?s latest move seemingly solidifies the competitive
differences between Getty and chief rival Corbis, owned by Microsoft?s Bill
Gates. With its stockpile of 60 million images and 27,000 hours of moving
footage, Getty has focused on business-to-business markets, while Corbis is
targeting consumers. The latter sells most of its 65 million images to the
public as screen savers, posters and electronic greeting cards, though it
also sells to news organizations.
Getty, cofounded by Mark Getty, an heir to the Getty oil fortune, has made
several large acquisitions in the last year, such as its September purchase
of Dallas-based Image Bank.
Digital images can be used in advertising campaigns, film and television
production, and print. For years, photo and archive houses held claim to the
relatively small market, but once the technology was created to send images
over the Internet, the market began growing.
Besides buying photographs and digital images, Gettyone customers will find
image-related products such as software, audio, typefaces and management
tools from third-party companies.
<SNIP>
_________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Daily News 12/18/99
Where were files?
SEPTA finds more papers in $51M suit over accident on escalator
by Chris Brennan
<SNIP>
For Thomas Kline, the civil court case he has waged against SEPTA since a
1996 escalator accident tore off his 4-year-old client?s foot, has three
themes:
SEPTA knew its escalators needed repairs and did nothing.
SEPTA conducted a shoddy investigation of the 1996 accident.
SEPTA has been hiding important information ever since.
Memos and reports finally provided by SEPTA yesterday - three days after a
jury hit the agency with a $51 million verdict for the accident - seem to
support those three themes.
And now SEPTA General Manager Jack Leary and G. Roger Bowers, the agency?s
top attorney, will try to explain it all.
They will testify in Common Pleas Court Monday in what should be the last day
of a contempt-of-court case. SEPTA faces a possible $1 million fine for that
alleged contempt.
Kline received SEPTA?s final report about the accident that injured Shareif
Hall, now 7, last week, halfway though the trial.
It has proven to be a key point, not just for the information it provides
about the accident, but also for the list of SEPTA officials to whom it was
sent.
Yesterday, a memo provided by Cecil W. Bond Jr., SEPTA?s assistant general
manager for safety and security, showed that the report had been sent to
Leary and Bowers.
?It was on his desk, clearly,? Kline said during a court break. ?We?ve asked
for these documents, and they haven?t been turned over. I?m going to ask Mr.
Leary when he comes in on Monday, where was this document? Why wasn?t it
turned over? Was it in your file??
Kline also called ?mind-boggling? a memo produced by Robert Allman, who
supervised the 1996 investigation as SEPTA?s director of system safety.
That memo, which Allman wrote to himself at home and left in a file at work
until Thursday, expresses his ?extreme displeasure? with SEPTA?s actions.
?Critical physical evidence was withheld? from investigators or lost and
facts were changed as reports were drafted and edited, Allman complained.
He concluded, ?It would be hard to justify an objective investigation,? and,
?. . .the investigation in my eyes was not conducted appropriately.?
Allman testified yesterday, with a simple explanation for why he had not
given his memo to anyone else at SEPTA.
?No one ever asked me for it.?
Kline called Allman?s memo ?staggering? and the investigation ?a disgrace.?
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Yesterday, eight SEPTA employees came to court carrying newly released
documents in envelopes, file folders, large briefcases and one brown Macy?s
store shopping bag.
?Oh, my gosh, a paper bag full of documents,? Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson
sighed. ?I can?t believe this.?
SEPTA has used a variety of excuses to explain why the documents were not
provided. Some employees said they did not know the documents existed. Others
have said they did not know they needed to be released.
Several testified yesterday that finding the documents, when ordered by
Massiah-Jackson, took only enough effort to call a co-worker or open a file
drawer.
The judge later called the documents, in 18 files which now cover a table in
her courtroom, ?just overwhelming.?
?It?s just incredible, the amount of documents here,? Massiah-Jackson said.
SEPTA originally turned over just 44 pages of information about the accident
to Shareif Hall?s attorneys.
The boy was riding the escalator at the Cecil B. Moore station of the Broad
Street subway on Nov. 27, 1996 - the day before Thanksgiving - with his
mother and older brother. His black, high-top Fila sneaker snagged at the top
of the escalator as the step dropped away. His mother, Deneen, screamed for
help as the escalator chewed her youngest child?s foot off.
She filed a lawsuit the next year and SEPTA responded with a counter-suit,
blaming the single mother of five for her son?s injuries. That suit was
dropped earlier this week when SEPTA decided not to present a defense during
the trial.
<SNIP>
_______________________________________________________________
The Irish Times 12/18/99
Civil servant gets all personnel records
<SNIP>
A civil servant should have access to all Department of Agriculture records
in his personnel file, a High Court judge ruled.
Mr Justice O?Donovan directed that an April 1999 decision of the Information
Commissioner to grant Mr Sean Glynn full access to some records and partial
access to others be varied: Mr Glynn should see all records. An appeal by the
Minister for Agriculture against the Commissioner?s decision was dismissed.
On April 16th, 1998, Mr Glynn had asked the Department for ?sight of my
entire personnel file? under Section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act. On
May 18th, 1998, the Department granted Mr Glynn access to records from April
21st, 1995, but refused him access to those before then.
Mr Glynn then sought a review of the Department?s decision. On June 24th the
Department upheld its earlier refusal.
He appealed to the Information Commissioner who granted Mr Glynn full access
to those records for which the Department had given approval and partial
access to those to which it had refused access. The Department appealed that
ruling.
In his judgment yesterday, the judge said that in his view the Commissioner
had wrongly embarked on a consideration of the contents of Mr Glynn?s records
during his appeal.
The Commissioner had said there were 41 records on his personnel file created
from November 1st, 1990, to April 21st, 1995, and had maintained that all,
with one exception, were concerned with an incident involving Mr Glynn in
July 1992 and its aftermath. This did not appear to be correct, the judge
said.
<SNIP>
PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM
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