AGO 1993-033.

• Case Date: November 16, 1993
• Court: Ohio

Ohio Attorney General Opinions 1993. AGO 1993-033. November 16, 1993OPINION NO. 1993-033The Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney Courts Tower, Justice Center 1200 Ontario Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Dear Prosecutor Jones: You have requested an opinion on the following questions:

1. Are documents such as rent rolls, financial statements, income and expense statements, preliminary appraisal reports, and any other documents labeled "confidential", trade secrets, as defined in O.R.C. §1333.51, and protected from public inspection?

2. Are all documents submitted in advance of a Board of Revision hearing open to public inspection under §5715.07?

3. Are real estate appraisal reports submitted in advance available for public inspection?

4. Under what circumstances, if any, could the Board of Revision members or its staff be held accountable under O.R.C. §5715.49 and §5715.50 for permitting public inspection of the subject documents?

Background

You have indicated that your request for an opinion was prompted by a claim by taxpayers that certain documents such as income and expense statements, financial statements of profit and loss, preliminary appraisal reports and rent rolls submitted to the board of revision are "trade secrets." The taxpayers claim that documents which constitute trade secrets should not be subject to public inspection pursuant to R.C. 5715.07, which provides as follows:

All files, statements, returns, reports, papers, or documents of any kind relating to the assessment of real property which are in the office of a county auditor or county board of revision or in the official custody or possession of such officer or board shall be open to public inspection.

Whether a Document Is a Trade Secret Pursuant to R.C. 1333.51(A)(3) Is a Question of Fact

You ask first whether rent rolls, financial statements, income and expense statements, preliminary appraisal reports, and other documents labeled "confidential" are trade secrets protected from public inspection by R.C. 1333.51. A "trade secret" is defined by R.C. 1333.51(A)(3) as

the whole or any portion or phase of any scientific or technical information, design, process, procedure, formula, or improvement, or any business plans, financial information, or listing of names, addresses, or telephone numbers, which has not been published or disseminated, or otherwise become a matter of general public knowledge. Such scientific or technical information, design, process, procedure, formula, or improvement, or any business plans, financial information, or listing of names, addresses, or telephone numbers is presumed to be secret when the owner thereof takes measures designed to prevent it, in the ordinary course of business, from being available to persons other than those selected by the owner to have access thereto for limited purposes.

Trade secrets have been held to include certain types of commercial and financial information. "Although trade secrets are generally thought of as scientific or technical designs, processes, procedures or formulas, the state legislature has specifically included within the statutory definition the terms 'business plans' and 'financial information.'" State, ex rel. Jacobs v. Prudoff, 30 Ohio App. 3d 89, 93, 506 N.E.2d 927, 932 (Lorain County 1986). The types of documents you have described, i.e., rent rolls including names and addresses, financial statements, income and expense statements, and preliminary appraisal reports, clearly constitute "financial information," and thus they might qualify as trade secrets, depending on the circumstances. However, whether any particular information qualifies as a trade secret within the meaning of R.C. 1333.51(A)(3) requires a factual determination. Water Management, Inc. v. Stayanchi, 15 Ohio St. 3d 83, 472 N.E.2d 715 (1984). "The particular documents in question...