Rowland v. Public School Employees' Retirement System

In Rowland v. Public School Employees' Retirement System, 885 A.2d 621 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2005), the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees submitted a formal request, pursuant to the former RTKL, to the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS), asking for the name, address, date of birth, date of retirement, years of credited service, last employer, and current monthly annuity of each PSERS annuitant. The issue before the court was whether PSERS properly refused to disclose the individuals' addresses and dates of birth on the grounds that such disclosure would violate members' right to privacy and confidentiality. The court first agreed with PSERS that section 8502(i) of the Public Employees' Retirement Code, 24 Pa. C.S. 8502(i), directed PSERS to protect the confidentiality of the specific information requested by Rowland as well as other information about annuitants that impacts their privacy rights. Next, the Court reviewed prior decisions construing the law's personal security exception as creating a right to privacy exception under the law and acknowledging a general right to privacy in one's home address. In Rowland the Court again recognized that this privacy exception is not absolute and that a balancing test must be applied to determine whether the privacy interests outweigh the public benefits that would result from disclosure. Observing that the benefits asserted would inure to the association, rather than the public at large, the court concluded that the balance favored non-disclosure of the requested information.