Four New Illinois Appellate Decisions

We have posted summaries of four new appellate decisions on our parent site's Illinois page, coming to you courtesy of our learned correspondent C.E. Petit:

• Perfection Corp. v. Lochinvar Corp., No. 1-03-0095 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. Jun. 18, 2004);
• Kim v. Mercedes-Benz USA, Inc., No. 1-03-1270 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. Jun. 17, 2004);
• People v. Robinson, No. 1-02-2841 (Ill. App. 1st Dist. Jun. 16, 2004); and
• The Southern Illinoisan v. Illinois Dept. of Public Health, No. 5-02-0836 (Ill. App. 5th Dist. Jun. 9, 2004).

The last of these cases involves a novel twist.  A newspaper sues to obtain data from a state cancer registry.  The registry opposes on the ground that the data could tend to disclose confidential information about individuals.  To support its contention, the registry offers testimony from an expert, who is able to extract individual identities from the data requested, using a methodology disclosed under seal.  The upshot?  The data are ordered released, on the ground that under the evidence submitted, only an expert would have the specialized knowledge necessary to extract the identities from the information, whereas members of the general public would not.