Court case 2 A 370/20 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2021)

The plaintiff sought access to the files of the defendant's Youth Welfare Office concerning his daughters. In December 2017, the plaintiff's ex-wife asked the plaintiff for his consent to the immediate admission of the younger daughter to a psychotherapeutic clinic. In the same month, the plaintiff gave his consent, but at the same time demanded comprehensive information about the daughter's situation and the content of the planned treatment. The mother refused this. In March 2018, the plaintiff then applied to the defendant to be granted access to all files kept there in order to "assert legal interests". The divorced wife refused to allow the plaintiff to inspect the files, stating that the younger daughter did not wish to do so. By letter dated 26.3.2018 to the plaintiff, the defendant refused to grant access to the files. The plaintiff lodged an objection against this refusal. The plaintiff's objection was rejected. The plaintiff claimed that the documentation contained individual details on his person as well as on his divorced wife and on their common daughters. In the plaintiff's view, there was a well-founded assumption that these data on his person were highly relevant in terms of personality and fundamental rights and data protection law. He had no knowledge, or at least no precise knowledge, of this data, nor of the nature and content of the conclusions that the defendant had drawn from it, possibly to his disadvantage and over several years. Additionally, the plaintiff wanted to receive information about the condition of his daughter, which he could not have obtained in another way, especially from his ex-wife. The Court held that the protection of social data collected and "entrusted" to the youth welfare office in the context of child and youth welfare procedures generally supersedes the general provisions on the inspection of files and the protection or disclosure of social data. It is compatible with the requirements of the GDPR, because it c