Department of Corrections v. Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
No. 1539 C.D. 2011
January 12, 2012
The Commonwealth Court reversed a final determination of the Office of Open Records (“OOR”) and ruled that a requestor cannot change its Right to Know Law (“RTKL”) request during the appeals process.
The court ruled that the agency did not need to provide other records from which the information the requester sought could be gleaned because those records were not requested originally.
Background
The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania (“network”) submitted a RTKL request to the Department of Corrections, seeking records reflecting the number of inmates who underwent certain psychiatric evaluations and other data concerning prisoners’ mental health.
The department denied the request, maintaining that it did not possess any records reflecting that data.
The network then appealed to the OOR and on appeal argued that the information it sought could be gleaned from forms maintained by the department. The OOR ordered the disclosure of the redacted forms.
The department appealed to the Commonwealth Court.
Commonwealth Court Decision
The Commonwealth Court reversed the order of the OOR.
Under the RTKL, an agency is not required “to create a record which does not currently exist or to compile, maintain, format or organize a record in a manner in which the agency does not currently compile, maintain, format or organize.”
Here, according to the court’s opinion, the department did not have any records that contained the requested information.
The court determined that the network could not modify its request on appeal to seek other documents from which the information could be discerned, because these records were not originally requested.
As the court explained, “while it is true that information is contained in other documents from which the information can be gleaned, there were no records here containing the information sought by requestor.”
Allowing the network to adjust its request on appeal would preclude the department from determining whether other RTKL exemptions apply to the newly formulated request.