Department of Corrections v. Office of Open Records
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
No. 937, C.D. 2011
April 6, 2011
The Commonwealth Court held that the Office of Open Records can rule on a requester’s appeal of an agency’s denial of a Right to Know Law request only if the requester’s written appeal has addressed each of the agency’s reasons for denying the request.
Background
An individual made a Right to Know Law request to the Department of Corrections. The department denied the request because it thought the request was not specific enough.
The individual appealed to the Office of Open Records. His written appeal contained five paragraphs – the first four explained the background of his request and the department’s denial, and the fifth paragraph stated that “the above Pa. right to know requests are public.”
The OOR heard the case and ordered the department to disclose the records to the extent that they existed. The department appealed to the Commonwealth Court.
Commonwealth Court Decision
On appeal, the department argued that the individual’s appeal to the OOR was deficient because it failed to address the reasons the department denied his request.
The court agreed, relying on the Right to Know Law’s rule that a requestor appealing a denial must explain why “the record is a public record and . . . address any grounds stated by the agency for . . . denying the request.”
In this case, the “requestor’s appeal to Open Records was clearly deficient” because it did not discuss the reasons that the department denied his request.
As a result, the court ruled that the OOR should never have proceeded with the appeal and held that requestors filing OOR appeals must address each of the agency’s reasons for denying the request.