Indiana University of Pennsylvania v. Loomis
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
No. 1960, C.D. 2010
June 24, 2011
The Commonwealth Court ruled that an agency properly denied access to requested records held by a government contractor because the requestor did not pay the agency’s fee for copying the records.
Background
David Loomis requested that the Indiana University of Pennsylvania provide copies of records held by the school’s foundation.
The university obtained the requested records, informed Loomis that it had redacted certain information, and asked him to pay a fee for the university’s copying of the records.
Loomis did not pay the fee or pick up the documents. Instead, he immediately appealed to the Office of Open Records.
After the university did not respond to the OOR’s request for more information about the redactions and the records at issue, the OOR ordered the disclosure of the documents without the charged fee. The university appealed to the Commonwealth Court.
Commonwealth Court Decision
The Commonwealth Court explained that under the RTKL, “generally, an agency may require that a requester pay applicable fees before receiving access to records.”
When the records are held by a government contractor, the law provides that “[i]f the requester does not pay the fee in full, the agency may withhold access.”
In this case, the court concluded, the university “ may withhold access of the documents until the fee is paid in full,” and therefore “the OOR erred in ordering access to those documents.”