WYRICK V. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, FINANCE, AND ADMINISTRATION CABINET
GOVERNMENT: Open Records Request
2007-CA-000089
PUBLISHED: REVERSING IN PART, VACATING IN PART, AND REMANDING
PANEL: KELLER PRESIDING; THOMPSON, GRAVES CONCUR
FRANKLIN COUNTY
DATE RENDERED: 5/30/2008
In this open records request case, the Department of Revenue sought review of the Attorney General’s decision, requiring disclosure of certain records requested by taxpayer’s attorney, Mitzi D. Wyrick, who appealed the circuit court order which barred her from inspecting the documents.
COA held there was no time limitation to appeal open records denial to the attorney general and declined the DOR’s request there be a 30-day time limitation for seeking review before the Attorney General and hold that pursuant to the plain language of the statute, Wyrick’s appeal to the Attorney General would have been timely whenever she chose to file it.
With regard to the records requested, the DOR cannot on the one hand argue, successfully, that the material sought in the tax appeal case is irrelevant to that litigation to defeat the discovery request, and then on the other hand argue in the Open Records proceeding that it is pertaining to that litigation and therefore subject to the limitation. The DOR is not “permitted to feed one can of worms” to the Board of Tax Appeals and another to the circuit court in the Open Records action. COA then rejected the DOR’s argument that just because a record requested in discovery is deemed irrelevant, does not mean that it is not related to that litigation. The public agency bears the burden of establishing that a requested record is exempt from release. When ruling on party litigation defense to Open Records Act request, trial court was required to first determine whether a listed exemption applied. However, the party litigation limitation was inapplicable because underlying litigation in this was case was a tax appeal and was administrative, not civil.
Digested by Michael Stevens
