State ex rel. Dehler v. Kelly

[Cite as State ex rel. Dehler v. Kelly, 127 Ohio St.3d 309, 2010-Ohio-5724.]

THE STATE EX REL. DEHLER, APPELLANT, v. KELLY, WARDEN, ET AL.,

APPELLEES.

[Cite as State ex rel. Dehler v. Kelly, 127 Ohio St.3d 309, 2010-Ohio-5724.]

Public records — R.C. 149.43(C) — Request by prisoner for statutory damages

properly denied.

(No. 2010-1229 — Submitted October 13, 2010 — Decided December 1, 2010.)

APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County,

No. 2009-T-0084, 2010-Ohio-3053.

__________________

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals denying an award

of statutory damages to appellant, inmate Lambert Dehler, in a public-records

mandamus case for the following reasons.

{¶ 2} First, Dehler refused to submit payment for the cost of the

requested copies of public records. “R.C. 149.43 does not require a public-

records custodian to provide copies of records free of charge; instead, the Public

Records Act requires only that copies of public records be made available at

cost.” State ex rel. Call v. Fragale, 104 Ohio St.3d 276, 2004-Ohio-6589, 819

N.E.2d 294, ¶ 6. Even though the court of appeals did not rely on this ground to

deny Dehler’s request for statutory damages, “ ‘[w]e will not reverse a correct

judgment simply because some or all of a lower court’s reasons are erroneous.’ ”

State ex rel. Galloway v. Cook, 126 Ohio St.3d 332, 2010-Ohio-3780, 933 N.E.2d

807, ¶ 4, quoting State ex rel. Swain v. Bartleson, 123 Ohio St.3d 125, 2009-

Ohio-4690, 914 N.E.2d 403, ¶ 1.

{¶ 3} Moreover, the prison officials established that permitting Dehler to

inspect the requested records might have unreasonably interfered with the

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discharge of their duties. See State ex rel. Dehler v. Spatny, 127 Ohio St.3d 312,

2010-Ohio-5711, ___ N.E.2d ___, ¶ 5, citing State ex rel. Natl. Broadcasting Co.,

Inc v. Cleveland (1988), 38 Ohio St.3d 79, 81, 526 N.E.2d 786, and Briscoe v.

Ohio Dept. of Rehab. & Corr., Franklin App. No. 02AP-1109, 2003-Ohio-3533, ¶

16 (“With respect to penal institutions, prison administrators must be accorded

deference in adopting * * * policies and practices to preserve internal order and to

maintain institutional security”).

{¶ 4} Finally, notwithstanding Dehler’s contentions to the contrary, R.C.

149.43(C)(1) does not permit stacking of statutory damages based on what is

essentially the same records request. No windfall is conferred by the statute. See

R.C. 149.43(C)(1) (an “award of statutory damages should not be construed as a

penalty, but as compensation for injury arising from lost use of the requested

information”).

{¶ 5} Therefore, Dehler failed to establish his entitlement to an award of

statutory damages in his public-records mandamus case, and we affirm the

judgment denying the award.

Judgment affirmed.

PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’CONNOR, O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and

CUPP, JJ., concur.

BROWN, C.J., dissents.

__________________

BROWN, C.J., dissenting.

{¶ 6} I respectfully dissent from the judgment affirming the denial of an

award of statutory damages to appellant, inmate Lambert Dehler, in his public-

records mandamus case.

{¶ 7} In this appeal, Dehler asserts that the court of appeals erred in

refusing to award him statutory damages. The court of appeals granted a writ of

mandamus to compel appellees to provide access to the requested prison library

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records, but it denied Dehler’s request for statutory damages because unrelated

records requests that were the subject of a separate mandamus action by Dehler

had been held by the court to lack merit.

{¶ 8} For the following reasons, the court of appeals erred in refusing to

award Dehler $1,000 in statutory damages in accordance with R.C. 149.43(C)(1).

{¶ 9} First, the court of appeals granted a writ of mandamus to compel

appellees to immediately satisfy Dehler’s request for prison library records. As

the court of appeals itself determined, Dehler “submitted a proper written request

for public records,” appellees “failed to perform their legal duties under R.C.

149.43(B) to provide access to those records,” and appellees’ “improper refusal to

satisfy the ‘library’ request continued longer than a period of ten days.” State ex

rel. Dehler v. Kelly, Trumbull App. No. 2009-T-0084, 2010-Ohio-3053, ¶ 43.

Appellees did not appeal from the court of appeals’ judgment granting the writ.

Thus, we cannot consider their claims insofar as they suggest that Dehler was not

entitled to the requested records because, inter alia, Dehler did not proffer

prepayment for copies. See State ex rel. Worrell v. Ohio Police & Fire Pension

Fund, 112 Ohio St.3d 116, 2006-Ohio-6513, 858 N.E.2d 380, ¶ 9, fn. 1

(“Appellees did not appeal the court’s issuance of a limited writ, so we do not

consider the propriety of the court of appeals’ holding that the board had a duty to

issue a decision stating the basis for its denial”). Instead, in the absence of a

timely cross-appeal by appellees from the granting of the writ, we must

necessarily presume the propriety of the issuance of the writ in our determination

of whether the court of appeals erred in denying Dehler’s request for statutory

damages.

{¶ 10} Second, “R.C. 149.43(C)(1) provides for statutory damages of

$100 for each business day during which the public office failed to comply with

the public-records law, up to a maximum of $1,000,” and because more than ten

business days have elapsed from the date Dehler filed this mandamus action and

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he still has not been provided access to the requested records, the $1,000

maximum award is applicable. State ex rel. Doe v. Smith, 123 Ohio St.3d 44,

2009-Ohio-4149, 914 N.E.2d 159, ¶ 45.

{¶ 11} Third, nothing in R.C. 149.43(C)(1) authorizes a court to deny or

reduce an award of statutory damages based on the court of appeals’ stated basis

of a lack of merit for a different public-records request that is the subject of a

separate public-records mandamus case instituted by the same relator. Rather, the

focus for denying or reducing an otherwise mandatory award of statutory

damages to a prevailing party in a public-records mandamus case is on the

conduct of the public-records custodians that constitutes a failure to comply with

R.C. 149.43(B) in that case and not in a separate public-records mandamus case.

R.C. 149.43(C)(1)(a) and (b). The court of appeals thus erred in denying Dehler’s

request for statutory damages based on the purported impropriety of his records

request in State ex rel. Dehler v. Spatny, 11th Dist. No. 2009-T-0075, 2010-Ohio-

3052, a separate mandamus case.

{¶ 12} Fourth, the court of appeals also erred in relying on the supposed

overbreadth of Dehler’s records request in Spatny because, as I note in my

separate opinion in Dehler’s appeal from the court of appeals’ judgment in that

case, his request for prison quartermaster records at TCI was not overbroad. State

ex rel. Dehler v. Spatny, 127 Ohio St.3d 312, 2010-Ohio-5711, __ N.E.2d __

(Brown, C.J., dissenting).

{¶ 13} Finally, this interpretation of R.C. 149.43(C)(1) is supported by its

plain language and our duties to “construe the Public Records Act liberally in

favor of broad access and resolve any doubt in favor of disclosure of public

records.” State ex rel. Rocker v. Guernsey Cty. Sheriff’s Office, 126 Ohio St.3d

224, 2010-Ohio-3288, 932 N.E.2d 327, ¶ 6.

{¶ 14} Therefore, because the court of appeals erred in not awarding

Dehler $1,000 in statutory damages, reversal of the judgment is required. Thus, I

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dissent from the judgment affirming the court of appeals’ denial of statutory

damages.

__________________

Lambert Dehler, pro se.

Richard Cordray, Attorney General, and Ashley D. Rutherford, Assistant

Attorney General, for appellees.

______________________

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