State ex rel. DiFranco v. City of S. Euclid
Annotate this CaseAppellant made a public-records request to the City of South Euclid. After the City failed to respond to the request for nearly six months, Appellant filed a claim for a writ of mandamus. The writ claim became moot when all the requested records were produced during the pendency of the mandamus action. Appellant claimed the she was entitled to statutory damages and attorney fees given that (1) the city delayed two months in providing any response to the request, and (2) the original production of documents was incomplete. The court of appeals denied both statutory damages and attorney fees, concluding that Appellant “failed to establish any viable public benefit.” The Supreme Court (1) reversed the court of appeal’s denial of statutory damages, holding that in authorizing an award of such damages, Ohio Rev. Code 149.43(C)(1) does not condition that award on applying the public-benefit test; and (2) affirmed the denial of attorney fees but on other grounds, holding that the plain language of section 149.43(C)(2)(b) prohibited an award of attorney fees in this case. Remanded.
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