Facts: Respondent Armen Yousoufian filed suit against the Office of Ron Sims, the King County Executive, in the Superior Court for King County, alleging that the county had acted in bad faith in failing to timely and fully respond to public records requests relating to stadium financing. The trial court found that the county had been untimely and unreasonable in its response to Yousoufian’s request but had not acted in bad faith and based the damages it awarded to Yousoufian upon the minimum per day penalty of $5 established by the Public Records Act (Washington Revised Code §42.56). Yousoufian subsequently appealed to the Washington Court of Appeals, which reversed the trial court’s decision, holding that the county had acted with gross negligence, and remanded the case to the trial court, which awarded damages of $15 per day to Yousoufian. Yousoufian appealed the award and the Washington Court of Appeals again reversed the trial court. The county appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.
Question(s): Did the trial court abuse its discretion in awarding damages to Yousoufian?
Conclusion: Justice Alexander’s opinion for the Court concluded that determinations regarding an appropriate amount of damages in cases involving public records requests should not be based solely upon whether or not a government agency acted in bad faith and that a multifactor analysis considering both mitigating and aggravating factors is appropriate in such cases. Applying this standard, the Court held that the trial court had improperly calculated the damages Yousoufian was owed and that $45 per day was the appropriate basis for calculating damages.
Docket No. 80081-2
Petitioner: Office of Ron Sims
(Counsel: Stephen Paul Hobbs)
Respondent: Armen Yousoufian
(Counsel: Michael G. Brannan and Rand F. Jack)
Argument: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:00am
[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]
Audio: Washington Supreme Court
Decided: Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Prevailing Party: Armen Yousoufian (Respondent)
Vote: 5-4
Citation: Pending
Court: Madsen1 Court (2010-)
Alexander
(Majority)
Johnson
Madsen
Morgan
(Pro Tem)
Chambers
Owens
(Dissent)
Fairhurst
Johnson
Seinfeld
(Pro Tem)
Note: We post only slip opinion(s) as published at the time of the decision. Please consult Washington Reports printed volumes for the opinion(s) in their final form. Each opinion should appear next to the Justice who authored it.