Facts: Justice Richard Sanders filed suit against the state of Washington in the Superior Court for Thurston County, asserting that the attorney general’s office had inadequately responded to his request for public records relating to the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s investigation of his conduct in office and withheld non-exempt documents from him in violation of the Public Records Act (Washington Revised Code §42.56). The trial court ruled that the attorney general’s office’s response to Sanders’ request violated §42.56 insofar as it had improperly withheld a number of non-exempt documents and failed to include a written explanation detailing why certain documents had been withheld. As Sanders had prevailed on some of his claims, the trial court awarded him a portion (37.5%) of his attorney’s fees and imposed a penalty of $8 per day per wrongfully withheld document upon the state of Washington. Both parties appealed and the Washington Court of Appeals certified the case directly to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s): Did the attorney general’s office’s response to Sanders’ request violate §42.56 by withholding non-exempt documents?

Does §42.56 require that the attorney general’s office include an explanation identifying the reasons why some documents were withheld?

If so, was the penalty imposed upon the state appropriate?

Conclusion: Justice Stephens’ opinion for a unanimous Court reversed the trial court’s decision with regard to some of the contested documents, holding that they had been improperly deemed privileged and should have been made available to Justice Sanders. The Court also held that under §42.56 the attorney general’s office was required to provide a brief explanation as to the reason why each withheld document had not been produced. However, as Sanders had prevailed with regard to the status of only a small percentage of the documents whose status he had contested, the Court reduced the percentage of his attorney’s fees he was awarded to 25%.

Docket No. 82849-1 (from Thurston Case No. 05-2-01439-1)

Petitioner: Richard Sanders

(Counsel: Paul J. Lawrence, Matthew J. Segal, and Gregory J. Wong)

Respondent: State of Washington

(Counsel: Timothy George Leyh, Randall Thor Thomsen, and Katherine See Kennedy)

Briefs:

Argument: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 9:00am

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Prevailing Party: Richard Sanders (Petitioner)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Court: Madsen1 Court (2010-2011)

Madsen

Johnson

Alexander

Baker
(Pro Tem)

Becker
(Pro Tem)

Owens

Fairhurst

Leach
(Pro Tem)

Stephens
(Majority)