Gronquist v. State

• Decision Date: 29 October 2013
• Docket Number: Nos. 42774–5–II, 43500–4–II.,s. 42774–5–II, 43500–4–II.
• Citation: 177 Wash.App. 389,313 P.3d 416
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: Derek E. GRONQUIST, Appellant, v. STATE of Washington, Department of Corrections, Respondents. Derek E. Gronquist, Appellant, v. State of Washington, Department of Corrections, Respondents.

177 Wash.App. 389

313 P.3d 416

Derek E. GRONQUIST, Appellant,

v.STATE of Washington, Department of Corrections, Respondents.

Derek E. Gronquist, Appellant,

v.State of Washington, Department of Corrections, Respondents.

Nos. 42774–5–II, 43500–4–II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

Oct. 29, 2013.

Derek E. Gronquist, Connell, WA, pro se, for Appellant.

Brian James Considine, Washington State Attorney General's Office, Olympia, WA, for Respondent.

HUNT, J.

¶ 1 Derek E. Gronquist appeals several superior court orders and findings entered in his Public Records Act (PRA) ¹ lawsuit. He argues that the superior court erred in (1) limiting the penalty period of the Department of Corrections (DOC)'s PRA violation and awarding a penalty amount that was too small; and (2) concluding that the surveillance video recordings he requested on August 5, 2007, were exempt from disclosure under the PRA. We hold that RCW 42.56.565(1) bars an award of PRA penalties to Gronquist because (1) he was serving a criminal sentence in a correctional facility when he made his PRA request to DOC; (2) the superior court found no bad faith in DOC's inadvertent omission of one page from the documents it produced in response to his PRA request; and (3) no final judgment had yet been entered in his PRA action at the time the legislature enacted this prohibition in 2011. We further hold that the prison surveillance video recordings that Gronquist requested were exempt from disclosure under RCW 42.56.240(1). Accordingly, we affirm.²

FACTS

I. PRA Requests to DOC

A. July 30, 2007 Request

¶ 2 On July 24, 2007, DOC inmate Derek E. Gronquist sent a PRA request to DOC seeking:

1. All [DOC] inmate identification badges/cards from undocumented alien workers employed by DOC's Class II Industries ³ [....];

2. All records demonstrating the payment of any wages, gratuities, or other forms of payment to undocumented alien workers employed by the DOC[....];

3. All records revealing internal DOC communications and/or deliberations concerning the use of undocumented alien workers in DOC's Industries program.

Clerk's Papers (CP) at 252–53. Gronquist clarified that “ ‘undocumented alien worker’ ” meant “any person who is not a[U]nited [S]tates citizen and who does not possess a current and valid work permit or similar document authorizing such person to be employed in the [U]nited [S]tates.” CP at 253. DOC received this request on July 30. The next day, DOC responded that it had no records to disclose in response to Gronquist's request because DOC's Class II Industries program did not identify offenders by citizenship and citizenship was not a part of its employment process.

B. August 9, 2007 Request

¶ 3 On August 9, DOC received from Gronquist a second, unrelated PRA request to DOC dated August 5, stating:

I am requesting the following records concerning an assault and/or extortion attempt that happened to me at the Clallam Bay Correction[s] Center on June 17, 2007:

1. All documents created in response to, or because of, this incident;

[...]

4. The surv[e]illance video of C-unit from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. of June 17, 2007;

5. The surv[e]illance video of the chow hall used for C-unit inmates on and for the [b]reakfast meal on June 17, 2007;

[...]

9. The complete [i]nternal [i]nvestigations file.

CP at 215–16. In response to this request, on October 26, DOC staff (1) mailed Gronquist 96 pages of documents, from which 1 page was inadvertently missing; and (2) claimed that the surveillance video recordings were exempt from PRA disclosure under former RCW 42.56.420(2) (2005), providing a brief explanation for this claimed exemption. On November 2, the Stafford Creek Corrections Center intercepted this mail and withheld 39 pages of documents and 11 photographs in accordance with DOC's mail rejection policy.⁴

¶ 4 Eventually DOC released these intercepted documents to Gronquist during the discovery process in an unrelated case. Gronquist did not alert DOC about the single missing page from the 96 pages it had provided. When DOC later learned about the missing page through Gronquist's lawsuit, it located and supplied it to him.

II. Judicial Review

¶ 5 On June 12, 2009, Gronquist filed a motion for judicial review under the PRA, asking the superior court to require DOC to “show cause” why “disclosure of requested public records should not be compelled and sanctions imposed” for DOC's alleged PRA violations. CP at 429. On July 27, Gronquist filed a complaint in superior court, claiming DOC had violated the PRA in (1) failing to conduct an adequate search for records involving “undocumented alien workers”; (2) withholding surveillance video recordings; and (3) improperly withholding one page from the internal investigation report. CP at 321. Gronquist also alleged that Stafford Creek's screening and withholding of 39 pages and 11 photographs of his PRA documents violated the free speech clause of the Washington Constitution, article I, section 5.

A. December 18, 2009 PRA Order, Findings, and Penalty

¶ 6 On December 18, 2009, the superior court ruled that (1) DOC had violated the PRA by inadvertently withholding one page of the documents it had provided in response to Gronquist's August 9, 2007 PRA request; (2) DOC's omission had not been in bad faith; (3) Gronquist had failed to request identifiable records when he requested information about undocumented alien workers (because “records in the form requested did not exist”); and (4) DOC properly withheld surveillance video tapes from disclosure under RCW 42.56.240(1). ⁵ I CP at 125. For inadvertently having withheld 1 page, the superior court ordered DOC to pay a PRA penalty of $15 per day for 24 days, for a total of $260 to Gronquist.

¶ 7 Arguing fraud, Gronquist later moved to vacate the superior court's December 18 order. The superior court denied this motion.

B. Motion To Dismiss; January 3, 2011 Order

¶ 8 On October 8, 2010, DOC moved to dismiss Gronquist's PRA action under CR 12(b)(6). DOC argued that (1) the superior court had resolved all of Gronquist's PRA claims in its December 18, 2009 show cause order; and (2) the superior court should dismiss Gronquist's remaining art. 1, § 5 claim as a matter of law because (a) violations of the Washington Constitution are not independently actionable torts, and (b) Gronquist had no protected interest in receiving uncensored mail in prison. On January 3, 2011, the superior court granted the motion in part and dismissed all of Gronquist's PRA claims except his claim for injunctive relief from DOC's withholding a portion of his incoming mail “without legitimate peneological [sic] reasons.” I CP at 98–99.

C. Motion To Amend; February 27, 2012 Order

¶ 9 On January 31, 2012, Gronquist moved for leave to file a second amended complaint, restating his previously resolved and dismissed PRA claims, but adding an allegation that DOC had violated the PRA by failing to conduct an adequate search for records. On February 27, the superior court (1) denied Gronquist's motion as untimely; and (2) dismissed Gronquist's sole remaining art. I, § 5 claim with prejudice because he had stated in his memorandum that his art. I, § 5 claim was “moot.” ⁶ Suppl. CP at 477.

¶ 10 Gronquist appeals the superior court's (1) December 18, 2009 findings and penalty order ⁷; (2) January 3, 2011 order granting in part and denying in part DOC's motion to dismiss; and (3) February 27, 2012 order denying Gronquist's motion for leave to amend his complaint and dismissing his remaining claims.

ANALYSIS

I. RCW 42.56.565(1): Absence of Bad Faith Bars PRA Penalty for Prisoner

¶ 11 Gronquist challenges the amount of the superior court's December 18, 2009 penalties. He argues that the superior court lacked authority to reduce the penalty period for DOC's inadvertent late disclosure of 1 page of the 96 pages of documents it had provided in response to his PRA request. We hold that RCW 42.56.565(1) defeats this argument because (1) DOC did provide him the missing page when it became aware of its inadvertent earlier omission from the 96 pages it had timely provided in response to his second PRA request; (2) the superior court expressly found that DOC had not acted in bad faith in having inadvertently omitted this page; and (3) RCW 42.56.565(1) prohibits an award of any PRA penalties to a prison inmate serving a criminal sentence absent a showing of bad faith.⁸

¶ 12 The question of whether the PRA authorizes a trial court to reduce the penalty period is a question of law, which we review de novo. Yousoufian v. Office of Ron Sims, 152 Wash.2d 421, 436, 98 P.3d 463 (2004). ⁹ We look to a statute's plain language to give effect to legislative intent. Lacey Nursing Ctr., Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue, 128 Wash.2d 40, 53, 905 P.2d 338 (1995). When faced with an unambiguous statute, we derive the legislature's intent from the plain language alone. Waste Mgmt. of Seattle, Inc. v. Util. & Transp. Comm'n, 123 Wash.2d 621, 629, 869 P.2d 1034 (1994).

¶ 13 RCW 42.56.565(1) provides:

A court shall not award penalties under RCW 42.56.550(4) to a person who was serving a criminal sentence in a state, local, or privately operated correctional facility on the date the request for public records was made, unless the court finds that the agency acted in bad faith in denying the person the opportunity to inspect or copy a public record.

(Emphasis added).¹⁰ The legislature further specified that the above subsection (1) “applies to all actions brought under RCW 42.56.550 in which final judgment has not been entered as of the effective date of this section [July 22, 2011].” Laws of 2011, ch. 300, § 2 (emphasis added).

¶ 14 Generally, a “final judgment” is a judgment that ends all litigation, including appellate review, leaving nothing for the court to do but to execute the judgment. Anderson & Middleton Lumber Co. v. Quinault Indian Nation, 79 Wash.App. 221, 225, 901 P.2d 1060 (1995) (citing Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 233, 65...