Proctor v. WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPT.

• Decision Date: 05 February 2002
• Docket Number: Docket No. 220980.
• Citation: 639 N.W.2d 332,248 Mich. App. 457
• Parties: Fred C. PROCTOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

639 N.W.2d 332

248 Mich. App. 457

Fred C. PROCTOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT, Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 220980.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted May 9, 2001, at Grand Rapids.

Decided November 30, 2001, at 9:00 a.m.

Released for Publication February 5, 2002.

Adkinson, Need, Green & Allen, P.L.L.C. (by Gregory K. Need), Bloomfield Hills, for the defendant.

Fred C. Proctor, in propria persona.

Before COLLINS, P.J., and HOEKSTRA and GAGE, JJ.

GAGE, J.

This case involves plaintiff's request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), M.C.L. § 15.231 et seq. Plaintiff sought a circuit court order compelling defendant to provide plaintiff with certain information regarding a criminal investigation of plaintiff. The circuit court granted defendant's motion for summary disposition of plaintiff's complaint. Plaintiff appeals as of right. We affirm.

I

Plaintiff currently resides in a state prison in Jackson operated by the Department of Corrections. After a 1995 jury trial, plaintiff was convicted of first-degree felony murder, M.C.L. § 750.316, armed robbery, M.C.L. § 750.529, and two counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony, M.C.L. § 750.227b. The judgment of sentence ordered that plaintiff serve life imprisonment without parole for the felony-murder conviction, and a consecutive two-year term for the felony-firearm convictions. In October 1997, this Court affirmed plaintiff's convictions and sentences. People v. Proctor, unpublished opinion per curiam of the Court of Appeals, issued October 7, 1997 (Docket No. 188435). The Supreme Court denied plaintiff's application for leave to appeal his convictions. People v. Proctor, 459 Mich. 867, 584 N.W.2d 738 (1998).

On June 8, 1998, plaintiff authored a letter to defendant's chief of police, requesting various documents and information pertaining to defendant's investigation of plaintiff's and his accomplice's participation in the armed robbery and murder of the victim.¹ Plaintiff explained in his complaint that he sought the information "to support the issues [he] intends on [sic] raising in his Motion for Relief From Judgment." On June 15, 1998, defendant's Lieutenant Edward Harris mailed plaintiff a response denying his requests because he was "not entitled to information .... pursuant to M.C.L. § 15.231[ (2) ]." On June 18, 1998, plaintiff prepared a letter to Lieutenant Harris appealing the rejection of his request as an unconstitutional "denial of equal protection of law, as well as a due process violation." On June 25, 1998, Lieutenant Harris reiterated his denial of plaintiff's request for information, citing M.C.L. § 15.231(2) and 15.232(c).

On January 25, 1999, plaintiff filed the instant suit requesting that the circuit court order defendant's immediate disclosure of the information plaintiff requested. Plaintiff contended that (1) he had exhausted efforts to obtain the requested information elsewhere, and that consequently he possessed an exceptional need for the information to assist his preparation of his motion for relief from judgment, and (2) he unconstitutionally was deprived of a fair and neutral decisionmaker with respect to his FOIA requests because Lieutenant Harris, the individual who determined the outcome of plaintiff's requests, acted as the officer in charge of the criminal investigation of plaintiff.

Defendant responded by filing a motion for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116C(8) and (10), arguing that the FOIA plainly did not apply to incarcerated prisoners like plaintiff. On May 26, 1999, the circuit court issued an opinion and order granting defendant's motion pursuant to subrule C(8) because plaintiff, a prison inmate, "is not within the class of persons entitled to invoke the FOIA."

Plaintiff's motion for relief from judgment was denied in November 1999.

II

Plaintiff raises on appeal several challenges to the constitutionality of the FOIA provisions excluding prisoners from the coverage of the act. Although plaintiff failed to raise before the trial court some of his constitutional arguments, and the trial court did not address any constitutional claims, this Court nonetheless may consider these important questions. People v. Gezelman (On Rehearing), 202 Mich.App. 172, 174, 507 N.W.2d 744 (1993). The constitutionality of a statute is a question of law that we review de novo. Citizens for Uniform Taxation v. Northport Public School Dist., 239 Mich.App. 284, 287, 608 N.W.2d 480 (2000). We also review de novo the trial court's summary disposition ruling. Spiek v. Dep't of Transportation, 456 Mich. 331, 337, 572 N.W.2d 201 (1998).

In considering plaintiff's challenges to the constitutionality of the FOIA, this Court must adhere to the well-established rule that a statute is presumed constitutional unless its unconstitutionality is clearly apparent. McDougall v. Schanz, 461 Mich. 15, 24, 597 N.W.2d 148 (1999). The party challenging the statute bears the burden of overcoming the presumption of constitutionality. In re AH, 245 Mich. App. 77, 82, 627 N.W.2d 33 (2001). That a statute may appear undesirable, unfair, unjust, or inhumane does not of itself render the statute unconstitutional and empower a court to override the Legislature. Doe v. Dep't of Social Services, 439 Mich. 650, 681, 487 N.W.2d 166 (1992). Arguments that a statute is unwise or results in bad policy should be addressed to the Legislature. People v. Kirby, 440 Mich. 485, 493-494, 487 N.W.2d 404 (1992).

The FOIA provisions that plaintiff attacks as unconstitutional state in relevant part as follows:

It is the public policy of this state that all persons, except those persons incarcerated in state or local correctional facilities, are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and public employees, consistent with this act. The people shall be informed so that they may fully participate in the democratic process. [MCL 15.231(2) (emphasis added).]

As used in this act:

* * *

(c) "Person" means an individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, firm, organization, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. Person does not include an individual serving a sentence of imprisonment in a state or county correctional facility in this state or any other state, or in a federal correctional facility.[²] [MCL 15.232 (emphasis added).]

These provisions plainly and unambiguously exclude incarcerated prisoners from the class of persons entitled to obtain public records.³Seaton v. Wayne Co. Prosecutor (On Second Remand), 233 Mich.App. 313, 315-316, 590 N.W.2d 598 (1998).⁴ The incarcerated prisoner exclusions from coverage under the FOIA clearly intended to put a halt to the mischief and abuse of public resources caused by Michigan's prisoner population through excessive and largely frivolous FOIA requests. Id. at 322, 590 N.W.2d 598.

A

Plaintiff first contends that the FOIA's prisoner exclusions violate his constitutional guarantees of access to the courts. We agree with plaintiff's assertions that prisoners possess a due process right of reasonable access to the courts that guarantees them "adequate, effective, and meaningful" opportunities to present their claims. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 822, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977); see also Hall v. Hall, 128 Mich. App. 757, 759, 341 N.W.2d 206 (1983) ("It is well settled that a prisoner has a due process right of reasonable access to the courts."). However, the principles involving access to the courts that plaintiff cites in his brief on appeal do not support his assertion of a right to inspect defendant's records pursuant to the FOIA. All the cases plaintiff cites discuss to what extent prison officials must afford a prisoner access to legal resources, legal assistance, and a route for physically delivering the prisoner's pleadings to a court.⁵ In this case, plaintiff does not contend that he experienced any impediment to conducting legal research to support his motion for relief from judgment or to filing his motion with the court, and we perceive no indication that plaintiff suffered any interference with his fundamental right to an adequate, effective, and meaningful opportunity to present his motion for relief from judgment.⁶ Furthermore, plaintiff's exclusion from seeking public documents under the FOIA does not otherwise implicate plaintiff's constitutional rights. We emphasize that the FOIA provisions themselves are not of constitutional moment. They themselves do not invest plaintiff with a constitutional right to investigate government information.⁷

The FOIA is a mechanism through which the citizenry may examine and review the workings of government and its executive officials. The statute has in common with the state's liberal discovery rules that it came into existence as a manifestation of the trend to disclose information that previously had generally been kept secret. The FOIA embodies this state's strong public policy favoring public access to government information, recognizing the need that citizens be informed as they exercise their role in a democracy, and the need to hold public officials accountable for the manner in which they discharge their duties. [Messenger v. Ingham Co. Prosecutor, 232 Mich.App. 633, 641, 591 N.W.2d 393 (1998), citing M.C.L. § 15.231(2).]

We will not attempt to address the wisdom of the Legislature's determination to exclude incarcerated prisoners from eligibility to make FOIA requests for documents, Kirby, supra, but merely note that the right to make an FOIA request appears to be one of many privileges that a convicted and incarcerated prisoner forfeits through his commission of criminal acts.

Plaintiff seeks to raise a constitutional issue to the extent that he repeatedly submits that the information he seeks from defendant pursuant to...