Scheeler v. Atl. Cnty. Mun. Joint Ins. Fund

• Decision Date: 16 May 2018
• Docket Number: A–2704–15T2,DOCKET NO. A–2092–15T2,A–2716–15T2
• Citation: 454 N.J.Super. 621,186 A.3d 930
• Parties: Harry SCHEELER, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. ATLANTIC COUNTY MUNICIPAL JOINT INSURANCE FUND, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc., in its capacity as the Fund Administrator, and Paul J. Miola, in his capacity as the Custodian of Records for Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund, Defendants–Appellants. Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C., Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Atlantic City Board of Education, a public agency formed under the laws of the State of New Jersey and Angela Brown, in her professional capacity as Records Custodian for the Atlantic City of Board of Education, Defendants–Respondents. Harry Scheeler, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. City of Cape May and Louise Cumminskey, in her capacity as Records Custodian for the City of Cape May, Defendants–Respondents.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

454 N.J.Super. 621

186 A.3d 930

Harry SCHEELER, Plaintiff–Respondent,

v.ATLANTIC COUNTY MUNICIPAL JOINT INSURANCE FUND, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc., in its capacity as the Fund Administrator, and Paul J. Miola, in his capacity as the Custodian of Records for Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund, Defendants–Appellants.

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C., Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Atlantic City Board of Education, a public agency formed under the laws of the State of New Jersey and Angela Brown, in her professional capacity as Records Custodian for the Atlantic City of Board of Education, Defendants–Respondents.

Harry Scheeler, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.City of Cape May and Louise Cumminskey, in her capacity as Records Custodian for the City of Cape May, Defendants–Respondents.

DOCKET NO. A–2092–15T2

A–2704–15T2

A–2716–15T2

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Submitted December 5, 2017

Decided May 16, 2018

Birchmeier & Powell, LLC, attorneys for appellants in A–2092–15 (James R. Birchmeier, Tuckahoe, on the briefs).

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey Foundation, attorneys for appellant in A–2704–15 (Iris Bromberg, Edward L. Barocas, and Jeanne LoCicero, on the briefs).

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, PC, attorneys for respondent (in A–2092–15) and appellant (in A–2716–15) Harry Scheeler (CJ Griffin, of counsel and on the brief; Suzanne Bradley, on the briefs).

Birchmeier & Powell, LLC, attorneys for respondents in A–2716–15 (Anthony P. Monzo and Louis A. DeLollis, on the brief).

Law Offices of Riley and Riley, attorneys for respondent in A–2704–15 (Tracy L. Riley and Rachel M. Conte, on the brief).

McCusker, Anselmi, Rosen & Carvelli, PC, attorneys for amici curiae The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 18 Media Organizations in A–2092–15 (Bruce Brown, Katie Townsend, and Adam A. Marshall, of counsel; Bruce S. Rosen, on the brief).

William J. Kearns, Jr., General Counsel, for amici curiae New Jersey State League of Municipalities and Municipal Clerks Association of New Jersey in A–2716–15 (Edward Purcell, Associate Counsel, Morristown, on the brief).

Law Offices of Walter M. Luers, LLC, attorneys for amici curiae The Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access and The National Association of Professional Background Screeners in A–2716–15 (Walter M. Luers and Raymond M. Baldino, of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges Reisner, Hoffman, and Mayer.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

REISNER, P.J.A.D.

These three appeals, which we consolidated for purposes of this opinion, present the same issue: Does a person who is not a resident or domiciliary of New Jersey have standing to file a request for public records under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), or are rights under OPRA restricted to "citizens" of New Jersey?

We conclude that the reference to "citizens"—found in N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1 and nowhere else in OPRA—expresses the Legislature's general intent to make New Jersey government records open to the public, rather than expressing an intent to limit access to only New Jersey residents or domiciliaries. Because the more specific provisions of OPRA refer to "any person," and because OPRA is to be construed broadly to achieve the Legislature's over-arching goal of making public records freely available, we conclude that the right to request records under OPRA is not limited to "citizens" of New Jersey.

Accordingly, we affirm the October 8, 2015 and December 24, 2015 orders on appeal in A–2092–15.¹ We reverse the orders on appeal in A–2704–15 and A–2716–15, and remand those cases to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I

The appeals present a purely legal issue, as to which our review is de novo. See Manalapan Realty, LP v. Twp. Comm. of Manalapan, 140 N.J. 366, 378, 658 A.2d 1230 (1995). However, we set forth some brief background concerning each case.

In A–2092–15, Harry Scheeler, an open government activist who moved from New Jersey to North Carolina in 2014, submitted an OPRA request seeking records from Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund (ACMJIF), ACMJIF's fund administrator, and its records custodian (collectively, defendants). Specifically, he sought records concerning legal bills submitted for payment for lawsuits filed against Hamilton Township, Atlantic County. Defendants provided some of the records, but declined to provide what they characterized as "confidential and privileged memos" for ongoing litigation. After Scheeler filed an OPRA lawsuit in Burlington County, defendants contended that he had no standing to request documents under OPRA because he was not a citizen of New Jersey.

In a series of well-reasoned written opinions, Judge Bookbinder concluded that the right to request public records under OPRA is not limited to New Jersey citizens. He also found that the "confidential memos" were not memoranda at all, but were simply detailed legal invoices. The judge concluded that OPRA required defendants to produce them, but he permitted defendants to redact any attorney-client privileged material or work product. Defendants subsequently produced the records, with redactions. The judge also awarded Scheeler counsel fees for the litigation, pursuant to OPRA. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A–6.

In A–2716–15, Scheeler filed a similar OPRA lawsuit against the City of Cape May, seeking records concerning government spending on legal services. In that case, another trial judge dismissed the complaint, reasoning that only New Jersey citizens had standing to request public records under OPRA. The judge was particularly concerned with the burden Scheeler's requests placed on local government resources, asking rhetorically:

At the time the OPRA was adopted, did the members of the New Jersey Legislature contemplate that they were authorizing an out of state gadfly to repeatedly bombard local governments with demands to produce public records?

In A–2704–15, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR), a national non-profit civil rights organization, sought records from the Atlantic City Board of Education (Board), concerning school level enrollment and disciplinary data. The same judge who dismissed Scheeler's case against Cape May also dismissed LCCR's OPRA complaint against the Board on standing grounds.

II

The issue presented in these three appeals revolves around a phrase used in the first paragraph of N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1. The municipal defendants rely on the following language:

The Legislature finds and declares it to be the public policy of this State that:

government records shall be readily accessible for inspection, copying, or examination by the citizens of this State....

[ N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1 (emphasis added).]

In construing a statute, we first consider its language. In re Kollman, 210 N.J. 557, 568, 46 A.3d 1247 (2012). Ordinarily, if the statutory language is unambiguous, our task is complete and we need not look further. DiProspero v. Penn, 183 N.J. 477, 492–93, 874 A.2d 1039 (2005). However, if a word or phrase is ambiguous, we then consider the context in which the language appears, the language of the statute as a whole, the statute's purpose, and its history. See Wilson ex rel. Manzano v. City of Jersey City, 209 N.J. 558, 572, 39 A.3d 177 (2012). In construing a statute, we must be faithful to the Legislature's intent in enacting it. See Sussex Commons Assocs., LLC v. Rutgers, 210 N.J. 531, 540–41, 46 A.3d 536 (2012). We should, therefore, avoid literal interpretations of words or phrases that will produce an absurd result, contrary to the legislative purpose. Id. at 541, 46 A.3d 536.

In using the term "citizens of this State," the Legislature arguably created an ambiguity in N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1. However, we conclude that any ambiguity is easily resolved. Reading N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1 sensibly, bearing in mind the context in which the phrase "citizens of this State" is used, the terms the Legislature used in the rest of OPRA, and considering the statute's history and purpose, we cannot conclude that the Legislature intended to preclude out-of-state residents from making OPRA requests.

The term "citizen" appears in the above-quoted section of N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1, and in its last paragraph:

[A] public agency has a responsibility and an obligation to safeguard from public access a citizen’s personal information with which it has been entrusted when disclosure thereof would violate the citizen's reasonable expectation of privacy ....

[Ibid. (emphasis added).]

Clearly the term "citizen" in the last paragraph does not refer to New Jersey residents. It would produce an absurd result if the government were only required to protect personal information of New Jersey residents and could freely disseminate medical records, school transcripts, and other personal information of out-of-state residents. It is more logical to construe the term "citizen" as simply meaning "a person" or "an individual."

Although OPRA has an extensive definitions section, N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1.1, "citizen" is not defined. Other than in N.J.S.A. 47:1A–1, the term does not appear anywhere else in the statute. Rather, the remaining sections of OPRA use the term "person" or "requestor."

Significantly, section five of OPRA, which specifically addresses the obligation to produce records, uses the terms "person" or "requestor." N.J.S.A. 47:1A–5(a) provides that a government records custodian "shall permit the record to be inspected, examined, and copied by any person during regular business hours ...." (emphasis added). Subsection (b) provides that "[a] copy or copies of a government record may be purchased by any person upon payment of the fee prescribed by law or regulation." N.J.S.A. 47:1A–5(b) (emphasis added). Subsection (c) permits "[t]he requestor" to review and object to a charge for copying public records. N.J.S.A. 47:1A–5(c). Subsections (f) and (i) indicate that anonymous OPRA requests are permitted, which...