Schwartzman v. Merritt Island Volunteer Fire Dept.
| Decision Date | 29 November 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 77-455,77-455 |
| Citation | 352 So.2d 1230 |
| Parties | Robert SCHWARTZMAN, Appellant, v. MERRITT ISLAND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, Donald Gilroy and Carl Schneider, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
S. Lindsey Holland, Jr. of Crofton, Holland, Starling, Harris & Severs, P. A., Melbourne, for appellant.
Malcolm R. Kirschenbaum of Wolfe, Kirschenbaum, Caruso & Mosley, P. A., Cocoa Beach, for appellees.
This is an appeal from a declaratory judgment holding that a nonprofit volunteer fire department is not an "agency" and its records are not "public records" within the purview of Chapter 119, Florida Statutes (1975).
We reverse.
The Merritt Island Volunteer Fire Department is a nonprofit corporation composed of public spirited citizens who volunteer, with virtually no recompense, to man the county owned fire fighting equipment on Merritt Island. In addition to performing this most valuable and essential function, thereby saving the county and taxpayers vast sums of money, these citizens also sell Christmas trees, hold chicken frys and cater banquets, donating much of the net income per annum generated therefrom to a large number of charitable projects. Included in such projects we find seven or eight leagues and associations such as lassie leagues, midget football, crippled children and a host of others.
The appellant is an investigative reporter for the Today newspaper who wishes to engage in a fishing expedition into all of the volunteer fire department's records because he claims that the department is subject to the Florida Public Records Act, § 119 Florida Statutes (1975), and we are compelled to agree.
Any fire department cannot help but be classified as an agency under the following definition in § 119.011(2):
(2) "Agency" shall mean any state, county, district, authority, or municipal officer, department, division, board, bureau, commission, or other separate unit of government created or established by law and any other public or private agency, person, partnership, corporation, or business entity acting on behalf of any public agency.
Likewise, "public records" in § 119.011(1) include all the following:
(1) "Public records" means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received, pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency.
The volunteer department argues that its membership files, minutes of its meetings and its charitable activities, for example, are not "official business" and that it is not an "agency" under the Act insofar as those matters are concerned. It also points out that other civic...
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