Crews v. Willows Unified School Dist

Crews v. Willows Unified School Dist. (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 1368, involved a PRA request by a newspaper publisher seeking one year of e-mails to and from the superintendent of the Willows Unified School District (District). The District indicated that it would comply with what the appellate court later characterized as a "burdensome request," and ultimately turned over 60,000 e-mails, with only 3,200 pages withheld under claims of privilege. (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1371-1372.) On the day the District had previously indicated that it would begin turning over the requested e-mails, Crews filed a PRA petition in the superior court seeking to compel production of the promised documents. After reviewing the withheld documents in camera, the trial court concluded that the District had not improperly withheld any public records. It denied the petition and, finding it to be "clearly frivolous," awarded attorney fees and costs to the District in the amount of $56,595.50. (Id. at pp. 1372-1373, 1377.) Specifically, the trial court found the petition frivolous because it failed to result in any benefit to Crews, as the District was already complying with his request at the time he served the petition on the agency. (Id. at p. 1377.) In Crews, the court adopted the Flaherty paradigm when analyzing whether PRA litigation was "clearly frivolous" for purposes of section 6259, subdivision (d). (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1380-1383.) Although Flaherty did not involve a finding of clear frivolousness, the Third District reasonably concluded that "the addition of the adverb 'clearly' to frivolous does not change the test for purposes of section 6259, subdivision (d). Since a frivolous action is one entirely lacking in merit, there can be no lower standard for a 'clearly frivolous' action." (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at p. 1381.) The appellate court reversed the award of fees and costs. In particular, it concluded that the petition was not clearly frivolous because Crews used it (1) to confirm that the District had not improperly withheld any public records, and (2) to challenge whether the District should properly have produced the e-mails in their "native" format rather than in portable document format (PDF). (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1373-1374, 1382-1385.) Although the petition failed to generate the disclosure of any improperly withheld documents and Crews's attempt to obtain the e-mails in "native" format was ultimately unsuccessful, the Third District concluded that the petition was not completely lacking in merit or brought for an improper purpose. Thus, an award of fees and costs to the District pursuant to section 6259, subdivision (d) was improper. (Id. at pp. 1383-1385.) The Third District noted that de novo review of an award of fees and costs is appropriate "'where the determination of whether the criteria for an award of attorney fees and costs in this context have been satisfied amounts to statutory construction and a question of law.'" (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at p. 1379.) Since an award of attorney fees and costs to a public agency pursuant to section 6259, subdivision (d), requires consideration of whether the PRA request at issue was frivolous within the meaning of that statute, the Crews court concluded that independent review of such a determination is warranted. (Crews, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at p. 1379.)