Stop & Shop filed a declaratory judgment lawsuit against Bergen County after a record was first disclosed to them with a 2nd OPRA request several years after their first request. The record, though responsive to the first request, was not specifically requested. In this particular set of circumstances, the Appellate Court rejected the suit, in part because the requestor already had the record.
NJFOG VP attorney Walter Luers points out that “OPRA only provides a remedy for denials of access. That is how the law is written. Under the Court’s description of the facts of the case, Stop and Shop was already given copies of the records it sought before it filed a lawsuit. The Court won’t allow OPRA lawsuits when the documents have already been provided; that was the law before this case was published.”
NJ Open Government Notes
Appellate Division rebuffs OPRA requestor’s Declaratory Judgment Act lawsuit.
by John Paff
June 14, 2017