Petitioner Prevailed On This Score — 3 Requests Granted, 2 Requests Denied, and 2 Requests Informally Resolved.
Petitioner seeking records on mold presence in a school district’s properties was able to force district to comply by producing certain records in Garcia v. Governing Bd. of Bellflower Unified School Dist., Case No. B247320 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Oct. 24, 2013) (published). In the end, the lower court granted 3 of the requests, denied 2 of the requests, and found 2 of the requests were resolved through informal meet and confer discussions (although the lower court did find that district did fail to meet and confer adequately on some requests also). The lower court then awarded petitioner attorney’s fees of $9,787.82 under Government Code section 6259(d), a fee-shifting provision allowing recovery by a prevailing petitioner under California’s Public Records Act.
District’s challenge to the fee award did not succeed upon review by the Second District, Division 3.
The “prevailing party” definition under the Public Records Act fee-shifting provision mimics the “successful party” definition under California’s private attorney general statute (CCP § 1021.5). Here, petitioner did achieve some success and did prevail on 3 requests as well as forced compliance on 2 other requests. This satisfied the fee entitlement “success” factor under the Public Records Act.