State ex rel. Data Trace Info. Servs., LLC v Cuyahoga Cty. Fiscal Officer (Of Note)

Abstract: The Ohio Supreme Court granted the writ of mandamus to compel the Cuyahoga County fiscal officer to provide to relators copies of electronic images of all documents recorded in the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office.

State ex rel. Data Trace Info. Servs., LLC v Cuyahoga Cty. Fiscal Officer, 2012-Ohio-753, 131 Ohio St 3d 255, 963 NE2d 1288 (OH S Ct, 2010).

Summary:  The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that real estate records constitute public records, and must be available to the public at cost under the Ohio Public Records Act

Facts:  Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Recorder’s Office records and stores on computer systems, deeds and other instruments as digital images. Each day, the recordings are backed up on compact discs and made available for a fee of $50 per disc to relators who paid a $5,000 annual fee. All other electronic records of instruments could also be copied to discs upon request at a cost of $1 per disc. In the spring of 2010, the Cuyahoga County fiscal officer terminated this practice and began offering only paper printouts of the digitally copied instruments to relators for $2 per page. The fiscal officer asserted that relators Data Trace Information Services, L.L.C. and Property Insight, L.L.C owed $2 per page, or $208,564 each, for digitally imaged recordings requested from July through August 2010.

The relator LLCs requested a writ of mandamus to compel the fiscal officer of Cuyahoga County to reinstate the old policy and provide disc copies of requested records at cost in compliance with the Ohio Public Records Act. The fiscal officer argued that the electronically recorded documents did not “document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, operations, or other activities of the recorder’s office,” and therefor were not records for purposes of the Revised Code’s definition of “records.”  The fiscal officer also equated “photocopying” with “electronically copying” documents to support the assertion that the $2 per page cost was controlled by the revised code, which contained a provision defining the charge that shall be collected for photocopying.  A petition for a mandamus order can be made independent of any judicial proceeding and is often used to compel a judicial or government officer to perform a duty owed to the petitioner.

Holding:  The Ohio Supreme Court granted the writ of mandamus to compel the Cuyahoga County fiscal officer to provide to relators copies of electronic images of all documents recorded in the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office in July and August 2010 on compact discs at a cost of $1 per disc. The court determined that electronically recorded documents are records under the Revised Code, finding that the instruments the recorder’s office electronically records and stores in its computer system reflects the office’s compliance with statutory duties; thus electronic records manifestly “document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, operations, or other activities of the recorder’s office.” Without these recorded instruments, the recorder’s office could not perform its preeminent functions.

The Ohio Supreme Court was also unconvinced by the fiscal officer’s statutory explanation of the cost, finding that the Revised Code provides that the $2 per page fee may not be charged where the public records must be “available for inspection, without charge, to members of the public, including those that bring their own equipment to make copies of the records they inspect.” A related subsection to this provision of the Revised Code requires a public office to provide copies of public records ‘at cost’ which does not include labor costs. The court determined the actual cost to be $1 per disc.

Opinion Year: 
2012
Jurisdiction: 
Of Note
By: ATG Underwriting Department | Posted on: Fri, 05/18/2012 - 2:08pm