Forum Publishing Company v. City of Fargo

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Forum Publishing Company vs. City of Fargo Number: 391 N.W.2d 169, 172 Year: 1986 State: North Dakota Court: North Dakota Supreme Court Other lawsuits in North Dakota Other lawsuits in 1986 Precedents include: This case established a number of important precedents: This case affirmed the definition of agency found in Grand Forks Herald v. Lyons, which defined agencies of public bodies to be all entities who have been contracted by the public bodies to provide a typically governmental function. This prevents public bodies from concealing public records in private corporations. This case affirmed the decision in City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald, which established that personal records of public employees are public records subject to the act.

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Forum Publishing Company v. City of Fargo was a case before the North Dakota Supreme Court in 1986 concerning the applicability of open records statutes to private corporations.

Important precedents

This case established a number of important precedents:

1. This case affirmed the definition of agency found in Grand Forks Herald v. Lyons, which defined agencies of public bodies to be all entities who have been contracted by the public bodies to provide a typically governmental function. This prevents public bodies from concealing public records in private corporations.
2. This case affirmed the decision in City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald, which established that personal records of public employees are public records subject to the act.

Background

• In January 1986, the Fargo Police Chief announced his retirement effective immediately. The city of Fargo decided to hire an outside firm, Personnel Decisions, Inc. (PDI), to assist in the selection of the new police chief. Under the agreement, PDI was required to review all of the applicants and submit 6 names for further review. These six names would be reviewed by a committee composed of members of PDI and citizens of Fargo who were to be appointed by the city. This final committee would submit its recommendation for police chief.
• The 45 applications for the position were mailed directly to PDI.
• After all applications had been received, Forum Publishing requested copies of all the applications from the city under the North Dakota Open Records Statute.
• When the city failed to produce the material, the newspaper filed suit seeking to compel the release of the documents.
• The district court ruled in favor of the newspaper and the city appealed the decision.
• After the ruling but before the appeal, the city released the documents in question to the newspaper.

Ruling of the court

The district court ruled in favor of the newspaper, ordering the release of the documents. The court determined that the applications were in fact public records and ordered the city to obtain copies of the applications from PDI. The city was then forced to notify applicants of the release of the documents and consequentially release any applications that had not been withdrawn.

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court. First, the Supreme Court rejected the contention that the trial was moot due to the release of the documents arguing that the case held a great deal of public interest and could repeat in the future, which may hamper future efforts to hire public employees and fill positions in a timely manner. The court went on to cite City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald to determine that personal files, even application files, are not exempt under the law and are thus public records subject to the act. The court went on to reject the contention that the records are not in the possession of the city, but are instead in the possession of a private contractor, PDI. The court defended this position by citing the definition of agency, found in Grand Forks Herald v. Lyons, which was construed "to mean a relationship created by law or contract whereby one party delegates the transaction of some lawful business to another." The court determined that PDI was in fact an agency of the city, insofar as it was performing a governmental function that would have been required of the city had it not contracted out. The court summarized this, stating "We do not believe the open-record law can be circumvented by the delegation of a public duty to a third party, and these documents are not any less a public record simply because they were in the possession of PDI." Based on these determinations, the court affirmed the decision of the trial court and ordered the documents released.

Associated cases

• City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald
• Grand Forks Herald v. Lyons

External links

• Ruling of the Court

Footnotes

North Dakota sunshine lawsuits
Lawsuit Year City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald 1981 Forum Publishing Company v. City of Fargo 1986 Grand Forks Herald v. Lyons 1960