1A Docket First Amendment · Utah

Third District, then Utah Supreme Court · 050909118 / 20060813

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Automated Geographic Reference Center

Requester won Judicial review

Forum
Third District, then Utah Supreme Court
Case number
050909118 / 20060813
Decided
Dec 23, 2008
Outcome
Requester won
Underlying case
Closed. Decided December 23, 2008; reversed, with access ordered.

What the court held

  • SUWA asked the Automated Geographic Reference Center for mapping and GIS records on claimed R.S. 2477 rights-of-way in Emery County. The centre denied the request, the State Records Committee upheld the denial as work product, and the district court granted the agency summary judgment.
  • The Supreme Court reversed. The records exist because a statute requires the centre to create and maintain them, so they are made in the ordinary course of business and are presumptively public.
  • The court also rejected the attorney-client, draft and unreasonable-duplication defences, holding a request to one agency does not duplicate a request to another.

Docket · filings

1 filing
Dec 23, 2008Utah Supreme Court
The opinionSupreme Court opinion
PDF
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