Michigan Court of Appeals Provides Guidance on Standing to File FOIA Lawsuit
In a recent published opinion of the Michigan Court of Appeals, Lesko v Supreme Felons, Inc, the Court addressed whether an individual had “standing” to appeal a denial of a request under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). Standing is a threshold to be able to file a claim, meaning that a person must have standing before a court will consider the actual issues in a lawsuit. A court will dismiss a lawsuit if the person filing the lawsuit lacks standing. Generally, the purpose of standing is to determine whether a person has a sufficient legal interest to challenge the actions of another party in court.
Under FOIA, a person has a right to inspect, copy, or receive copies of public records from a public body. A “person” does not have to be an individual for the purposes of FOIA, it could be a corporation, association, organization, or other legal entity. If a FOIA request is denied by a public body, the requesting person has the right to appeal that decision to the circuit court, and it is the “requesting person” who has standing to file a FOIA lawsuit. In Lesko, the Court provided clarification regarding who is the “requesting person” with standing for FOIA requests that are submitted by an individual on behalf of an entity.
In Lesko, the plaintiff worked for a newspaper, and she submitted two FOIA requests to the defendant seeking copies of documents from the defendant, which were denied. In the requests, the plaintiff stated that the newspaper was requesting the copies, that if the defendant denied the request, the newspaper’s only recourse would be to file a lawsuit, and that the newspaper was requesting electronic copies. Plaintiff signed the requests, but she used her title at the newspaper and included the name and contact information for the newspaper under her signature. However, after the defendant denied both FOIA requests, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit under FOIA only on behalf of herself as an individual.
The Court concluded that the plaintiff lacked standing to file the lawsuit because she was not a “requesting person” for the two FOIA requests. After reviewing the specific wording of the requests, the Court determined that the “requesting person” was the newspaper, not the plaintiff. Although the two requests were sent by the plaintiff and included the plaintiff’s signature, she stated that the newspaper was requesting the copies, that the newspaper would sue if the request was denied, and that the newspaper was requesting electronic copies. From this information, the Court concluded it was clear that she was only requesting the documents on behalf of the newspaper. As a result, the plaintiff did not have standing to file the FOIA lawsuit as an individual, and the lawsuit was dismissed.
A takeaway of this case is that public bodies facing FOIA litigation could potentially have a defense for lack of standing for requests that are submitted by an individual on behalf of an entity, if the entity is not named as the plaintiff in the lawsuit. This would depend on the specific wording of the FOIA request. In addition, if the facts are not as clear as they were in Lesko, a court could decide both the individual and the entity are “requesting persons” with standing to file a FOIA lawsuit. If that was the case, a motion to dismiss for lack of standing would likely not be successful, although the entity could need to be added as a party to the lawsuit.
If your municipality has questions regarding FOIA litigation or general questions about compliance with FOIA, please contact one of the members of our Local Government Practice Group.
