JAIME WOOTTON, APPELLANT,
v.
HENRY W. COOK, AS CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A Florida District Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of a mandamus petition brought by an inmate seeking to compel a county clerk to provide a list of documents and copying cost estimates. The court held that while public records custodians must respond to mail requests for copying costs and provide copies upon payment, they are not required to furnish pre-request lists of documents.
Mandamus does not lie to compel the clerk to provide a pre-request list of documents. However, the clerk must respond to mail requests for information about copying costs and must provide copies of specifically identified records upon payment of the appropriate fees.
[1] A custodian of public records must permit inspection and examination of records at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions, subject to supervision.
[2] A custodian of public records must furnish copies of records upon payment of the prescribed fee or the actual cost of duplication.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be inspected and examined by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under reasonable conditions, and under supervision by the custodian of the public record or his designee.”
Establishes the statutory duty of public records custodians under Florida Statutes Section 119.07(1)(a)
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceJaime Wootton, a Department of Corrections inmate, sought mandamus relief against Henry W. Cook, the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Duval County, Flor…
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PER CURIAM.
This cause is before us on appeal from an order denying appellant’s petition for writ of mandamus. At issue is whether mandamus should lie to compel appellee to correspond with appellant, a Department of Corrections inmate, and furnish him with a list of documents from a particular case file and a statement of charges for copying such documents.
Appellee’s duty, as a custodian of public records, is set forth in Section 119.-07(l)(a), Florida Statutes, which provides in pertinent part:
Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be inspected and examined by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under reasonable conditions, and under supervision by the custodian of the public record or his designee. The custodian shall furnish a copy or a certified copy of the record upon payment of the fee prescribed by law or, if a fee is not prescribed by law, for duplicated copies of not more than 14 inches by 8V2 inches, upon payment of 15 cents per one-sided copy, and for all other copies, upon payment of the actual cost of duplication of the record. An agency may charge no more than an additional 5 cents for each two-sided duplicated copy. For purposes of this section, duplicated copies shall mean new copies produced by duplicating, as defined in s. 283.30. The phrase “actual cost of duplication” means the cost of the material and supplies used to duplicate the record, but it does not include the labor cost or overhead cost associated with such duplication.
We do not read the statute as requiring appellee to furnish appellant with a list of documents which may be responsive to some forthcoming request. See Seigle v. Barry, 422 So. 2d 63, 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982), petition for review denied, 431 So. 2d 988 (Fla.1983) (records custodian need only make noncomputerized records available to a requestor in the format in which such records are kept).
Appellee must, however, make his records available to a requestor under reasonable conditions and must furnish copies of such records upon payment of copying costs. We hold that under the statute, appellee must respond to requests by mail for information as to copying costs. If a requestor identifies a record with sufficient specificity to permit appellee to identify it and forwards the appropriate fee, appellee must furnish by mail a copy of the record.
The order denying mandamus is affirmed.
BOOTH, SMITH and BARFIELD, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (18 total)
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Roesch v. State, 633 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1993)…sch in Campbell v. State, 593 So. 2d 1148 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992), the court said: Several cases have held that a prisoner is entitled to no greater relief than other persons requesting relief pursuant to chapter 119, Florida Statutes. Wootton v. Cook, 590 So. 2d 1039 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991); Yanke v. State, 588 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1991). A prisoner, therefore, would not be entitled to copies of the records without paying reasonable copying costs (Wootton, supra; Yanke, supra), nor would the prisoner be entitled t…
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In re Amendments to the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration-Reorganization of the Rules, 939 So. 2d 966 (Fla. 2006)…ourt Commentary The custodian is required to provide access to or copies of records but is not required either to provide information from records or to create new records in response to a request. Op. Atty. Gen. Fla. 80-57 (1980); Wootton v. Cook, 590 So. 2d 1039 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991); Seigle v. Barry, 422 So. 2d 63 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982). The writing requirement is not intended to disadvantage any person who may have difficulty writing a request; if any difficulty exists, the custodian should aid the re-questor…
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Woodard v. State, 885 So. 2d 444 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)…ormation as to copying costs and to furnish copies of records when the person requesting them identifies the portions of the record with sufficient specificity to permit the custodian to identify the record and forwards the fee. See Wootton v. Cook, 590 So. 2d 1039 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991). With respect to the document request addressed to the clerk of the circuit court, Woodard requested specific documents and requested information about the costs of copying them. Under Woot-ton, the clerk of the court had a duty…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Seigle v. Barry, 422 So. 2d 63 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)