Request By:
Mr. Jon T. Fowler, III
Acting Director of Law
City of Louisville
City Hall
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
WHAS, Inc., through its attorney, Mr. Jon L. Fleischaker, has appealed to the Attorney General under the provisions of KRS 61.880(2) regarding the handling of a request to inspect certain public records. The records in question were all documents pertaining to the law suit styled Michael Wayne Seals v. City of Louisville, et al., U.S.D.C. No. C 76-0372-L(A). The requester complains that your response by letter dated December 12, 1977, failed to comply with the Open Records Law on two counts: (1) the response was deficient as to form; (2) access to the records should not have been denied.
As directed by KRS 61.880(2) the Attorney General issues the following opinion.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion that your letter of response is insufficient as to form under the statute in that it does not state the specific reason upon which you are withholding inspection of the record. The requester asked to inspect all records regarding the settlement of the case in question. In your reply you stated: "Any and all records regarding settlement are, of course, not discoverable under the Kentucky Open Records Statute."
KRS 61.880(1) provides, inter alia, "Any agency response denying, in whole or in part, inspection of any record shall include a statement of the specific exception authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exception applies to the record withheld."
You also failed to comply with the form of the Open Records Law in that you did not send a copy of your response to the Attorney General as required by KRS 61.880(2).
As to whether inspection of the settlement record was properly denied, we know of no provision in the statute which exempts such records from public inspection. We, therefore, cannot agree with your statement that the records are not covered by the Open Records Statute. The case of
Courier Journal v. McDonald, Ky., 524 S.W.2d 633, indicates that settlements of civil suits by a city were subject to full public disclosure even before the enactment of the Open Records Statute in 1976. The purpose of the Open Records Statute was to make records more available to the public than they were heretofore. It therefore appears that under common law and statutory provisions the public has the right to all the information regarding the settlement of a civil suit by the city.
As provided by KRS 61.880(2), we are sending a copy of this opinion to the requester.