Lady Justice
DALLAS - The 15th Court of Appeals on Thursday sided with the Dallas Morning News over the City of Dallas in a Texas Public Information Act dispute.
According to the court’s opinion, an employee for the paper submitted a PIA request to the city for information related to its Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. The city had already provided the information to the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development after it had requested the documents for its investigation of allegedly discriminatory housing practices.
The city turned to the Office of the Attorney General and the AG determined that some of the information requested by the Dallas Morning News was not subject to the litigation exception because the city had already disclosed the requested information to HUD.
The city disagreed and filed suit against the AG, leading the paper to intervene and ask the court to compel the city to produce the documents.
Court records show the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Dallas Morning News, awarding the paper s $53,585.41 in attorney fees.
“When the PIA is properly construed, we find no error in the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for Dallas Morning News,” the opinion states.
“Having found no support in the City’s cited authority for its position that it could assert a new theory for the first time in this litigation that it failed to raise before the Attorney General, we hold that the trial court could have reasonably determined that the City had no reasonable bases in law for withholding the Information.”
Chief Justice Scott Brister authored a concurring opinion, stating that the city never explained why the paper’s request reflected a subversion of the courts’ role to oversee discovery in litigation.
City Attorney Tammy Palomino represented Dallas.
The Haynes and Boone law firm represented the paper.
Appeals case No. 15-24-00081-CV
