Willis v. Kansas Highway Patrol, 273 Kan. 123

Summary

The Supreme Court of Kansas considered whether a university newspaper editor was entitled to a peremptory writ of mandamus and attorney fees after the Kansas Highway Patrol initially denied access to a fatal-accident report. The court held that the legal right to disclosure was not sufficiently clear for peremptory mandamus because of the unresolved interaction between Kansas accident-reporting statutes and the Kansas Open Records Act's criminal-investigation-records exception. It affirmed the denial of attorney fees because the agency acted in good faith and had a reasonable legal basis for withholding the report.

Holdings

1. The denial of a peremptory order of mandamus was proper because Willis did not establish a clear right to require release of the report through that specific remedy.
2. The district court properly denied attorney fees because the record did not establish that the KHP acted in bad faith and the KHP had a reasonable basis in fact or law for denying access.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court erred by denying a peremptory order of mandamus when it had already ordered the Kansas Highway Patrol to release the requested accident report.
2. Whether the district court erred by denying attorney fees under K.S.A. 45-222(c).

Disposition

affirmed