Wallace McKelvey, PennLive, and The Patriot News v. Office of Attorney General

Summary

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court affirmed the Office of Attorney General’s denial of a Right-to-Know Law request for a Buckley Sandler investigative report. The court held that the request was limited to records existing when the request was filed and did not encompass appendices added when the report was later finalized. A concurring and dissenting opinion disagreed with that reasoning and would have treated the appendices as within the scope of the request.

Holdings

1. A Right-to-Know Law request is limited to records existing and in the agency's possession at the time of the request; a requester may not expand or modify the request on appeal to encompass materials created or incorporated later. Because the appendices were not part of the draft report and there was no evidence that they existed on August 31, 2016, they were not encompassed by the request.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the petitioners' August 31, 2016 Right-to-Know Law request encompassed appendices that were not part of the report and did not exist in that form when the request was made.
2. Whether the court should reach the petitioners' arguments concerning attorney-client privilege, attorney work-product protection, predecisional deliberations, the noncriminal-investigation exemption, waiver, and due process after determining that the appendices were outside the scope of the request.

Disposition

affirmed