Crutchfield v. New Mexico Department of Taxation & Revenue

2005 NMCA 022, 106 P.3d 1273, 137 N.M. 26
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 27, 2004
Docket23,550
StatusPublished
Cited by224 cases

This text of 2005 NMCA 022 (Crutchfield v. New Mexico Department of Taxation & Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crutchfield v. New Mexico Department of Taxation & Revenue, 2005 NMCA 022, 106 P.3d 1273, 137 N.M. 26 (N.M. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} This appeal raises an issue of the State’s duty under public records statutes to provide an electronic database to a commercial user, butting two statutory policies relating to a citizen’s access to public records against one another and requiring this Court to wrestle with whether the State can protect its interests by setting conditions and charging a royalty for use of its electronic database.

{2} Appellants Joe Crutchfield and Crutchfield Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a GA-Search Energy Intelligence (together, Crutchfield) appeal the district court’s denial of their petition for a writ of mandamus to enforce provisions of the Inspection of Public Records Act (the IPRA), NMSA 1978, §§ 14-2-1 to -12 (1947, as amended through 2003). Crutchfield sought a writ of mandamus, pursuant to Section 14-2-12 of the IPRA, to obtain certain records relating to severance taxes paid on oil and gas wells located in New Mexico. The key request was for complete electronic copies of the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue’s (the Department’s) severance tax database and any updates or corrections to that database. With the records requested, Crutchfield intended to create a commercial information database product for purchase and use by the oil and gas industry. The Department would not provide the database.

{3} In denying Crutchfield a writ of mandamus, the district court concluded that Crutchfield’s request was governed by NMSA 1978, § 14-3-15.1(C)(l)-(5) (1995) of the Public Records Act (PRA), NMSA 1978, §§ 14-3-1 to -23 (1959, as amended through 2002), and not the IPRA. Section 14-3-15.1(C) essentially provides that a computerized database of a public record may be provided for a commercial purpose under certain conditions, including the user’s agreement “to pay a royalty or other consideration to the state as may be agreed upon by the state agency that created the database.” § 14-3-15.1(C)(5). We agree with the district court and affirm.

BACKGROUND

{4} Crutchfield operates a business in Texas that provides information on a monthly basis by way of electronic or CD-rom service to paying subscribers in several states. The information consists of oil and gas pricing, well output, taxation, and other information. Following unsuccessful negotiations between Crutchfield and the Department, Crutchfield made an IPRA request for records relating to all oil and gas wells located in New Mexico. See § 14r-2-8 (setting out procedure under IPRA for requesting records). Certain requests sought electronic copies of the complete severance tax database, including updates and corrections to the database, and sought this data continuously and on a monthly basis.

{5} The Department’s response rejected the requests for the database and continuing updates. The Department relied for its rejection on Section 14-3-15.1(C)(l), (2), (4), and (5). Section 14-3-15.1(0 states:

C. The state agency that has inserted data in a database may authorize a copy to be made of a computer tape or other medium containing a computerized database of a public record for any person if the person agrees:
(1) not to make unauthorized copies of the database;
(2) not to use the database for any political or commercial purpose unless the purpose and use is approved in writing by the state agency that created the database;
(3) not to use the database for solicitation or advertisement when the database contains the name, address or telephone number of any person unless such use is otherwise specifically authorized by law;
(4) not to allow access to the database by any other person unless the use is approved in writing by the state agency that created the database; and
(5) to pay a royalty or other consideration to the state as may be agreed upon by the state agency that created the database.

In addition, the Department stated: “Rather than seeking to find a commercial vendor for such information, the [Department] elects to keep this information free. Much of the information is already available at our website. We anticipate making more information available there as our budget[ ] allows.” The Department’s public position was that it sought to provide information it chose to release in an electronic format available, free of charge, on its own website.

{6} Crutchfield was unwilling to pay royalties to the Department and the Department was unwilling to enter into a licensing agreement with Crutchfield. Crutchfield was not satisfied with obtaining information from the Department’s website because, from Crutch-field’s own search of the website that contained data from the State’s ONGARD computer system, Crutchfield concluded that “the website must be searched one Production Unit Number (PUN) at a time and the data processed by the State’s software delivers only one PUN at a time.” He also concluded that “the ONGARD System website would not allow the user to have comprehensive access to the complete severance tax databases as [Crutchfield] has requested.” Further, using the ONGARD system on the website was burdensome in that Crutchfield was able to search only “20 PUNs” at a time, and there were “20,000 PUNs” in New Mexico. The information on the website was less complete than the database that Crutchfield requested. Crutchfield wanted to receive more complete information, much more quickly, by way of electronic transfer of the entire database, thereby making his product saleable in a timely manner.

{7} The district court determined that, while the records requested were public records, the format in which the records were requested and the frequency with which they were requested to be supplied “separate[d] them from the broader application of [the IPRA].” Were Crutchfield to have been satisfied with the information in typed or printed format, the court found, Crutchfield could have received the information upon the payment of a reasonable fee for the service. See § 14-3-15.1(A) (providing for release of information contained in information systems databases, in printed or typed format, upon the payment of a reasonable fee for the service). “[Crutchfield], however, specifically requested a computer tape, microdisk, ZIP disk, or CD rom transfer of the database,” and, therefore, the court determined that Section 14 — 3—15.1(C), which authorizes “a copy to be made of ... a computerized database,” applied.

{8} Among its findings, the court noted that Crutchfield and the Department appeared to have been on different tracks up to the time of the hearing on Crutchfield’s petition in regard to what Crutchfield was actually requesting. The court thought that the testimony at the hearing indicated there had been confusion about the format of the database requested. According to the court, until the hearing on Crutchfield’s petition, the Department thought Crutchfield wanted a collated database which would have required the Department to create a record that did not exist.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2005 NMCA 022, 106 P.3d 1273, 137 N.M. 26, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crutchfield-v-new-mexico-department-of-taxation-revenue-nmctapp-2004.