Lueders v. Krug

2019 WI App 36, 931 N.W.2d 898, 388 Wis. 2d 147
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedJune 5, 2019
DocketAppeal No. 2018AP431
StatusPublished

This text of 2019 WI App 36 (Lueders v. Krug) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lueders v. Krug, 2019 WI App 36, 931 N.W.2d 898, 388 Wis. 2d 147 (Wis. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

GUNDRUM, J.

*149¶1 Scott Krug appeals from an order granting mandamus relief to Bill Lueders and ordering Krug to produce "electronic copies" of records Lueders sought through an open records request. We affirm.

Background

¶2 On June 21, 2016, Lueders e-mailed Krug a request to review, under Wisconsin's open records law,

any and all citizen correspondence , including phone records, sent and/or received by Representative Krug or his/her staff, beginning January 1 through and including April 8, 2016, related to the following search terms:
AB600/SB459; AB603/SB477; AB804/SB654; AB874/SB239; stewardship fund; DNR scientists; state parks; conservation staff; high capacity wells; groundwater; lakeshore dredging; navigable waters; wetlands; water rights.

In response to this request, Krug's office made, as related to this case, paper printouts from responsive e-mails and arranged for Lueders to inspect and/or purchase copies of these printouts. On July 19, 2016, Lueders inspected the printouts and obtained copies of some of them. On July 21, 2016, Lueders e-mailed Krug requesting "to receive the records in electronic form." Lueders clarified he was requesting:

*150access to all emails received by your office is [sic] response to proposed changes to the state's water laws, from Jan. 1, 2016 to Feb. 29, 2016. This request *900is not for printed copies of these records; it is for the records in electronic form, as an email folder, or on a flash drive or CD.

¶3 Citing WIS. STAT. § 19.35(1)(b) (2017-18),1 Krug declined to provide Lueders with a copy of the e-mails in electronic form. That statutory provision states:

Except as otherwise provided by law, any requester has a right to inspect a record and to make or receive a copy of a record. If a requester appears personally to request a copy of a record that permits copying, the authority having custody of the record may, at its option, permit the requester to copy the record or provide the requester with a copy substantially as readable as the original.

Id. (emphasis added). Krug expressed to Lueders that the paper printouts he had previously provided for Lueders' inspection and copying satisfied the requirements of the open records law because they were "substantially as readable" as the e-mails themselves.

¶4 Lueders subsequently filed this mandamus action seeking an order directing Krug to provide him with an "electronic, native copy of the requested records." Both parties moved for summary judgment and agreed at a hearing on the motion that no material facts were in dispute. The circuit court granted Lueders' motion and denied Krug's. Krug appeals.

*151Discussion

¶5 Krug rests his appeal on his reading of WIS. STAT. § 19.35(1)(b), which he claims requires him to provide Lueders with "nothing more" than "copies of records that [were] 'substantially as readable' as the original." This argument calls upon us to interpret this statutory provision and apply it to the undisputed facts.

Where a circuit court, determining a petition for writ of mandamus, has interpreted Wisconsin's open records law ... and has applied that law to undisputed facts, we review the circuit court's decision de novo .... We do so ever mindful of the legislature's declaration of policy that "[ WIS. STAT. §§] 19.32 to 19.37 shall be construed in every instance with a presumption of complete public access, consistent with the conduct of governmental business."

State ex rel. Milwaukee Police Ass'n v. Jones , 2000 WI App 146, ¶11, 237 Wis. 2d 840, 615 N.W.2d 190 (alteration in original; citation omitted). We likewise review independently a circuit court's decision on summary judgment. Stone v. Board of Regents of the Univ. of Wis. Sys. , 2007 WI App 223, ¶9, 305 Wis. 2d 679, 741 N.W.2d 774.

¶6 Krug's appeal falters right out of the gate due to his erroneous reading of WIS. STAT. § 19.35(1)(b). The second sentence of this provision, upon which Krug hangs his entire appeal, reads: "If a requester appears personally to request a copy of a record ..., the authority having custody of the record may, at its option, permit the requester to copy the record or provide the requester with a copy substantially as *152readable as the original." Id. (emphasis added). The plain reading of this sentence dictates that the language "the authority having custody of the record may, at its option, permit the requester to copy the record or provide the requester with a copy substantially as readable as the original" only comes into play "[i ]f a requester appears personally to request a copy of a record." Id. (emphasis added). The legislature chose to include this clause, and we are bound by that choice. Because there is no dispute Lueders did not "appear[ ] personally" *901to request the records he sought with either his first or his second, enhanced request, but instead made both requests by e-mail, the "provid[ing] the requester with a copy substantially as readable as the original" language simply does not apply at all. To hold otherwise, would require us to ignore the first clause of that sentence, which we are not at liberty to do. See Grebner v. Schiebel , 2001 WI App 17, ¶11, 240 Wis. 2d 551, 624 N.W.2d 892 (2000) ("When interpreting a statute, it must be read so every portion of the statute is given meaning.").

¶7 Though the text is so plain we need not expound upon it, we nonetheless note that this second sentence of WIS. STAT. § 19.35(1)(b) previously read: "If a requester requests a copy of the record

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Related

Grebner v. Schiebel
2001 WI App 17 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2000)
State Ex Rel. Milwaukee Police Ass'n v. Jones
2000 WI App 146 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2000)
State Ex Rel. Borzych v. Paluszcyk
549 N.W.2d 253 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1996)
Stone v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
2007 WI App 223 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2007)
John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, Inc. v. Erpenbach
2014 WI App 49 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
2019 WI App 36, 931 N.W.2d 898, 388 Wis. 2d 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lueders-v-krug-wisctapp-2019.