Shabazz v. Campbell

63 S.W.3d 776, 2001 Tenn. App. LEXIS 508
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 19, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 S.W.3d 776 (Shabazz v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shabazz v. Campbell, 63 S.W.3d 776, 2001 Tenn. App. LEXIS 508 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

CAIN, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which CANTRELL, P.J., M.S. and COTTRELL, J., joined.

Appellant, a prison inmate, filed suit under the Tennessee Public Records Act against the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and others seeking disclosure to him of various records alleged to be public records, together with injunctive relief. The Chancellor dismissed the complaint with prejudice and we affirm the Chancellor.

Fred E. Dean filed suit July 30, 1999, in the Chancery Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, against Donal Campbell, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Corrections; Bob Bradford, Director of Health Services for TDOC; Ricky Bell, Warden of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution; Leon Olenick, Health Administrator at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution; Prison Health Services, Inc., a health care provider under contract with TDOC; the Institutional Warden at Laud-erdale County Correctional Center; Jim Blankenship, Health Administrator at Lauderdale County Correctional Center; [778]*778David G. Mills, Warden of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, and David P. Ro-gowski, acting Health Administrator at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, under the Tennessee Public Records Act seeking the production and delivery to him of various alleged public records.

On February 16, 2000, the Chancellor entered a Memorandum and Order providing:

Tennessee Code Annotated section 10-7-505 provides that any citizen who has requested personal inspection of a state, county or municipal record as provided in Tennessee Code Annotated section 10-7-503 and whose request has been in whole or in part denied by an official is entitled to petition the chancery court for the county in which the records sought are situated. Section 10-7-505(b) provides that the chancery court, upon the filing of the petition and the request of the petitioning party, shall issue an order requiring the defendant to immediately appear and show cause why the petition should not be granted.
In this case the petitioner, an inmate incarcerated at Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex, has filed a petition asserting that he has been denied access to records in violation of the Tennessee Public Records Act.
Before the Court are several motions: the petitioner’s motion to set a hearing for injunctive relief; the petitioner’s motion to file a supplemental complaint to add causes of action against two respondents: Sam DiNicola, director of training at the Tennessee Correction Academy, and the director of accreditation/compliance for the TDOC. Also before the Court is the motion of the respondents to dismiss.
The Court has reviewed the materials which the petitioner sought disclosure of under the Public Records Act. The Court finds that the requests numbered 5 through 26, 28 through 32 (the second request numbered 32) and request number 33 are not requests for inspection of a state, county or municipal record but, are instead, questions or interrogatories which are not required to be answered and are not rights provided under the Public Records Act.
However with respect to the petitioner’s requests 1, 2, 3, 4, 27 and 32 (the first request numbered 32), the Court requires the respondents to answer in writing, on or before March 31, 2000, why the petition as to those records should not be granted. Additionally, the respondents need to provide the Court with any argument and legal authority on whether the petitioner has a right to have the documents forwarded to the prison facility to view them before he determines which ones he wants copied or whether the only right the petitioner has under the Public Records Act, because he is incarcerated and cannot go to the place where the records are held to view them, is to pay for copies of the documents and have them sent to him without first being allowed to view the documents.
Consistent with the foregoing determination by the Court, the Court grants the respondents’ motion to dismiss as it pertains to petitioner’s requests for inspection numbered 5 through 26, 28 through 32 (the second request) and 33 on the grounds that the petitioner has failed to state a claim as to those requests because they are not records but are instead questions or interrogatories. The Court denies the respondents’ motion to dismiss as to petitioner’s requests 1 through 4, 27 and 32 (the first request number 32).
[779]*779The Court denies the petitioner’s request for a hearing for injunctive relief, instead having required the respondents to state in -writing why the petition should not be granted as to requests 1 through 4, 27 and 32 (the first request number 32).
Additionally, the Court denies the petitioner’s motion to file a supplemental complaint against two additional respondents. The reason for the denial is that such a complaint would be futile because those respondents do not have sufficient connection with furnishing records so as to be a respondent party under the Tennessee Public Records Act.
It is so ORDERED.

On June 8, 1999, Appellant had filed a request for what he termed “public records” with the state defendants with requests for disclosure as follows:

1. Copies of my institutional segregation unit record sheets for December 18, 1996 through March 22, 1997.
2. Copies of the unit administrative segregation encounter logs for December 18,1996 th[r]ough March 22, 1997.
3. Copies of the quality improvement reviews for 1996-98, that were submitted to the Statewide Quality Improvement Coordinator during 1996-98.
4. Please provide a copy of the quality improvement reviews for 1996-98 that were submitted to each of the named institutions, institutional improvement committee/person.
5. Please provide the names and duties of the Director of Nursing who was employed as such at each institution mentioned in this request from 1996-98.
6. Please provide the names and duties of the charge Nurse who was employed as such at each institution mentioned in this request from 1996-98.
7. Please provide any and all policies, protocols, memorandum, post-orders, directives, or any other document that sets forth the procedure that was used during 1996-98, to insure that an inmate received his medication according to an [sic] physician’s treatment plan at each institution mentioned in this request.
8. Please provide a detailed description of what the Institutional Warden and Health Administrator did to insure that inmates were provided with adequate medical care at each institution mentioned in this request during 1996-98. If this information is contained in any document, please produce.
9. Please produce any and all documents, policies, protocols, memorandums [sic], post-orders, directives, or any other document, that would show the training that nursing staff received in 1996-98 to effectively provide medical services in a prison setting at each institution mentioned in this request.
10.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 S.W.3d 776, 2001 Tenn. App. LEXIS 508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shabazz-v-campbell-tennctapp-2001.