Opinion ID: 1293508
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Dismissal in the District Court

Text: Faced with this record, the district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment. First, the court held the Foundation was not a government body as contemplated in the Iowa Freedom of Information Act, and therefore its records were not public records. The court concluded the Foundation's history, purpose, activities and close ties to ISU did not make it a government body. Second, the court reasoned that funds donated directly to the Foundation in trust for ISU are Foundation funds and thus records relating to these private funds are not a matter of public record until they are dispersed to ISU. Although the court recognized that records relating to funds that ISU deposited with the Foundation as its agent were public funds and hence a matter of public record, the court declined to issue a writ of mandamus because the petitioners did not ask ISU for the documents. As a corollary matter, the court also ruled it was not a function of ISU to solicit and manage private donations and for this reason concluded ISU did not abdicate any of its functions to the Foundation in order to `prevent the examination of records or copying of a public record' in violation of Iowa Code [section 22.2(2)]. The petitioners appealed.