Court Opinion

ID: 9787287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:14:17.84863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:54.264871
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice SCHROEDER
Dissenting as to Section III A and C.
Analysis of this case begins with the standard of review.
The interpretation of a statute is a question of law over which this Court exercises free review. Martin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 138 Idaho 244, 246, 61 P.3d 601, 603 (2002). “The starting point for any statutory interpretation is the literal wording of the statute, and the court will give the statute’s language its plain, obvious and rational meaning.” Id.
Certain Underwriters At Lloyds, London v. Wolleson, 141 Idaho 740, 741, 118 P.3d 72, 73 (2005).
The social desirability of a result must yield the language of the statutes, unless that language transgresses a constitutional standard. No such transgression is asserted in this case.
The Beef Cattle Environmental Control Act requires beef cattle animal feeding operations to submit NMPs to the ISDA for approval. When an operation receives approval of its NMP, it enjoys immunity from state enforcement actions due to violations of state water quality standards, except in limited circumstances. Idaho Code § 22-4906 of the Beef Cattle Environmental Control Act provides:
Each beef cattle animal feeding operation shall submit a nutrient management plan to the director for approval. Beef cattle animal feeding operations that are operating on or before July 1, 2000, shall submit a nutrient management plan to the director for approval no later than January 1, 2005. Any new operation commencing operations after July 1, 2000, shall not operate prior to the director’s approval of a nutrient management plan. An approved nutrient management plan shall be implemented and considered a best management practice. Folloiving department review and approval, the plan, and all copies of the plan, shall be returned to the operation and maintained on site. Such plans shall be available to the administrator on request.
(Amendment in italics). The legislature amended I.C. § 22-4906 of the Beef Cattle Environmental Control Act to include the last two sentences. The amendment became effective July 1, 2004, and the ISDA returned all beef cattle feedlot NMPs, and all copies thereof, to the beef cattle feedlot operators as a result.
“Public record” is defined by the Idaho Code as “but is not limited to, any writing containing information relating to the conduct or administration of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state agency, independent public body corporate and politic or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.” I.C. § 9-337[ (12) ](11). The ISDA acknowledges that the NMPs of Aardema Heifer Lot and Conversion, Inc. are public records as defined by the Public Records Act when in its possession. The ICL relies upon I.C. § 9-338(1):
Every person has a right to examine and take a copy of any public record of this state and there is a presumption that all public records in Idaho are open at all reasonable times for inspection except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.
*372Idaho Code § 9-338(1) (emphasis added). The NMPs are not expressly exempt by statute but the amendment to I.C. § 22-4906 of the Beef Cattle Environmental Control Act took the NMPs out of the ISDA’s possession, custody, and control.
The Public Records Act provides that every person has a right to examine public records “except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.” I.C. § 9-338(1). Furthermore,
The right to copy public records shall include the right to make photographs or photographic or other copies while the records are in the possession of the custodian of the records using equipment provided by the public agency or independent public body corporate and politic or using equipment designated by the custodian.
I.C. § 9-338(2) (emphasis added). The Court dismisses this provision as insignificant in the decision. It is not. “Custodian” is defined in the Public Records Act as follows:
[T]he person having personal custody and control of the public records in question. If no such designation is made by the public agency or independent public body corporate and politic, then custodian means any public official having custody of, control of, or authorized access to public records and includes all delegates of such officials, employees or representatives.
I.C. § 9-337(2). While the ICL focuses on whether there has been an express exemption, the issue of whether the NMPs are to be disclosed rests on whether the ISDA is required to disclose the NMPs after they have been returned to the feedlot operators. This turns on the definition of “custodian.”
The district court found that the ISDA has a duty to disclose the NMPs after they are returned to the feedlot owner and based its ruling on the “authorized access” provision of I.C. § 9-337(2). It appears the district court was erroneous when it relied upon the default portion of the definition which provides that if there is no designated custodian, “then custodian means any public official having custody of, control of, or authorized access to public records.” I.C. § 9-337(2). The ISDA maintains and the record indicates that the Administrator of the ISDA’s Division of Animal Industries, John Chatburn, is the designated custodian for records maintained by the ISDA. The ICL did not dispute the ISDA’s claim below that Chatburn was the designated custodian below. However, the district court stated in its decision that “the ISDA had not designated a custodian for the Nutrient Management Plans.”
The district court did not indicate why it reached the conclusion that the ISDA had not designated a custodian, and the evidence, including the affidavit of Chatburn, suggests that there is a designated custodian. Regardless, the result does not depend on whether there was or was not a designated custodian. The default provision in the absence of a designated custodian (defining custodian as one with “authorized access to public records”) does not determine the definition of public records. The “authorized access” provision means that the custodian is a person who properly has access to the records within the agency’s possession, custody and control, e.g., a clerk in charge of records as opposed to a security guard or maintenance person whose job does not include the right of access to the records.
The situation is simplified if there is a designated custodian, but if there is not, the default provision should not be read to be broader than the disclosure required by a designated custodian. There is nothing to indicate that the legislature intended the default provision to be more far-reaching than that of the designated custodian, and such an interpretation does not follow. Anyone with the right to access the records within the agency’s possession, custody, and control should be able to respond to a Public Records Act request; this precludes a guard or the maintenance staff from being required to respond to the request.
Idaho law requires that approved NMPs be in the possession, custody, and control of the respective feedlot owners. Once the NMPs are returned to the feedlot operators as required by I.C. § 22-4906, they are no longer in the ISDA’s possession. It is anomalous to conclude that the records are subject to disclosure while in the possession of the ISDA but not after they leave that possession, though they must be retained by the feedlot owners and are available to the administrator on request. Strong policy argu*373ments can be made against such a result. However, that is an issue for the legislature which amended I.C. § 22-4906 with knowledge of its potential impact on public records law. It is for the legislature to rewrite its statutes, not this Court.
The Court’s award of attorney fees in this case compounds the error it makes. The ICL made a good faith argument presenting a legitimate issue of statutory interpretation. Two members of this Court agree with it. The position is certainly not frivolous.