In an unpublished opinion issued today, the Appellate Division affirmed the GRC’s decision that the City of Orange should not be penalized for its actions in responding to an OPRA request.

The City responded belatedly to the request for a list of active lawsuits involving the City. In addition, its response omitted several relevant suits, but the requestor was already aware of the existence of these cases. The GRC concluded there was no willful and knowing violation of OPRA under these circumstances.

The court agreed, noting that the City did create lists for the requestor and was “generally proactive” in dealing with her inquiries. The court also emphasized that the omission of a few cases did not constitute a denial of access to records, because the requestor already had the requested information about these lawsuits.

Although the opinion has no precedential value, it’s interesting as an example of the tendency of the courts (as I’ve previously noted here) to excuse technical violations of OPRA, as long as the public body acted reasonably in dealing with the request.