Connell

Plaintiff InterSource, Inc. (InterSource), requested information from defendant State Controller (Controller) about warrants the Controller had issued to state vendors which were unpaid. The Controller refused to provide the information. InterSource then filed a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court to compel the disclosure of these public records. (Gov. Code, § 6258 [undesignated section references will be to this code].) The court issued a judgment directing disclosure under the same terms as its judgment in a case involving a similar request entitled Argent Research and Recovery, Ltd. v. Davis (Super. Ct. Sacramento County, No. CV380212) (Argent).

The Controller has petitioned us for an extraordinary writ directing the superior court to set aside the present judgment, and requested a stay. (§ 6259, subd. (c).) We issued an alternative writ and a stay pending our plenary review of the matter. We now grant the writ only to direct a modification of a portion of the judgment and dissolve the stay.

For reasons set forth in the unpublished portion of the opinion, we draw our facts not only from the present record but from the record in Argent as well. To avoid…