Fairley

Introduction

Petitioner John Fairley seeks a writ of mandate to compel the respondent superior court to order real parties in interest, the City of Long Beach and the Doe respondents (referred to hereafter as the City), to provide petitioner with all documents relating to his arrest, pursuant to his request for the documents under the California Public Records Act (CPRA). (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.) The trial court denied the writ on the basis that the documents at issue- were exempted from disclosure under the “pending litigation” provision found in section 6254, subdivision (b), which is discussed below.

The City has filed a return to the writ petition accompanied by apparently all of the requested documents, acknowledging that litigation is no longer pending between it and petitioner. The City therefore requests that we dismiss the writ petition as moot; however, we decline to do so. It remains to be determined whether the pending litigation exemption was ever applicable to the disputed documents. If the pending litigation exemption,-or another exemption relied upon by real party in interest in the trial court but not considered by the trial court or raised here (§§…