Nat'l Lawyers Guild v. City of Hayward
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Jenkins, J.
*507 This is an appeal from the trial court's decision to grant the petition for writ of mandate of the National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (Guild), and to issue a writ directing the City of Hayward and its Chief of Police Diane Urban (collectively, City) to refund the Guild for two payments made to cover certain of the City's costs in complying with the Guild's requests for production under the California Public Records Act ( Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq. ) (CPRA). 1 Concluding the trial court misinterpreted the applicable provision of the CPRA-section 6253.9, subdivision (b)-we reverse.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The relevant facts are not in dispute. The Guild is a not-for-profit organization seeking to unite lawyers and law students with the aim to promote justice in the administration of law, civil rights and racial equality. On January 27, 2015, the Guild served on the City requests for 11 categories of public records (paper and electronic) relating to a demonstration held in Berkeley in December 2014 to protest recent incidents of police violence toward private citizens, at which the Hayward Police Department (Department) provided security.