Records requester filed complaint seeking to compel township to produce requested list of e-mails between township clerk and chief of police under Open Public Records Act (OPRA).
The Superior Court ordered production of requested e-mail log. Township appealed. The Superior Court, Appellate Division, reversed. Records requestor appealed.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that:
- The Supreme Court would not give deference to guidance given township clerk by the Government Records Council (GRC) with regard to records request, and
- Electronic fields of information covering “sender,” “recipient,” “date,” and “subject” in e-mails sent by township chief of police and township clerk over a two-week period constituted government records under the OPRA.
Electronically stored information extracted from an e-mail is not the creation of a new record or new information, but rather, is a government record under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA); a document is nothing more than a compilation of information, discrete facts and data, and by OPRA’s language, information in electronic form, even if part of a larger document, is itself a government record.
Supreme Court would not give deference to guidance given township clerk by the Government Records Council (GRC) with regard to records request; that guidance merely stated in boilerplate language that township was not required to create new records in response to a records request, cautioned that its guidance did not constitute legal advice or a final agency decision, and the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) specifically provided that a decision of the GRC shall not have value as precedent for any case initiated in the Superior Court.