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WHETHER THE REQUESTED DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN REASONABLY DESCRIBED IS DISTINCT FROM WHETHER A SEARCH FOR THE DOCUMENTS WOULD BE UNDULY BURDENSOME; THE DOCUMENTS WERE SUFFICIENTLY DESCRIBED AND THE PETITION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DENIED ON THAT GROUND; MATTER REMITTED FOR A DETERMINATION WHETHER A SEARCH WOULD BE UNDULY BURDENSOME (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the FOIL request for NYC Department of Education (DOC) forms used by employees to request absences for religious observances should not have been denied on the ground the documents were not reasonably described. The DOC conceded that it can locate the records, which are kept at the 1700 individual schools. The matter was remitted to address whether it would be unduly burdensome to search for the documents, a distinct ground Supreme Court did not address:

We disagree with the Supreme Court’s determination that it was proper for the respondent to deny the petitioner’s request on the ground that the requested records were not reasonably described. The requirement that a FOIL request reasonably describe the records sought is to enable the agency to locate the records in question … . In order for an agency to deny a FOIL request for overbreadth, the agency must demonstrate that the description is ” insufficient for the purposes of locating and identifying the documents sought'” … . Where the request is sufficiently detailed to enable the agency to locate the records in question, the agency cannot complain about the nomenclature of the request as described … . …

The respondent has conflated the requirement of reasonable description with the related, but separate, consideration as to whether it would be unduly burdensome for the respondent to comply with the petitioner’s request. While the respondent’s submissions demonstrate that it knows where the requested records are located, the respondent also maintains that it would be burdensome for it to conduct a search of the personnel files at each of its 1,700 schools to produce the requested records. However … Public Officers Law § 89(3)(a) provides that the “agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copying, programming or other services required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.” The issue of burden and/or whether the respondent is able to engage an outside professional service to cull the records sought was not addressed by the Supreme Court and we cannot resolve it on this record.  Matter of Jewish Press, Inc. v New York City Dept. of Educ., 2020 NY Slip Op 02785, Second Dept 5-13-20

 

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