RESPONDENT DID NOT CONSTRUCTIVELY DENY PETITIONER’S FOIL REQUEST BY EXTENDING ITS SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINES FOR RESPONDING TO THE REQUEST (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, reversing Supreme Court, over a dissent, determined respondent NYS Department of Transportation did not constructively deny petitioner’s FOIL request by extending the time for a response. Therefore petitioner’s Article 78 proceeding was premature and was rendered moot by petitioner’s ultimate response to the request:
Generally, an agency must respond to a written request for records within a reasonable time and “there is no specific time period in which the agency must grant access to the records” … . The response protocol for an agency to follow is set forth in Public Officers Law § 89 (3) (a). An agency must respond within five business days and has various options — to either provide the records, deny the request or, as pertinent here, to “furnish a written acknowledgement of the receipt of such request and a statement of the approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the request, when such request will be granted or denied” … . Respondent exercised that third option through the extension notices. Matter of Save Monroe Ave., Inc. v New York State Dept. of Transp., 2021 NY Slip Op 04639, Third Dept 8-4-21