Opinion
No. 16019 Index No. 157435/20 Case No. 2021-02823
05-26-2022
In the Matter of The Jewish Press, Petitioner-Appellant, v. New York City Police Department, Respondent-Respondent.
Aron Law PLLC, Brooklyn (Joseph H. Aron of counsel), for appellant. Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, Corporation Counsel, New York (Philip W. Young of counsel), for respondent.
Aron Law PLLC, Brooklyn (Joseph H. Aron of counsel), for appellant.
Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, Corporation Counsel, New York (Philip W. Young of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Kapnick, Shulman, Rodriguez, Pitt, JJ.
Judgment (denominated a decision and order), Supreme Court, New York County (Carol R. Edmead, J.), entered July 9, 2021, which denied petitioner's request for attorneys' fees and litigation costs, pursuant to Public Officers Law § 89(4)(c)(ii), and dismissed the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court properly concluded that respondent had a reasonable basis for denying petitioner's request for records (see Public Officers Law § 89[4][c][ii]). Specifically, the request was for an undefined period of time, a search of NYPD's records totaled in excess of 105, 000 items, and each document would have had to be reviewed and potentially redacted-a process that could have taken over five years. Accordingly, the record establishes that respondent had a reasonable basis to believe that the request would impose an undue burden (see Public Officers Law § 89[3]; Matter of New York Comm. for Occupational Safety & Health v Bloomberg, 72 A.D.3d 153, 162-163 [1st Dept 2010]; see also Matter of Cuddy Law Firm, P.L.L.C. v New York City Dept. of Educ., 191 A.D.3d 558, 558 [1st Dept 2021]). In any event, we also find that petitioner did not substantially prevail in the proceeding (see Public Officers Law § 89[4][c][ii]; Matter of Grabell v New York City Police Dept., 139 A.D.3d 477, 479 [1st Dept 2016]; Matter of Mack v Howard, 91 A.D.3d 1315, 1317 [4th Dept 2012]).
Since petitioner did not meet the statutory requirements of Public Officers Law § 89(4)(c)(ii), we need not address petitioner's objections to the court's discussion about the policy considerations underlying the statute (see Commercial Tenant Servs., Inc. v Barclay's Servs. Corp., 165 A.D.3d 490, 490 [1st Dept 2018]).