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Judge: Prothonotary Wrong to Refuse Hallwatch Open Records Suits
By Ed Goppelt
Thursday, 01/23/03
(1043376447722)
On Wednesday, January 22, the Philadelphia Prothonotary
filed without question a law suit I had brought
under Pennsylvania's new Right
to Know Act.
That I was able to file is progress. Last week, the
Prothonotary--the Clerk of the Courts--refused to accept
three open records suits I had prepared even though they were identical in form to suits I had filed in the past.
In this week's suit I asked the Philly Courts to compel the Department of Revenue to release the list of real estate delinquencies, i.e., those properties whose owners are behind in paying their property tax. This is public information, but as with much else in the current administration is treated as if it were the personal property of the bureaucrats who have custody of it. In this case the open records scofflaw is Commissioner Nancy Kammerdeiner of the Revenue Department, but the overall boss is the same: Mayor John F. Street.
Last week the Prothonotary said I should have filed the suits as "Petitions for Review" even though no other statutory appeal is handled this way. As detailed in a previous story I was left with the impression that the Prothonotary had not done their homework on the new open records law despite having had six months to do so.
Civil Rule 320 clearly states that appeals from the decisions of administrative agencies are to follow a streamlined procedure--you'd think the Prothonotary would be familiar with its own rules and procedures. For example, the streamlined procedure laid down by Rule 320 is followed when you appeal your property taxes or PennDOT's decision to suspend your license
By refusing to file a citizen's law suits, the Prothonotary may well have exceeded its authority. A Judge who was consulted about the matter said: "The Prothonotary's function is ministerial (i.e., not judicial). If somebody wants to submit pleadings on toilet paper, they have to file it. It's up to the Judge, not the Prothonotary, to decide whether the case was properly filed."