Coleman v. FL Attorney General (and Countrywide) re: 88,000 pages of Documents - FL v. CW Public Records

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA FIRST DISTRICT

CASE NO. 1D12-1513

JERRY COLEMAN, individually, and JERRY COLEMAN, P.L. Appellants, V. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA

L.T. CASE NO. 2008-CA-3218

AMENDED REPLY BRIEF OF APPELLANTS TO ANSWER BRIEF OF COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC.

EXCERPTS: The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th1 Circuit not long ago decided a case dealing with facts sufficiently close in relevant respects to those we respectfully ask this Court to resolve, Alley v. US. Dept. of Health & Human Services, 590 F.3d 1195 (11th Cir. 2009)(citation omitted). In Alley an Alabama resident made a Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 ("FOIA") request for documents a Florida federal district court had enjoined a federal agency from releasing pursuant to a FOIA request made 30 years earlier. [...] As we argued, both to this Court and below, it is undisputable that the documents at issue are Florida public records as long as the Attorney General's office has them. Nat? Collegiate Athletic Ass 'n v. Associated Press, 18 So.3d 1201 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009). And the office still possesses them. 2. THIS COURT HAS JURISDICTION TO ADDRESS EVERY MATTER THAT COULD AFFECT THE RESOLUTION OF THE CASE BE IT ONE RAISED BY THE PARTIES OR BY THE COURT ON ITS OWN INITIATIVE AND IT SHOULD DO SO IN THIS CASE We believe this Court can readily discern which matters it should for various reasons address now, despite Countrywide's repeated but untrue claims of Appellants' "failure to preserve for appellate review" bona fide issues presented to this Court and Countrywide's mischaracterization that what we ask this court to do is render an "Advisory Opinion". See, e.g., Florida Dept. of Revenue v. New Sea Escape Cruises, Ltd., 894 So. 2d 954, 962 (Fla, 2005)(nothing requires a court to "turn a blind eye" to the facts laid before it); Layne v. Tribune Co., 146 So. 234, 237 (FlEa. 1933)("What everybody knows the courts are assumed to know, and of such matters may take judicial cognizance"(citation omitted)). What Countrywide urges this Court to do is to turn a blind eye to, as Marvin Gaye's famous lyrics call it, "what's going on" (e.g., at best, the at best unseemly machinations below: the AG suing Countrywide in Broward Circuit court, but Countrywide bringing the action below to seal the relevant AG investigative records up in Leon County, away from glare of press and public alike; a brief hearing prohibiting Chapter 119 AG disclosure of 88,000+ pages of documents without the court ever seeing more than a "sampling' of whatever Countrywide brought to that hearing and just how many documents could realistically have been reviewed in ten minutes)'what went on' was about as "secret[] [of a] proceeding[s]" as one can pull off in a Florida court. See Nat'i Collegiate Athletic Ass 'n v. Associated Press, 18 So. 3d 1201, 1214 (FIa. Dist. Ct. App. 2009). Well, so far. Countrywide mistakenly contends that this Court lacks jurisdiction to weigh in on issues beyond simply whether or not the lower proceeding must be reopened. This Court can and should not hold back regarding the scenario that played out in late 2008. [...]

Additionally, while appellate courts usually defer to a trial court's interpretations and many factual conclusions regarding the trial court's own injunctions and protective orders, "'[t]o the extent [a trial court judge] interpreted the terms of [an earlier] judgment, which was entered by a different [trial] judge, we accord [the latter judge's] interpretation no deference and review the requirements of that judgment de novo." Alley, supra at 1202. Here, just as in Alley, the judge who refused to reopen the case below was not the judge who first entered the protective order drafted by Countrywide's counsel. That order found almost 90,000 pages of public records to be trade secrets after what appears to have been a 10-minute "inspection of sample records". (R25-27)

[...]