Federal Judge Casey Rodgers granted David Bear’s motion for attorney’s fees, $130,425.50, from former County Commissioner Doug Underhill. She ordered the Clerk to enter the final judgment against Underhill on Bear’s Public Records Act claims, ending a four-year saga.
Bear had sued Underhill for his failure to respond to a public records request for records within the commissioner’s custody. Underhill lost the case, entitling Bear to be reimbursed for his legal fees.
Underhill argued that the Court erred in granting Bear the entitlement to fees without holding an evidentiary hearing and expressly finding whether the public records request and civil action were brought for an “improper purpose.”
The commissioner alleged the suit’s improper purpose was Bear wanted to harm him financially, and further discovery was required to determine what fees were actually billed to Bear to avoid duplication. Underhill also wanted the court to reconsider whether he should be personally liable for the fees.
He lost on all those arguments.
According to Judge Rodgers, Underhill should have brought up the improper purpose issue earlier in opposition to Bear’s motion for summary judgment. However, the judge found that the argument lacked merit because Bear’s request was “a genuine search for public records.”
Out of the abundance of caution, Judge Rodgers modified the prior order awarding fees to include “the Court’s express determination pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 119.12(3) that based on the record, neither the public records request nor the suit was filed for an improper or primarily frivolous purpose, and there is no basis for reopening the record.”
Read Underhill Must Pay.
