Cite as: 537 U. S. 129 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
State's Public Disclosure Act (PDA).2 The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of respondents and ordered petitioner to disclose five documents 3 and pay respondents' attorney's fees. Petitioner appealed.
While the appeal in the PDA action was pending, respondents filed a separate action, asserting that petitioner had been negligent in failing to install proper traffic controls at the 168/B intersection. In connection with the tort action, respondents served petitioner with interrogatories seeking information regarding accidents that had occurred at the 168/B intersection. Petitioner refused to comply with the discovery request, once again relying on § 409. Respondents successfully sought an order to compel, and petitioner moved for discretionary appellate review of the trial judge's interlocutory order. The Washington Court of Appeals
2 The relevant portion of the PDA provides: "Upon the motion of any person having been denied an opportunity to inspect or copy a public record by an agency, the superior court in the county in which a record is maintained may require the responsible agency to show cause why it has refused to allow inspection or copying of a specific public record or class of records. The burden of proof shall be on the agency to establish that refusal to permit public inspection and copying is in accordance with a statute that exempts or prohibits disclosure in whole or in part of specific information or records." Wash. Rev. Code § 42.17.340(1) (2000).
3 The trial court's judgment encompassed the following materials: (1) a list of accidents at the 168/B intersection from 1990 through 1996, prepared by the Washington State Patrol, showing the location, date, time, and nature of the accident, which petitioner subsequently obtained for the purpose of conducting a study of the safety of the intersection; (2) a collision diagram dated January 5, 1989, prepared by a county employee responsible for investigating accidents at the intersection; (3) another collision diagram dated July 18, 1988, prepared by the same county employee; (4) reports of accidents at the intersection prepared by law enforcement agencies investigating the accidents; and (5) a draft memorandum from petitioner's public works director to a county council member, consisting of information used for petitioner's application for § 152 funds for the 168/B intersection. See 144 Wash. 2d, at 704-705, and n. 1; 31 P. 3d, at 634, and n. 1.
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