215 W. Va. 412 - Farley v. Worley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When a public body asserts that certain documents or portions of documents in its possession are exempt from disclosure under any of the exemptions contained in W. Va.Code, 29B-1-4 (2002 Repl. Vol.) (2003 Supp.), the public body must produce a Vaughn index named for Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C.Cir.1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 , 94 S.Ct. 1564 , 39 L.Ed.2d 873 (1974). The Vaughn index must provide a relatively detailed justification as to why each document is exempt, specifically identifying the reason(s) why an exemption under W. Va.Code, 29B-1-4 is relevant and correlating the claimed exemption with the particular part of the withheld document to which the claimed exemption applies. The Vaughn index need not be so detailed that it compromises the privilege claimed. The public body must also submit an affidavit, indicating why disclosure of the documents would be harmful and why such documents should be exempt.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 224 W. Va. 708 - Associated Press v. Canterbury · Roger Hurlbert and Sage Information Services v. Mark Matkovich and Sallie Robinson

2. “[i]n response to a proper Freedom of Information Act request, a. public body has a duty to redact or segregate exempt from non-exempt information contained within the public reeord(s) responsive to the FOIA request and to disclose the nonexempt information unless such segregation or redaction would impose upon the public body an unreasonably high burden or expense. If the public body refuses to provide redacted or segregated copies because the process of redacting or segregating would impose an unreasonably high burden’ or expense, the public body must provide the requesting party a written response that is sufficiently detailed to justify refusal to honor the FOIA request on these grounds. Such written response, however, need not be so detailed that the justification would compromise the secret nature of the exempt information.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Roger Hurlbert and Sage Information Services v. Mark Matkovich and Sallie Robinson · Highland Mining Co. v. West Virginia University School of Medicine

3. “a FOIA request seeking records containing both exempt and non-exempt information without the request specifying that redacts ed records will be acceptable must be treated as a request for the production of any non-exempt information contained in a public record otherwise reasonably falling within the request. In other words, “an entire document is not exempt merely because an isolated portion need not be disclosed. Thus the agency may not sweep a document under a general allegation of exemption, even if that general allegation is correct with regard to part of the information.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Roger Hurlbert and Sage Information Services v. Mark Matkovich and Sallie Robinson