Anand v. Commonwealth, 2024 LEXIS 254 (Pa. Commw., October 11, 2024) (McCollough, J.)
In this case the Commonwealth Court points out that on right to know claims there is a presumption of transparency and to construe narrowly the statutory exemptions from disclosure. This involved materials from the insurance department. The question is whether the document is a public document. To withhold a record, an agency must establish 1) the contents of the record are internal to the agency; 2) the contents of the record are deliberated; 3) the deliberations reflected are predecisional. An agency must establish specific facts that the record requested relay to the deliberation of a particular decision. Even construing exemption narrowly, a department may establish that the records requested relayed to a company’s failure to comply with insurance regulatory standards concerning searching inquiries of non-criminal matters conducted by the department, pursuant to its official, legislatively granted investigative powers. An agency can rely on affidavits.
