S-17-0333 Aksamit Resource Management, LLC, First Security Power, LLC, and Gary Aksamit (Appellants) v. Nebraska Public Power District
Platte County District Court, Judge Robert R. Steinke
Attorneys: Roger P. Cox (Roger P. Cox PC LLO)(Appellants) --- Shawn D. Renner (Cline Williams Wright Johnson & Oldfather, L.L.P.) and John C. McClure (Nebraska Public Power District)
Civil: Public records
Proceedings below: The district court dismissed with prejudice Appellants’ petition for a writ of mandamus ordering Appellee to disclose public records. Appellants filed a motion to bypass, which was granted by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Issues: 1. The district court erred in dismissing Aksamit’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
2. The district court erred by failing to apply the plain text of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-
712.05(3). 3. The district court erred by resorting to its interpretation of statutory purpose in the absence of statutory ambiguity. 4. The district court erred by importing the public power statutes into the public records laws. 5. The district court erred by applying the in pari materia canon of statutory interpretation to two unrelated statutory schemes. 6. The district court erred by reading a balancing test into § 84-712.05(3). 7. The district court erred in determining that disclosure of NPPD’s cost and revenue information would “serve no public purpose.” 8. The district court erred in failing to find that disclosure of NPPD’s cost and revenue information would serve at least one public purpose. 9. Even if the text of § 84-712.05(3) permitted application of a balancing test, the district court clearly erred in applying it.