Hagen v. North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund

Citations

• 971 N.W.2d 833
• 2022 ND 53

Syllabus

Courts have broad discretion when deciding whether to grant leave to amend a complaint. Amendments correcting technical deficiencies relate back to the date of the original pleading. Agencies of political subdivisions are public entities subject to the open records law. \Agencies\ refers to a relationship created by law or contract whereby one party delegates the transaction of some lawful business to another. Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, all records of a public entity are public records. The plain meaning of \provided by law\ does not operate to create additional open records exemptions arising from court rules defining privileges and discovery limitations. Rule 502, N.D.R.Ev., is an evidentiary rule applicable to court proceedings, and does not create a specific exception to the open records law. Under N.D.R.Ev. 502(d)(7), there generally is no attorney-client privilege as to a communication between a public officer or agency and its lawyers. A public entity's attorney work product must be made available for public disclosure following completion of litigation, unless disclosure would have an adverse fiscal effect on the conduct or settlement of other pending or reasonably predictable civil or criminal litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings, or the attorney work product reflects mental impressions, opinions, conclusions, or legal theories regarding potential liability of a public entity. If the potential for liability is entirely in the past, the record is no longer exempt. Only if the records relate to circumstances for which there remains a genuine potential for liability may the records remain exempt. Under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.2(1), awarding costs and attorney's fees is discretionary and a court's decision will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion.