Court Documents
Colfax, Washington
Court DocumentsColfax, Washington |
| On June 9, 2009 Elsevier sued Washington State
University in Whitman County Superior Court. Proceedings took place in
the courthouse located in the
county seat, Colfax, Washington (population 2751) in the Palouse region
of Washington, near
the Idaho border. |
| The Washington State Open Public Records Act states that |
| "Each agency, in accordance
with published rules, shall make available
for public inspection and copying all public records, unless the record
falls within ...specific exemptions." These specific exemptions
are listed online in the text of
the act. |
| Elsevier hired a team from one of Seattle's oldest and
best-known law
firms, Oles Morrison Rinker &
Baker LLP to represent them. Their task was to convince the court
that the
financial terms of a contract by a state university for the purchase of
academic journals from a
commercial publisher were exempted from the state open records act.
Elsevier's attorneys presented several documents, including a complaint, a motion
for injunction, and a supporting
statement
by James Tonna, Elsevier's Vice President for Marketing and Sales in
the Americas. They presented documents recommending that the judge
should make these
findings and reach this conclusion.
Elsevier supplied the court with a redacted version of
their contract which they were willing to make publicly available. |
| Frank Hruban, of the Washington State Attorney General's office prepared the brief on behalf of Washington State. |
| Elsevier's attorneys prepared the following reply to the defendant's reponse. |
| The judge was not convinced by Elsevier's arguments and dismissed the action and all claims. |