State ex rel. Davis v. Metzger (Slip Opinion)

{¶ 1} Appellant, John H. Davis, filed a public-records request under R.C. 149.43, the Ohio Public Records Act (“PRA”), for the personnel files of six employees of the West Licking Joint Fire District (“the district”). Less than three business days after making the request, Davis filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus in the Fifth District Court of Appeals seeking release of the records. The requested documents were produced two hours after the suit was filed, but the district was not aware of Davis’s complaint until the next day. The court of appeals found that the records were produced in…