BEAUMONT – The Ninth Court of Appeals recently affirmed a ruling in favor of Eric Yollick, publisher of the Golden Hammer Newspaper, in an open records case against the San Jacinto River Authority.
In August 2017, following Hurricane Harvey, information about how the
SJRA operates the Lake Conroe Dam became a topic of interest in Southeast Texas when the hurricane stalled in the area and caused widespread flooding.
The following month, Yollick sent the SJRA an email asking that it provide him with certain information about its operations at the Lake Conroe Dam, information that included the SJRA’s flood control plans over the ten-year period ending September 2017, court records state.
Yollick was told the SJRA would not comply with his request, prompting him to sue. Yollick claimed the SJRA failed to refer his request to the attorney general and that when it did so, it did not have a previous determination from the AG authorizing it to withhold the information in his request.
Court records show that in February 2019 the parties tried the disputed issues to the bench. The trial court signed a final judgment requiring the SJRA to allow Yollick to access most but not all the information in the plan.
The trial court allowed the authority to keep withholding certain information from Yollick that is in the plan after finding a compelling reason to do so existed based on the information the trial court reviewed after conducting an in-camera inspection of the SJRA’s Plan.
On appeal, SJRA’s argued that the record contains legally insufficient evidence to support the trial court’s judgment and that the trial court misinterpreted the Texas Public Information Act.
The Ninth Court disagreed, affirming the trial court on March 18, court records show.
Appeals case No. 09-19-00064-CV