Mississippi High Court Upholds Denied Katrina Records Request

NU Online News Service, Nov. 9, 3:31 p.m. EST

A Mississippi man who wanted the state's insurance department to give him all records it had on homeowners insurance claims filed after Hurricane Katrina was again denied.

This time the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the decision of a lower court to dismiss the case filed by Long Beach, Miss. resident Kevin Buckel against Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and the Mississippi Insurance Department (MID).

Mr. Buckel at the start of 2009 sent a public records request to the MID for the records and was told that the department had searched but did not possess them and it was not obligated to compile the information, as had also been requested by Mr. Buckel.

The documents were also exempt from the Public Records Act, the MID said.

The Chancery Court had dismissed Mr. Buckel's case, filed after he received a denial from the MID.

In affirming the lower court's ruling, the state Supreme Court said Mr. Buckel "failed to present evidence indicative of a genuine issue of material fact." Mr. Buckel did not make a proper request and the records were indeed exempt from the state Public Records Act, the high court found.