The Appellate Division’s recently held that the NJ SPCA is subject to OPRA. Wronko v. NJ SPCA. While this holding is only applicable to the SPCA, the court’s opinion also contained a ruling that is relevant to all public bodies: a public agency that loses OPRA litigation will have to pay the requestor’s attorney fees, regardless of the impact of such an award on the agency’s budget.

In the Wronko case, the trial court awarded the requestor approximately $42,000 in attorney fees for successfully litigating the case. On appeal, the SPCA argued that the award should be vacated because it did not have sufficient funds to satisfy the award. The Appellate Division summarily rejected this argument, simply commenting that while it recognized that $42,000 was a “significant portion” of the agency’s budget, the SPCA had failed to comply with the OPRA request as well as various court orders requiring that it deal with the OPRA request.

In other words, there’s no exception to OPRA’s requirement that a fully successful OPRA plaintiff receive attorney fees. This is a useful reminder from the court–in a published, precedential opinion–that OPRA attorney fee awards, which are sometimes substantial, will not be reduced or vacated based on a public body’s fiscal situation.