Balzer v. Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation

In a lawsuit seeking to enforce a records request made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, the Illinois appellate court considered the question of what it means to “receive” an email. Under FOIA, a public entity has five business days to respond to a FOIA request. Plaintiff sent a FOIA request to the defendant, but the defendant’s receipt of the email was delayed by one day when the agency’s third-party email software service placed it in a security queue. The defendant then denied the FOIA request five days later, which was six days after the request was sent. The appellate court concluded that the defendant’s response was not timely, finding that defendant received the email on the day plaintiff sent it and it was received by the defendant’s third-party software service. (VAN TINE and D.B. WALKER, concurring)