Deal v. Coleman Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. v. Coleman

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the trial court's denial of the Technical College System's and Kia's motions to dismiss an Open Records Act suit seeking records about Kia's hourly hiring practices. It held that the 2012 amendment adding OCGA § 50-18-72 (a) (47) applies by its terms to the requested Quick Start records because the qualifier 'prior to a binding commitment having been secured' limits only the 'disclosing an economic development project' category, and that retroactive application to pre-enactment requests is constitutional because the Open Records Act confers a public right of the People as a whole that cannot vest in particular persons. Because the pleadings do not conclusively show that every requested record is excepted, the Court remanded for the trial court to determine the extent of the exception's coverage. All the Justices concurred; there were no separate writings.