State ex rel. Clark v. Mahoning Cnty. Common Pleas Courts, 129 N.E.3d 999

Relator Leodius Clark seeks a writ of mandamus compelling the Mahoning County Clerk to mail him copies of his commitment papers under the Public Records Act so he can prepare a state habeas corpus action.
Clark previously pled guilty in 1995 to multiple felonies and received an 8–25 year sentence; he was paroled in 2011 and later received a separate term in 2013 for new felony convictions.
The Ohio Adult Parole Authority in 2015 continued Clark’s 1995 sentence after he incurred new felony convictions while on parole; Clark challenged that decision in prior litigation, which the courts rejected.
Clark requested copies of his records be mailed to him in prison but did not allege prepayment of mailing costs as required by the Clerk’s public-records policy and R.C. 149.43.
Clark filed a motion with his sentencing court seeking the judge’s finding under R.C. 149.43(B)(8) but did not attach any resulting judicial order finding the records necessary to support a justiciable claim.
The Clerk moved to dismiss; the appellate court granted the motion and denied the mandamus petition for failure to allege prepayment and failure to satisfy R.C. 149.43(B)(8)’s sentencing-judge finding requirement.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the clerk must mail public records to an incarcerated requester at no cost	Clark contends the Clerk must forward his commitment papers under R.C. 149.43 so he can prepare habeas corpus	Clerk argues statute and policy permit mailing only upon advance payment of postage and supplies	Clerk not required to mail free; requester must prepay costs per R.C. 149.43 and policy
Whether an incarcerated person can seek mandamus without a sentencing-judge finding under R.C. 149.43(B)(8)	Clark seeks mandamus without attaching a judge’s finding that records are necessary for a justiciable claim	Clerk argues inmate must first obtain a sentencing-judge determination before mandamus	Mandamus dismissed: inmate must obtain and allege the judge’s finding before proceeding
Whether failure to allege compliance with prepayment and B(8) is fatal to mandamus	Clark argues his request suffices and he filed a motion with the trial court	Clerk asserts noncompliance with prepayment and lack of judge’s order supports dismissal	Court held failure to allege prepayment and lack of judge’s ruling warranted dismissal
Availability of mandamus as remedy for alleged denial of public records	Clark invoked mandamus under R.C. 149.43(C)	Clerk relied on statute and precedent limiting inmate requests and procedural prerequisites	Mandamus is available generally but inmate-specific statutory prerequisites must be met first

Clark v. Adult Parole Auth., 151 Ohio St.3d 522, 90 N.E.3d 909 (2017) (affirming appellate decision rejecting Clark’s prior constitutional claims)
State ex rel. Brown v. Ashtabula Cty. Bd. of Elections, 142 Ohio St.3d 370, 31 N.E.3d 596 (2014) (mandamus is an extraordinary remedy)
State ex rel. Taxpayers for Westerville Schools v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Elections, 133 Ohio St.3d 153, 976 N.E.2d 890 (2012) (elements required for mandamus relief)
State v. Fenley, 64 Ohio St.3d 509, 597 N.E.2d 120 (1992) (public-records access principles)
State ex rel. Nelson v. Fuerst, 66 Ohio St.3d 47, 607 N.E.2d 836 (1993) (public-records access principles)
Iacovone v. Kaminski, 81 Ohio St.3d 189, 690 N.E.2d 4 (1998) (public-records access principles)
State ex rel. Dehler v. Mohr, 129 Ohio St.3d 37, 950 N.E.2d 156 (2011) (requiring prepayment of costs for records)