Wichita State is in the center of a recent lawsuit. Ted Ayres, Wichita State vice president and general counsel said that an unfortunate incident led to the lawsuit.

Hunter Health Clinic, a local nonprofit organization that mostly serves underinsured or uninsured patients, is suing WSU and The Wichita Eagle in response to an open records request made by The Eagle for emails sent using the university’s email system.

Lyndon Vix, an attorney with Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson, and Kitch, is representing The Eagle.

“The Eagle had been looking into some issues involving the Hunter Health Clinic, particularly some financial issues, and quite frankly, was having a difficult time getting information from the clinic,” Vix said.

After finding out the current board chairwoman of the clinic, Jaya Escobar, and former board chairman, Richard Muma, had WSU email addresses, Vix said reporter made an open records request to the university asking for emails that mentioned the clinic and other related material.

“There was information being exchanged, using the convenience of email, to talk about Hunter Health Clinic business, and unfortunately for all concerned, people used the convenience of the Wichita.edu email address,” Ayres said.

Vix said that even though WSU would normally be responsible for responding to that kind of request, Hunter Health Clinic “injected itself into the process” by filing the lawsuit and naming WSU and The Eagle as the defendants.

“The Hunter Health Clinic does not want those emails released to The Eagle, to the media, so they are arguing that The Eagle is not entitled to them, per the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA),” Ayres said.

Vix said the clinic is arguing that the information contained in the emails is not public record, and even if it was, it is subject to exemptions under the Open Records Act.

“I’m not aware of any case like this – in Kansas, at least – where a third party has taken affirmative action to prohibit a public agency from responding to a KORA request. They obtained a temporary restraining order that prohibits WSU from responding to the KORA request,” Vix said.

The restraining order was granted by the Sedgwick County District Court on May 22.

“We [as the University] want to follow Kansas law,” Ayres said. “and in this situation, we’ll wait to see what the court thinks the law is.”