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STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
CARROLL COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
Robert N. Lemaire
v.
Town of Wolfeboro
Docket No.: 212-2013-CV-183
ORDER
By order dated December 6, 2013 the court granted the motion to filed by the plaintiff Robert N. Lemaire (Mr. Lemaire), and deferred ruling on his request for costs in order to permit the defendant Town of Wolfeboro (Town) to respond.
The Town has filed its objection to Mr. Lemaire's request for costs.
The court determines and orders as follows.
Under RSA 91-A:8, I, costs incurred in a Right to Know lawsuit are awarded where a public body refuses to provide a public record and where the lawsuit was necessary in order to make the information available to the public. Here, the action was withdrawn before the court made a determination as to whether the document at issue is a public record, and the document was made public not through this action but in connection with a pleading filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, Town of Wolfeboro v. Wright-Pierce, Civil No. 1:12-cv-00130-JD. The Right to Know law does not support an order for costs under these circumstances.
Under Superior Court Civil Rule 45, costs are to be allowed to the prevailing party. Because the action was withdrawn before the court issued an order on the merits, there is no prevailing party in this case within the meaning of Rule 45.
For the foregoing reasons, Mr. Lemaire's request for costs of the action is denied.
So Ordered.