This is funny -- Cuyahoga County and copiers

By Todd Franko (Contact)

Published March 28, 2011

One of our attorneys, David Marburger out of Cleveland, does a pretty good job getting us into places that government officials would rather us not be. He's one of Ohio's public records gurus.

One of his current battles (not for us) is with a worker in a Cuyahoga County office who just wants to be as difficult as he can be with access to public records.

Their stalemate ended up before the Ohio Supreme Court, to which afforded us a great glimpse at how obstructionism can be an art form.

Here's a glimpse of their exchange:

Marburger: Have you ever-- do you have machines there where I can put in a paper document, push a button or two, and out will come copies of that paper document also on paper? Do you have such a machine?

Patterson: Yes, sir.

Marburger: What do you call that machine?

Patterson: Xerox.

Marburger: Xerox. Is the machine made by the Xerox Company? Is that why it's called Xerox?

Patterson: No.

Marburger: So Xerox, in the parlance that you've described, the language that you've described, is being used generically as opposed to describing a particular brand; is that right?

For the entire hysterical exchange, click here.