Township Council Meeting — Agenda

The motion court found the emails were privileged but then did not consider or make any findings as to whether plaintiff demonstrated a particularized need for the documents and otherwise satisfied his burden of establishing an entitlement to the documents under the common law right of access standard. See O'Boyle, 218 N.J. at 196. As a result, the court did not consider or determine whether there were issues of material fact precluding a determination of plaintiff's common law right of access claim or supporting defendants' argument plaintiff could not sustain the claim as a matter of law. Again, it is not our role to decide those issues for the first instance on appeal, see Est. of Doerfler, 454 N.J. Super. at 302, and we therefore vacate the court's order granting summary judgment to defendants on plaintiff's common law right of access claim, and remand for the court to reconsider its decision and make findings of fact and conclusions of law, see R. 1:7-4(a), supporting its determination based on the summary judgment record presented. Because a determination of the validity of plaintiff's claims must be first made by the trial court, we do not reach plaintiff's claim he is entitled to an award of attorneys' fees and costs based on defendants' alleged failure to honor their legal obligation to produce the requested emails. Any award of counsel fees shall abide the disposition of plaintiff's claims on remand. Due to the extant A-2287-19 29 Pa029