Columbia Packing Co., Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, No. 76-1417

• Decision Date: 21 September 1977
• Docket Number: No. 76-1417
• Citation: 563 F.2d 495
• Parties: 3 Media L. Rep. 1441 COLUMBIA PACKING COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff, Appellee, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE et al., Defendants, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 495

563 F.2d 495

3 Media L. Rep. 1441

COLUMBIA PACKING COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff, Appellee, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE et al., Defendants Appellants.

No. 76-1417.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued Jan. 5, 1977.

Decided Sept. 21, 1977.

Frederic D. Cohen, Atty., Appellate Section, Civ. Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., with whom Rex E. Lee, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., James N. Gabriel, U.S. Atty., Boston, Mass., and William Kanter, Atty., Appellate Section, Civ. Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., were on brief, for appellants.

Stephen R. Delinsky, Boston, Mass., with whom Frank Giso, III and Peabody, Brown, Rowley & Storey, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for appellee.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge, BOWNES, District Judge. ^*

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

Appellee Columbia Packing Co. (Columbia) is a federally inspected meat packing plant in Boston. In 1974 Columbia and its vice president were convicted on numerous counts of bribing two federal meat inspection officials, Joseph F. Mauriello and Domenic L. Germano. The two inspectors were themselves convicted in other proceedings of receiving bribes from other companies. The scandal revealing widespread corruption in the meat packing industry and the inspection service received extensive local publicity.

In November of 1974 the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which conducts federal meat and poultry inspection initiated administrative proceedings under 21 U.S.C. §§ 467, 671, to withdraw federal inspection services from Columbia on grounds that the company's participation in the bribery had rendered it unfit to engage in any business requiring inspection. Withdrawal of federal inspection would result in Columbia's going out of business since the company would no longer be entitled to introduce its products into the stream of interstate commerce.

During preliminary administrative proceedings, Columbia moved for extensive discovery of documents in USDA's possession, including, "All employment and personnel files including staff evaluations of former meat and poultry inspectors Joseph F. Mauriello and Domenic L. Germano." Between that time and the present, USDA has released information to Columbia but has withheld from the personnel files of the two inspectors material which is the subject of the present appeal. The Administrative Law Judge ruled that he was without authority to compel disclosure of the documents which Columbia sought but stayed proceedings so that Columbia might try to obtain the material by initiating a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit in the district court. Columbia filed such a suit and the district court temporarily restrained USDA from proceeding with the administrative action against Columbia. After much preliminary skirmishing in the district court, unnecessary to relate here, the court examined the personnel files in camera. In a memorandum opinion filed on June 16, 1976, the district court noted that Columbia sought the material in the files in the hope that it would tend to prove at the administrative proceeding that Columbia was the victim of extortion, a posture "tending to mitigate its conduct". ¹ The court was of the opinion that the Freedom of Information Act mandated disclosure of the files unless they fell within the statutory exemption for "personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy". 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). And the court rightly stated that determination of whether personnel file data fell within or without the exemption provided by § 552(b)(6) required a balancing of "the individual's privacy interest in nondisclosure against the public interest in disclosure". See Department of the Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 370-73, 96 S.Ct. 1592, 48 L.Ed.2d 11 (1976). In striking the balance, the district court first noted that:

"The privacy interests of the individual meat inspectors involved are weighty indeed. The records provide a detailed synopsis of each individual's career within the Department of Agriculture, data about family relationships, financial information and medical records. The records therefore contain 'intimate details' of a highly personal nature, Getman v. NLRB (146 U.S.App.D.C. 209, 450 F.2d 670), 675 (1971)."

The court characterized the information as of the type which an employee revealed only "with an expectation, if not a promise, of confidentiality". However, the court went on to say that the privacy interest was diminished by the inspectors' involvement in bribery and their resulting convictions, events which "created a legitimate public interest in their careers".

Turning to the public interests to be served by disclosure, the court found several. First, "(i)f the records sought assist Columbia in showing that it is entitled to continued receipt of meat and poultry inspection services" Columbia's enhanced defense would serve the public interest in keeping an adequate flow of meat and poultry products. The court also reasoned that the public had a substantial interest in correct administrative determinations, an interest evidently to be served by enlarging Columbia's right to discovery. Lastly, the court reasoned that:

"the public has an interest in whether public servants carry out their duties in an efficient and law-abiding manner. Thus, there is a public interest in records of employees who abuse their positions to determine whether the agency's personnel evaluation and supervision procedures are working well."

The court concluded:

"In general, for records relating to the evaluation and advancement of (the inspectors) the public interest in disclosure outweighs the privacy interest in nondisclosure. For medical records, on the other hand, the privacy interest outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Because of the great number of records submitted and examined by the court in camera, the court will merely list without further discussion those records which must be disclosed upon consideration of the contents of each record and the principles outlined above." ²

While the district court was correct that the public has a legitimate interest in the careers of the two inspectors, we think it should not have characterized this in terms of the public's interest in an adequate meat supply (supposedly advanced by enhancing Columbia's chances of success in the administrative proceeding) nor in a general concern for "correct administrative determinations". So labelling the interests affected came close to suggesting that the FOIA creates a right to maximum discovery in agency enforcement proceedings. However, it is settled that the disclosure provisions of FOIA are not a substitute for discovery and a party's asserted need for documents in connection with litigation will not affect, one way or the other, a determination of whether disclosure is warranted under FOIA. See NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 143 n. 10, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975); New England Medical Center Hospital v. NLRB, 548 F.2d 377, 383 (1st Cir. 1976). "The Act is fundamentally designed to inform the public about agency action and not to benefit private litigants." Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra. While maximum discovery in a contested administrative proceeding may arguably advance the truth-seeking process, it may also enable a wrongdoer to play for time and divert attention from his own misconduct by conducting a lengthy collateral suit in the federal court. Cf. New England Medical Center v. NLRB, supra. In any event, there is no evidence that Congress in enacting the FOIA was focussing on the pros and cons of enhanced discovery in adversarial agency proceedings. Provision for more extensive discovery in the different types of agency litigation is primarily a matter either for agency regulation or separate Congressional determination. To the extent that the public interests in an adequate meat supply and fair administrative proceedings are just a restatement of Columbia's private interest in enlarged discovery, we think that these asserted "public interests" are unrelated to FOIA's purpose of "inform(ing) the public about agency action" and are therefore of little weight in determining whether to order disclosure. See Committee on Masonic Homes v. NLRB, 556 F.2d 214, 220 (3d Cir. 1977).

We agree, however, with the district court that "the public has an interest in whether public servants carry out their duties in an efficient and law-abiding manner" and therefore, in these circumstances, has a legitimate curiosity as to the two meat inspectors' careers. Ordinarily the individual careers of public servants would be of small general interest, cf. Campbell v. United States Civil Service Commission, 539 F.2d 58, 62 (10th Cir. 1976), but the scandal in which Columbia and the inspectors participated was far-reaching and of great notoriety. To forestall similar occurrences, the public has an interest in discerning how the officials conducted themselves prior to their discharge for bribery, how well they were supervised, and whether USDA or any of its other personnel were chargeable with any degree of culpability for their crimes. In particular, the public has an interest in...