Hammond v. Dep't of Def.
| Decision Date | 21 December 2021 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action 16-421 (FYP) |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
| Parties | ROBERT HAMMOND, Plaintiff, v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, et al., Defendants. |
Between April and May of 2014, Plaintiff Robert Hammond submitted eight requests under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), see 5 U.S.C. § 552, to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (“Walter Reed” or “WRNMMC”) and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (“BUMED”). Dissatisfied with the responses that he received, Hammond filed the instant suit against Walter Reed and its two overseeing agencies, the Defense Health Agency (“DHA”) and the Department of Defense, alleging that Walter Reed failed to conduct adequate searches and improperly invoked FOIA Exemption 6 to withhold certain information. Hammond brings a separate claim under the Privacy Act, see 5 U.S.C. § 552a, alleging that Walter Reed has not properly safeguarded his medical information. Before the Court are the parties' dueling motions for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment and will deny Plaintiff's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment.
Between April and May of 2014, Hammond submitted eight FOIA requests to Walter Reed or BUMED. See ECF No. 12 (Amended Complaint) ¶¶ 56, 68, 82, 99, 107, 115, 121, 136. All eight of these requests remain in dispute. See ECF No. 50 (Defendants' Amended Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment) at 2-16; ECF No. 61 (Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition) at 12-28.[1]
1. FY 2013 Walter Reed Annual FOIA Report to BUMED
Hammond submitted his first FOIA request on April 1, 2014, asking for Walter Reed's FY 2013 Annual Freedom of Information Act Report as it was received by BUMED including “all enclosures and any raw data.” See ECF No. 50-2 (Third Bizzell Declaration), ¶ 4. BUMED determined that it was not the appropriate office to handle this request because Walter Reed “does not forward [its] reports to BUMED.” See Am. Compl., ¶ 57. BUMED therefore transferred Hammond's request to Walter Reed on April 15, 2014. Id.
On August 19, 2014, Walter Reed initially informed Hammond that his request had been “denied under Exemption B5” as an inter-agency/intra-agency document. See ECF No. 50-1 (Second Bizzell Declaration), ¶ 5.[2] Walter Reed thereafter “voluntarily withdrew the (b)(5) objections” when DHA published its 2013 Annual FOIA Report on March 9, 2017, which detailed all FOIA requests made of Walter Reed during the relevant period. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 6. At that time, Walter Reed provided Hammond with access to the final report, as well as its 2013 FOIA Processing Log, which Walter Reed had transmitted to DHA for inclusion in the final report. Id. The FOIA Processing Log lists all the FOIA and Privacy Act requests received by Walter Reed during Fiscal Year 2013, noting the name of the requester the information requested, the date of the request, as well as the FOIA tracking number and the status of the request. See ECF No. 24-12 (FOIA Processing Log). When Walter Reed provided the FOIA Processing Log to Hammond, the agency redacted “the names of certain individuals requesting access to [their] medical records” under FOIA Exemption 6. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 9.[3]
2. FY 2013 Quarterly Privacy Act Report Submissions to BUMED
On April 11, 2014, Hammond made a second FOIA request, asking BUMED for Walter Reed's “FY 2013 Quarterly Privacy Act Report Submissions” as they were received by BUMED, “including any raw data.” See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 12; Am. Compl., ¶ 68. Walter Reed notes that Privacy Act requests are not tracked separately, but rather are entered into its FOIA Processing Log. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 13. As a result, Walter Reed followed the same approach as it did in processing Hammond's first request: The agency initially denied the request for inter-agency documents under Exemption (b)(5), see Second Bizzell Decl., ¶ 10; but on March 9, 2017, after the DHA's 2013 Annual FOIA Report was finalized, Walter Reed provided the final report and a redacted version of its 2013 FOIA Processing Log. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 14. Walter Reed also provided an email from the account of its FOIA Officer, which “listed quarterly numbers of FOIA and Privacy Act requests.” Id.
3. FOIA Tracking Numbers
On April 26, 2014, Hammond submitted a third FOIA request, directly to Walter Reed, seeking Walter Reed's FOIA tracking numbers and dates that the requests were received for certain FOIA requests that were listed on an attached spreadsheet. See Second Bizzell Decl., ¶ 11; Am. Compl., ¶ 82. The spreadsheet included 40 FOIA requests, made by Hammond between February 2013 and January 2014. Id.
According to Walter Reed, its FOIA Office did not assign separate tracking numbers to each of Hammond's FOIA requests, but instead combined some of the requests for purposes of tracking. See Second Bizzell Decl., ¶ 12. Walter Reed informed Hammond that the only responsive documents that contained the tracking numbers were the letters that Walter Reed had sent to him in response to his FOIA requests, all of which had already been provided. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 23-24. Hammond was also provided the FOIA Processing Log on March 9, 2017, in response to another request, and the Log includes a full list of tracking numbers. Id., ¶ 25. As a result, Walter Reed did not transmit any additional records in response to this request.
4. Documents Relating to Two Packages
On April 26, 2014, Hammond also requested records pertaining to two packages he claims to have sent to Walter Reed on November 26, 2013, and January 27, 2014. See Am. Compl., ¶¶ 136-37; Second Bizzell Decl., ¶ 28. Hammond provided two USPS certified mail tracking numbers to identify the packages. Id.
Over the course of the next several months, Walter Reed “conducted a comprehensive search” to locate the two packages or any record of their receipt by Walter Reed. See Second Bizzell Decl., ¶¶ 29-32.[4] On July 25, 2014, Walter Reed informed Hammond that it had found no records regarding the two packages, and that it would close the matter. Id., ¶ 31. Although Walter Reed continued to look for the packages through November 6, 2015, it determined that the packages had never been received. Id., ¶ 33.[5]
5. Photocopies of 2012 and 2013 DVD Labels
Also on April 26, 2014, Hammond requested that Walter Reed provide him with “photocopies of the disk labels of the Original 2012 DVD [] and the copy made by WRNMCC in 2013.” See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 28. This request refers to a DVD of Hammond's medical records that he provided to Walter Reed in 2012. Id. Hammond asked Walter Reed to send him a copy of the DVD, which Walter Reed did on November 19, 2013. Id. The original DVD was labeled “Patient: Robert Hammond” and the copy was labeled “FOIA #14-08 Hammond #13-06.” Id., ¶ 29. On July 25, 2014, Walter Reed sent Hammond a copy of the labels on both DVDs and informed him that the “matter [was] closed in this office.” See Second Bizzell Decl., ¶ 26.
6. Documents Relating to DVD Chain of Custody
On April 28, 2014, Hammond sought additional records related to the DVD of his medical records. He requested “the chain of custody of that DVD including emails or other documents related to the transfer of the DVD to the Medical Records Department, to the FOIA office, to personnel copying the DVD, back to the FOIA office and to mailing.” Id., ¶ 20. Walter Reed searched for records responsive to this request but found none. Id., ¶ 22 ( ). On July 25, 2014, Walter Reed informed Hammond that it could locate no responsive records and closed the matter. Id., ¶ 25.
7. Reporting Chains of Command
On May 6, 2014, Hammond sent another FOIA request to Walter Reed, asking for “the WRNMCC FY 2013 and FY 2014 reporting Chain of Command for the FY 2013 and FY 2014 FOIA Reports and the FY 2013 and FY 2014 Quarterly Privacy Act Reports to Congress” Id., ¶ 14.
In its initial response on August 18, 2014, Walter Reed provided Hammond “with the full name and address of the Defense Health Agency Office, which is the office that the WRNMCC reports to with respect to FOIA and Privacy Act reports.” Id., ¶ 15. Hammond appealed, arguing that Walter Reed provided only a “misleading, incomplete” statement and released no documents relating to their reporting chains. Id., ¶ 16. In his appeal, he included a detailed list of suggested records that would meet his request, which Walter Reed used to search for additional responsive records; it provided those records to Hammond on March 9, 2017. See Third Bizzell Decl., ¶ 19.[6] In addition, supplemental records responsive to this request have been turned over to Hammond during the course of this litigation. Id., ¶ 20.[7]
8. Individualized Tracking Numbers for 20 FOIA Requests
Hammond's final FOIA request, submitted on May 25, 2014, sought “(1) records of the official Walter Reed agency-assigned FOIA case tracking numbers of twenty other of his FOIA requests” submitted between April 26, 2014 and May 6, 2014; and “(2) records of the dates that Walter Reed recorded receiving the requests at issue therein.” See Am. Compl., ¶ 107. With respect to this request, Walter Reed again notes that the tracking numbers and dates of receipt that correspond to Hammond's FOIA requests are contained in the responsive letters sent to Hammond by Walter Reed; and also are in the FOIA Processing Log. See ECF No. 50-3 ...
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