Hornbostel v. U.S. Dept. of Interior
| Decision Date | 07 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A. 02-2523(RCL).,CIV.A. 02-2523(RCL). |
| Citation | 305 F.Supp.2d 21 |
| Parties | Peter A. HORNBOSTEL, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
Peter A. Hornbostel, Washington, DC, pro se.
Lisa Barsoomian, Assistant United States Attorney, United States Attorney's Office, Washington, DC, for Defendant.
This matter comes before the Court as a result of defendant's motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment, plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and opposition to defendant's motion, defendant's reply to plaintiff's opposition and opposition to plaintiff's cross motion, and plaintiff's reply to defendant's opposition. Upon consideration of plaintiff's and defendant's motions, the respective oppositions and replies, and the applicable law relating to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, this Court finds plaintiff's motion shall be granted for documents 30, 31, 33, 34(b), 34(c), and 34(d). Plaintiff's motion for all other documents shall be denied.
This action relates to the sale of a 25 acre tract of land by a private owner to the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) and subsequent construction of a parking lot for visitors of Old Rag Mountain. Old Rag Mountain is a public land area under the control of the National Park Service (NPS) and, more broadly, the Department of Interior. Plaintiff submitted his first FOIA request to defendant on May 29, 2002 for all information directly or indirectly relating to the use of the land and all correspondence between the NPS or defendant and the PATC relating to the use or acquisition of the land by the PATC or the NPS. On June 21, 2002, plaintiff visited the headquarters of the Shenandoah National Park (SNP) to review the requested documents. At that time, the Environmental Assessment (EA) related to the proposed project had not been completed. Shortly thereafter, plaintiff wrote to SNP confirming the satisfaction of his FOIA request for certain documents and deferring his request for any documents inadvertently omitted and any environmental materials unavailable at the time of his visit due to the incomplete EA.
On July 3, 2002, an NPS employee responded to plaintiff indicating that the deferral of his FOIA request regarding certain documents unavailable at that time could not be properly accepted. As a result, plaintiff submitted a second FOIA request on July 23, 2002, requesting all documents related to the environmental aspects and effects of the proposed parking lot. The Park Superintendent replied to plaintiff's request on August 19, 2002, providing him with all documents except for those relating to the EA, which was ongoing at the time. On October 2, 2002, an NPS employee wrote to plaintiff stating that the information requested by plaintiff relating to the EA was covered by the Deliberative Process Exemption in the FOIA and therefore could not be provided. On December 24, 2002, plaintiff submitted his third FOIA request, requesting all documents sent or received since his last request, to which defendant replied on January 23, 2003 stating that NPS expected to provide a response to plaintiff's request by January 31, 2003. In between the submission of plaintiff's third request and defendant's response, the plot of land was sold to PATC on December 31, 2002. Defendant responded on January 31, 2003 and between this time and June 2003, defendant has issued 10 release letters to plaintiff, from which several hundred documents have been released in their entirety or as redacted versions. Many others have been withheld altogether. Both parties have moved for summary judgment and each has filed respective oppositions and replies. Upon review of the filings of both parties, this Court ordered an in camera inspection of documents 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34.
Defendant has moved to dismiss the action or, in the alternative, moved for summary judgment, claiming it has met its burden by providing plaintiff with certain documents and properly withholding others under FOIA Exemptions 3, 5, and 6. Further, defendant claims it has provided the necessary detailed justification relating to each of the withheld documents.
In a FOIA action, in order for an agency to prevail on a motion for summary judgment, it must prove that no genuine issue of material fact exists, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the requester. Weisberg v. U.S. Department of Justice, 745 F.2d 1476, 1485 (D.C.Cir.1984). In order to satisfy this burden, the agency must demonstrate that "it has conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents." Id. at 1485 (citations omitted). Whether or not the agency's search is reasonably calculated depends on the adequacy of the search, not on the results, and the adequacy of an agency's search is determined on a case-by-case basis, guided by a standard of reasonableness. Id. As this Court has previously noted, reiterating the deemphasis on results, "in assessing the reasonableness of a search, a court is not guided by whether the search actually uncovered every document or whether the search was exhaustive." Ferranti v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, 177 F.Supp.2d 41, 46 (D.D.C.2001) (Lamberth, J.). In order to prove this adequacy threshold has been met, the agency may rely upon "reasonably detailed, nonconclusory affidavits submitted in good faith." Id.
Defendant argues that its search was reasonably calculated and adequate, therefore satisfying the threshold requirement for summary judgment. The search conducted by defendant has been described in the Second Declaration of Constance A. Rudd. Rudd, a supervisor of the searches conducted by SNP in response to plaintiff's three FOIA requests, declared that "SNP employees searched agency records, both manually and by automated means." Second Rudd Decl. ¶ 3. Specifically, defendant notified relevant employees of the requests through e-mail, discretionarily reopened plaintiff's first FOIA request though it had technically been closed, in order to sort out some perceived confusion, and requested that the Old Rag project manager review his files in order to identify any documents covered by the requests. Both hard copy files and e-mails retrieved from the search were further reviewed by the SNP employees responsible for FOIA matters at SNP.
While plaintiff does not directly address the "adequacy" or "reasonableness" of plaintiff's search procedure, this Court shall address a number of issues raised by plaintiff in his opposition to defendant's motion for summary judgment in this section, as each directly or indirectly relates to this question. Plaintiff first argues that, as defendant's search did not uncover and disclose every document encompassed by his three requests, defendant's motion should be denied. Specifically, plaintiff asserts the Vaughn Index provided by defendant is incomplete because it fails to include (1) all of the documents related to the purchase or negotiations for the purchase of the land and (2) certain sources and rules used by defendant in its preparation of the EA related to the construction of the parking lot. Further, plaintiff argues that due to the untimeliness of defendant's responses, and specifically the untimeliness of defendant's use of Exemption 5, defendant waived its right to object to plaintiff's requests.
When determining the adequacy of an agency's search, a court may measure the reasonableness in light of the scope of the request. Meeropol v. Meese, 790 F.2d 942, 956 (D.C.Cir.1986). Plaintiff's requests for documents involve one single project dealt with primarily by one division within the Department of Interior — the parking lot construction project overseen by the NPS. In light of this relatively narrow scope, defendant's orders to the NPS Management Team, the Old Rag Project Manager, and various other NPS employees to search all of their e-mails and hard copy documents related to plaintiff's requests, as well as the subsequent review of these documents by the FOIA supervisors, was reasonably calculated and thus adequate.
Regarding plaintiff's first argument — that defendant failed to meet the summary judgment standard due to its failure to produce all documents related to the purchase or negotiation of the purchase of the land — defendant asserts and plaintiff concedes that seven documents related to this subject were already disclosed to plaintiff. The fact that there may possibly be additional documents relating to the purchase or negotiations is not relevant to the question of whether defendant conducted an adequate search for the documents. Ferranti, 177 F.Supp.2d at 46.
Plaintiff also argues that defendant's disclosure is incomplete as it failed to produce certain sources and rules used by defendant in its preparation of the EA related to the construction of the parking lot. These documents include the NPS air pollutant emissions inventory, the Virginia Department of Transportation daily and annual traffic volume statistics, the NPS Management Policies 2001, and the NPS impairment guidance.1 An agency is required to reconstruct its research process, but within reason. The fact that every document examined, cited, or discussed when developing a report is not disclosed does not automatically suggest the agency has failed to meet its burden. Further, "[r]equiring an additional search each time the agency receives a letter that clarifies a prior request could extend indefinitely the delay in processing new requests." Kowalczyk v. Department of Justice, 73 F.3d 386, 388-89 (D...
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