In Defense of Animals v. National Inst. of Health
| Decision Date | 14 April 2008 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 04-1571 (CKK). |
| Parties | IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
William James Spriggs, Spriggs & Hollingsworth, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.
Michelle Nicole Johnson, United States Attorney's Office, Washington, DC, for Defendants.
Presently before the Court is [11] Federal Defendants' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, [13] Plaintiffs Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment, and [17] Defendants' Second Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. Plaintiff In Defense of Animals ("IDA"), a non-profit animal advocacy organization, filed this action on September 10, 2004, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 (2000 & Supp. II 2002), against Defendants National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), requesting that the Court compel Defendants to disclose agency records that were withheld from IDA and to grant IDA a public interest fee waiver for its FOIA request. On March 16, 2005, Defendants filed a[11] Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, requesting that the Court grant summary judgment in Defendants' favor as to all but 23 pages of requested documents referred to the United States Air Force (USAF) because "NIH conducted a reasonable search, properly invoked and justified its reliance on statutory exemptions [(4), (5), and (6)] under FOIA, and properly denied plaintiffs request for a blanket public interest fee waiver." Defs.' Mem. for Part. Summ. J. at 10. Defendants also argue that Plaintiff did not exhaust its administrative remedies with respect to its document requests. Id. at 10-12. On March 13, 2005, Plaintiff filed a[13] Cross Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, arguing that Defendants' search for records was inadequate; that Defendants wrongfully denied Plaintiffs public interest fee waiver request; that Plaintiff was not required to launch an administrative challenge prior to filing suit; that NIH improperly asserted FOIA Exemptions 4, 5, and 6, with respect to certain documents; and that NIH did not properly segregate non-exempt portions of various documents. Pl.'s Cross Mot. for Summ. J. at 5-27.1 On May 4, 2005, Defendants filed [17] Defendants' Second Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, arguing that since Defendants had released the 23 responsive pages initially referred to the USAF to Plaintiff, Defendants should be granted summary judgment with respect to said pages. All motions have been fully briefed. After considering the pending motions, the filings related thereto, and the relevant statutes and case law, the Court shall GRANT in part and DENY in part [11] Defendants' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment; GRANT in part and DENY in part [13] Plaintiffs Cross Motion for Summary Judgment; and GRANT [17] Defendants' Second Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. Defendants shall produce the following information to Plaintiff: 1) incentive payments to the contractor; 2) answers to NIH questions in the revised contract proposal; 3) the withheld NIH contract questions; and 4) redactions of the square footage of the APF, daily inventories of animals, floor plans and wiring diagrams, specific locations of individual animals, locations of animal records and specimens, numbers of rooms containing equipment, the numbers of animals in specific holding areas, and the square footage of specific areas. Defendants shall also provide Plaintiff with properly-segregated, redacted versions of Documents 14 and 15 as listed in the Vaughn Index, including the subject matter of the invoices and e-mails at issue. Defendants shall search APF for the requested clinical chimpanzee files, using a search cut-off date not earlier than March 31, 2007, and informing Plaintiff of said cut-off date. Defendants shall further grant Plaintiff a public interest fee waiver immediately.
After reviewing the Parties' statements of facts and the relevant documents in this case, the Court has determined that the following facts are not in dispute (and will cite documents attached to the Complaint when applicable for ease of reference). By letter dated January 20, 2004, Plaintiff submitted a FOIA request to NIH's component, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), for documents relating to the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) and the chimpanzees maintained therein. Compl., Ex. 1 (FOIA Request). APF is a government-owned and contractor-operated facility in New Mexico. Id. The chimpanzees located at APF are owned by the NIH and are being maintained under a contract with Charles River Laboratories, Inc. (CRL), a publicly held animal research company. Id.
Plaintiff requested the following documents:
[Operational Records]
...
1. The NIH's Requests for Proposals ("RFP") and all amendments that led to the award of the current contract to CRL to operate the APF....
2. The proposals and all amendments submitted by CRL in response to the RFP for the APF contract.
3. The current APF contract and all amendments between the NIH and CRL, as well as all progress reports,
and any other reports, submitted by CRL that are required by the contract. ...
4. All records relating to the NIH's decision to award the APF contract to CRL.
5. All internal APF records sent or received by any current of former APF employees regarding any aspect of the clinical care, treatment, well-being, husbandry, enrichment and/or psychological well-being, diagnosis, monitoring, observation, cause(s) of death, surveillance and/or adequacy of any of the chimpanzee-specific records described later in this request.
6. All APF records relating to the availability of controlled substances such as euthanasia drugs....
7. All APF records relating to availability of-ultrasound machine(s) and any other equipment or resources necessary for the care of chimpanzees....
8. All records related to the APF Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee....
9. All records related to the APF Advisory Board....
10. All records related to any internal investigations conducted by CRL related to any aspect of chimpanzee care, diagnosis, treatment, enrichments, etc., and/or compliance with conditions of the contract between CRL and the NIH to operate the APF.
11. All records related to any internal complaints, concerns, etc. made by any current or former APF employees regarding any aspect of the clinical care, treatment, well-being, observation, monitoring, diagnosis, enrichment and/or psychological well-being, husbandry, cause(s) of death, surveillance and/or adequacy of any of the chimpanzee-specific records described later in this request.
12. All records related to any meetings of current or former APF staff that in any way addressed any aspect of the clinical care, treatment, well-being, observation, monitoring, diagnosis, enrichment and/or psychological well-being, husbandry, cause(s) of death, surveillance and/or adequacy of any of the chimpanzee-specific records described later in this request....
13. All records relating to internal complaints, comments, questions, concerns, etc. regarding the clinical competence, training and/or experience of any veterinarians ever employed by CRL at the APF.
14. All records relating to veterinary turnover at the APF, including but not limited to the resumes/C.V.'s of any and all veterinarians ever employed by CRL at the APF, amount of clinical chimpanzee experience at the time of hire, etc. [Chimpanzee-Specific Records]
...
15. All chimpanzees who have died since CRL took over operation of the APF, including those who have been euthanized.
16. All chimpanzees who have received intensive care and/or emergency care since CRL took over operation of the APF.
17. The 14 chimpanzees whom the Coulston Foundation transferred to the NIH on April 9, 2002 and placed under the care of the APF....
Id. at 2-5. Plaintiff accompanied its FOIA request with a request for a news media fee waiver, arguing that because of IDA's "efforts to gather and disseminate news to the public" regarding animal welfare issues, IDA qualified for a waiver of fees as a "news media entity," pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II) and 45 C.F.R. § 5.41. Id. at 5-6. Additionally, Plaintiff requested a public interest fee waiver on the grounds that, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii) and 45 C.F.R. § 5.45, IDA's request "is not in the commercial interest of IDA or any of its members, and disclosure of the requested information is likely to significantly contribute to public understanding of the operations and activities of the NIH." Id. at 6-10. In support of Plaintiffs public interest fee waiver request, Plaintiff explained its intended use for the requested documents, how it planned to disseminate the records to the public, and provided examples of how IDA had previously disseminated records obtained under the FOIA to the public. Id.
On March 3, 2004, NIH sent Plaintiff a response letter, acknowledging Plaintiffs FOIA request and denying Plaintiffs request for a public interest fee waiver. Compl., Ex. 2 (3/3/04 NIH's Denial of IDA's Fee Waiver Request (hereinafter, "NIH's Fee Waiver Denial")) at 1. NIH stated that IDA "ha[d] not demonstrated that release of the requested information is primarily in the public interest, or that the requested information will be widely distributed." Id. Additionally, NIH alleged that IDA failed to show "a unique capability to educate the public beyond [IDA's] constituency and similar groups that have the same concerns." Id. NIH also stated that it would not decide whether IDA qualified for a news media fee waiver because NIH did not anticipate any...
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