Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. NLRB, REGION 6, Civ. A. No. 76-79.

• Decision Date: 28 January 1976
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 76-79.
• Citation: 407 F. Supp. 1124
• Parties: MYLAN PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., a Subsidiary of Mylan Laboratories, Inc., a West Virginia Corporation, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, REGION 6, Henry Shore, Regional Director, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

407 F. Supp. 1124

MYLAN PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., a Subsidiary of Mylan Laboratories, Inc., a West Virginia Corporation, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, REGION 6, Henry Shore, Regional Director, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 76-79.

United States District Court, W. D. Pennsylvania.

January 28, 1976.

John H. Hill, Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiff.

Peter Hoffman, N. L. R. B., Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendant.

OPINION

SNYDER, District Judge.

The Plaintiff, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Mylan), brought this action under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, as amended, seeking statements and affidavits obtained by Agents of the National Labor Relations Board (N.L.R.B.) as part of their investigation of unfair labor practice charges against Mylan. This Court refused to grant a temporary restraining order and held a hearing on the preliminary injunction request on January 27, 1976. The Plaintiff sought to restrain the N.L.R.B. from conducting its administrative hearing until the issues herein had been resolved and, should disclosure be ordered, a stay of the administrative proceedings until a reasonable time after such disclosure. Plaintiff's request for disclosure and injunction will be denied, and the Complaint dismissed.¹

Counsel have largely stipulated the factual background to be: On May 21, 1975, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers and its Local Union 8-2, AFL-CIO (Union), filed a petition for representation with Region 6 of the N.L.R.B., seeking certification as the exclusive collective bargaining representative in a unit of production and maintenance employees at the Plaintiff's Morgantown, West Virginia facility. On July 25, 1975, the N.L.R.B. conducted a representation election which the Union lost by a count of 115 to 90, with 6 ballots being challenged. The Union filed timely objections to the conduct of the election.

On July 29, 1975, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging that Mylan had violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1)). On September 8, 1975 and November 18, 1975, the Union amended its charges to include the allegation that Mylan violated other sections of the Act by discriminating against employees, Elizabeth Sekula and Carolyn K. Bayles, each of whom had filed individual charges against their employer.² The Regional Office investigated the charges filed by the Union and on December 1, 1975, the Regional Director, Henry Shore, issued a complaint charging Mylan with the alleged violations and an Order directing hearing on the objections as filed by the Union. This hearing is scheduled for Monday, February 2, 1976.

In a letter to the Regional Director, dated December 2, 1975, Mylan, pursuant to the FOIA, requested copies of "all written statements, signed or unsigned, contained in the Board's case files . . Specifically, we are hereby requesting receipt of written reports or signed affidavits which resulted from your interviewing witnesses offered by the Union." The Regional Director denied the request by letter dated December 5, 1975, and by letter dated December 9, 1975, Mylan appealed the Director's denial to the N.L.R.B.'s General Counsel. Mylan was informed of the denial of its appeal by the General Counsel in a letter dated January 9, 1976. The instant action was then filed on January 16, 1976 seeking production of the requested documents and asking for a stay of at least thirty working days from the date of the production of said documents.

Jurisdiction of this Court to order production of documents under the FOIA clearly extends to "each agency, upon any request for records which (A) reasonably describes such records and (B) is made in accordance with published rules . . ." (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3)).

Jurisdiction is granted as well to enjoin the agency from withholding agency records and to order the production of any agency records improperly withheld.

It is noted at the outset that this is not an action to review discovery matters which may or may not arise during the Board's hearing. Rather, this is a separate and distinct action, pursuant to the FOIA, the benefits of which are available to any person. The Board here contends that the FOIA was not intended as a broad discovery tool for litigants in administrative agency proceedings, and even if so interpreted, that the documents are exempt under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A), (C), and (D).³

The main thrust of the Plaintiff's argument before this Court was that the Board had not met its burden of demonstrating that the request for information fell within one of the Act's specific exemptions. This contention, however, does not take into account the legislative history of the amendments to Exemption 7 where Senator Hart expressly took notice that the original intent of Congress was to prevent harm to enforcement proceedings "by not allowing an opposing litigant earlier or greater access to investigative files than he would otherwise have." 120 Cong.Rec. S9329 (Daily Ed., May 30, 1974). Thus, Defendant meets its burden under Exemption 7A by showing that the statements which the employer seeks to obtain before the Board hearing are documents it could not normally obtain.⁴ See Climax Molybdenum Co. v. N.L.R.B., 407 F.Supp. 208, 90 LRRM 3126 (D.Colo.1975) (appeal pending); Contra: Title Guarantee Co. v. N.L.R.B., 407 F.Supp. 498, 90 LRRM 2849, 90 LRRM 3238 (S.D.N.Y.1975) (now on expedited appeal to the Second Circuit, No. 75-6119).

With respect to Subsection (C), we adopt the ruling of the Court in Title Guarantee Co. v. N.L.R.B., supra, as follows (at p. 505, 90 LRRM at pp. 2853-2854):

"Defendant's further contention that the documents would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy seems to hinge on a rather wide interpretation of Exemption 7(C). According to the defendant, the right to privacy here includes the `right to select the people to whom . . . (one) will communicate his ideas.' The court does not agree. The cases applying Exemption 7(C) are generally concerned with items which are much more commonly thought of as private. See, e. g., Rural Housing Alliance v. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 162 U.S.App.D.C. 122, 498 F.2d 73 (1974) (information concerning marital status, legitimacy of children, identity of fathers of children, medical conditions, welfare payments,

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