Nolen v. Rumsfeld, 75-3294.
| Decision Date | 30 September 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-3294.,75-3294. |
| Citation | 535 F.2d 890 |
| Parties | Lenard Wallace NOLEN, Sr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Donald H. RUMSFELD, Secretary of Defense, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Lenard Wallace Nolen, Sr., pro se.
Ronald T. Knight, U. S. Atty., John D. Carey, Edgar W. Ennis, Jr., Asst. U. S. Attys., Macon, Ga., for defendants-appellees.
Before COLEMAN, RONEY and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.
Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied September 30, 1976.
This is an appeal by plaintiff Lenard Nolen from a summary judgment denying his claim for production of military records under the Freedom of Information Act. The district court held that the defendants have made the requested Army records available for inspection and copying as required by the Act. The court further held that the Act did not require that the Government pay plaintiff's travel expenses to obtain the desired records. We affirm.
Plaintiff, in a related administrative proceeding, has been unsuccessful in an attempt to have himself adjudicated "service connected" for hypertension by the Veterans Administration. Plaintiff claims that his denial was caused in part by missing records withheld by the Army. Accordingly, plaintiff filed a pro se complaint against the named defendants pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C.A. § 552, seeking the following relief:
The Freedom of Information Act merely requires that the appropriate agency make available for inspection and copying the requested records. The Act provides in pertinent part:
Each agency, in accordance with published rules, shall make available for public inspection and copying . . . upon any request for records which (A) reasonably describes such records and (B) is made in accordance with published rules stating the time, place, fees (if any), and procedures to be followed, shall make the records promptly available to any person.
5 U.S.C.A. §§ 552(a)(2), and (3).
This is not a situation in which the Government is withholding identified information from a claimant. The Government has, in candor and in good faith before this Court, stated that all the records available have been made available to the plaintiff. Nolen is here seeking production of missing records, which action is not within the...
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