King & Spalding LLP v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs.

330 F. Supp. 3d 477
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedSeptember 7, 2018
DocketCase No. 16-cv-01616 (APM)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 330 F. Supp. 3d 477 (King & Spalding LLP v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King & Spalding LLP v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 330 F. Supp. 3d 477 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Amit P. Mehta, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This case concerns three Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") requests submitted by Plaintiff King & Spalding LLP to Defendants U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") (collectively "Defendants"). The court already has ruled on one round of summary judgment motions and, at this stage in the litigation, the only remaining issues pertain to the FOIA requests directed to DOJ. Specifically, Plaintiff challenges DOJ's search for responsive records, as well as its withholding of certain documents under Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(D).

Before the court are the parties' renewed cross-motions for summary judgment. Upon review of the parties' briefs and the present record, the court grants in part and denies in part Defendants' Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment and Plaintiff's Renewed Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Plaintiff's FOIA Requests

In 2012, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia ("USAO-DC") initiated a criminal and civil investigation of Abiomed, Inc., a medical device company. See Pl.'s Cross-Mot. for Summ. J., ECF No. 21 [hereinafter Pl.'s Cross-Mot.], Pl.'s Statement of Undisputed Material Facts [hereinafter Pl.'s Stmt.], ¶¶ 36-37. The investigation centered on marketing and labeling practices for a particular medical device, Impella? 2.5, and ended three years later without any enforcement action. See id. The investigation may have commenced when an anonymous *483source, acting through a private lawyer, disclosed records pertaining to Abiomed to the USAO-DC. See Pl.'s Cross-Mot. at 17;1 cf. Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J., ECF No. 20 [hereinafter Defs.' Mot.], Decl. of Tricia Francis, ECF No. 20-2 [hereinafter Francis Decl.], ¶¶ 13-15, 18; Defs.' Combined Opp'n to Cross-Mot. & Reply in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J., ECF No. 25 [hereinafter Defs.' Initial Reply], Second Decl. of Tricia Francis, ECF No. 25-2 [hereinafter Second Francis Decl.], Corrected & Suppl. Vaughn Index for EOUSA, ECF No. 25-2, at 17-26 [hereinafter EOUSA Vaughn Index]. Abiomed suspects that one of its competitors, Maquet, is the unnamed source. See Pl.'s Cross-Mot. at 32-33.

After the investigation closed, Abiomed sought to learn about how it started. On April 14, 2016, counsel for Abiomed, Plaintiff King & Spalding LLP, filed three separate FOIA requests with HHS and two subcomponents of DOJ: the Civil Division and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys ("EOUSA"). See Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶¶ 9-11; Defs.' Mot., Defs.' Statement of Material Facts Not in Genuine Dispute [hereinafter Defs.' Stmt.], ¶ 1; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 1. In each request, Plaintiff sought documents concerning Abiomed. See generally Defs.' Stmt. ¶¶ 2, 10, 14; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶¶ 2, 10, 14. Plaintiff asked for "[a]ll documents between January 1, 2012 and October 31, 2012, provided to any [federal agency] from any individual, corporation, partnership, or other private party other than Abiomed, Inc." that "concern[ed], discuss[ed], or refer[red] to Abiomed" or "related ... to the issuance of a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act subpoena issued by the [USAO-DC] to Abiomed." Defs.' Stmt. ¶¶ 10, 14; see Pl.'s Stmt. ¶¶ 10, 14.2

As discussed, Plaintiff no longer challenges the response it received from HHS; the only outstanding issues in this matter pertain to the FOIA requests directed to the DOJ Civil Division and the EOUSA. See Joint Status Report, ECF No. 29 [hereinafter JSR], ¶ 3.

1. Civil Division Request

The Civil Division responded to Plaintiff's FOIA request by letter dated June 17, 2016. See Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 11; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 11. The letter explained that the Civil Division had located 49 pages of potentially responsive documents and had referred those documents to the EOUSA for direct response, but that a portion of the documents were protected from disclosure by court seal. Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 11; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 11. The letter also advised Plaintiff that it could administratively appeal the Civil Division's response within 60 days. Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 12; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 12.

Plaintiff took no action in response to the June 17, 2016, letter that it received from the Civil Division. Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 13; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 13. According to Plaintiff, it could not have "appealed" the letter because the letter "did not state any determination that the Civil Division was not complying with the FOIA request or any reasons for a decision not to comply" and therefore did not constitute a "final response" from the agency. See Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 13.

*484On December 23, 2016, from the records it received from the Civil Division, EOUSA released 27 pages in full and withheld 16 pages in full. See Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 16; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶¶ 16, 35. According to Defendants, the 16 pages withheld in full are duplicates of documents that EOUSA withheld in full in response to the FOIA request that Plaintiff submitted directly to EOUSA. Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 16; cf. Francis Decl. ¶ 11; Francis Decl., Attach. E. Thus, EOUSA withheld those pages on identical grounds as those discussed below. See Francis Decl. ¶ 11.

2. EOUSA Request

Simultaneous with the release of the Civil Division's records, EOUSA responded to the FOIA request directed to it, releasing 344 pages in full and withholding 51 pages in full pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(D). Defs.' Stmt. ¶ 15; see Pl.'s Stmt. ¶ 15.3 Thus, all told, EOUSA withheld in full 67 pages of responsive material (51 pages responsive to the EOUSA request and 16 pages responsive to the Civil Division request). See Francis Decl., Attachs. D-E. The undisclosed information generally falls into two categories: "(1) the names of government personnel, the name of an attorney representing the unnamed source and the names of third parties who appear in the documents provided by the unnamed source under Exemption[s] [6 and] 7(C), and (2) certain material that could reveal the identity of the Government's unnamed source under Exemption 7(D)." See King & Spalding, LLP v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs. , 270 F.Supp.3d 46, 47 (D.D.C. 2017) (cleaned up); see also Defs.' Stmt. ¶¶ 15-16; Pl.'s Stmt. ¶¶ 15-16.

On April 5, 2017, after the parties filed their initial cross-motions for summary judgment, EOUSA released four additional documents consisting of email communications, which the agency located after conducting a supplemental search in March 2017. See Defs.' Initial Reply at 7, 20; Second Francis Decl. ¶ 3; EOUSA Vaughn Index at 23-26 (documents 13-16). As part of this supplemental release, EOUSA released 46 pages in full and 33 pages in part, withholding any information that fell within the two aforementioned categories pursuant to Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(D). See Second Francis Decl., April 5, 2017 EOUSA Letter, ECF No. 25-2, at 9-11; EOUSA Vaughn Index at 23-26.4

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330 F. Supp. 3d 477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-spalding-llp-v-us-dept-of-health-human-servs-cadc-2018.