Martin v. New York City Transit Authority

148 F.R.D. 56, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9847, 1993 WL 147296
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMarch 30, 1993
DocketNo. 89 CV 4284 (ADS)
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 148 F.R.D. 56 (Martin v. New York City Transit Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martin v. New York City Transit Authority, 148 F.R.D. 56, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9847, 1993 WL 147296 (E.D.N.Y. 1993).

Opinion

[58]*58ORDER

ORENSTEIN, United States Magistrate Judge.

Gentlemen of the Jury: The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.

Senator George Graham Vest, Eulogy on the Dog

If you use man’s best friend in the course of your employment and live with him/her at home, the United States Department of Labor dogmatically believes that you should get paid for commuting with your canine to and from work. In this case, the plaintiff, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”), is hounding the New York City Transit Authority (“TA”) for its failure to compensate its police officers from the canine unit for the time spent traveling to and from their work stations and their assigned dog’s house (hereafter referred to as “travel time”). The time period at issue in this case is October 1990 to the present.

On October 21, 1992, pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 37, the TA doggedly sought to compel the disclosure of certain personal interview statements taken by the DOL during its investigation and certain internal DOL mem-oranda dealing with the issue of travel time. The plaintiff believes that the TA is barking up the wrong tree and wants to keep the TA on a short leash with respect to the TA’s dog-tired pursuit of certain discovery. The DOL opposes discovery of the internal mem-oranda on the basis of the deliberative process privilege and the interview statements on the basis of the informant’s privilege—-the dogma of government. The privileges, as we will soon discover, are canines with very different fleas.

DISCUSSION

I. DELIBERATIVE PROCESS PRIVILEGE

1. .Introduction

The defendant seeks certain DOL internal memoranda claiming that because (1) the DOL is likely to request that the court give its decision to prosecute the “travel time” issue the deference typically accorded agency decisions and (2) there exists evidence that the DOL has not been consistent in its interpretation of “travel time” issue with respect to other dog handler cases. Thus, the defendant contends that disclosure of the internal memoranda would provide support for defendant’s position that the DOL decision to prosecute the instant case should not be given deference when considering plaintiffs summary judgment motion.

The TA made its initial request for these documents on May 25, 1990. The DOL objected to such request on August 6, 1990. After discussions between the parties did not resolve the dispute, the TA moved to compel on October 21, 1992. Karen Kessling, the Acting Administrator of Wage and Hour Division of DOL, executed an affidavit in support of the assertion of the privilege on October 13, 1992, over two years after the DOL objected to production on the ground of the deliberative process privilege.

The TA limits its request to internal mem-oranda regarding the issue of “travel time,” whether it exists in an abstract form or with respect to cases that have never gone to litigation. The defendant does not seek documents which pertain to the question of whether to prosecute the defendant in the instant case. There are nine documents at issue. Five documents were

generated at the request of the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division for comments, recommendations, suggestions, opinions by subordinates as to what their thoughts were on [the subject of travel time], with the idea that this would be taken into account to possibly make a decision on one aspect of travel time as hours worked.... There has not yet been a decision. That’s five of the documents written by subordinates to the administra-tor____ Those memos were generated after the initiation of this lawsuit for the purpose of the administrator reaching a decision on one aspect of just the issue of travel time, not with respect to any particular litigation____ Those memos are totally separate from this litigation

[59]*59Transcript at 70-72.1 Three additional documents are

draft memos that have not yet been sent, that take into account some of the recommendations, and as I said, these are draft documents that are still being deliberated and have not yet been finalized.

Transcript at at 72. The final document is one sent from the “Solicitor’s Office in Washington to the acting administrator with recommendations about the draft documents— the three draft documents.” Transcript at 72; See Memorandum of Law In Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Compel, at 17-18, dated Nov. 13, 1992.2 The DOL opposes production of these documents based on the deliberative process or pre-decisional privilege.

2. Discussion

A proper assertion of the deliberative process privilege prevents the disclosure of documents which reflect “advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.” N.L.R.B. v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 150, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1516, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975). The purpose of the privilege is to encourage frank discussion of ideas and policies. If the substance of these exchanges could be publicly disseminated, government could not effectively operate.

The deliberative process privilege must be properly invoked. The privilege must be invoked by the head of the agency which seeks to prevent disclosure. Martin v. Albany Business Journal, Inc., 780 F.Supp. 927, 931, 934 (N.D.N.Y.1992). The “power to claim the privilege may be delegated by the head of the agency, but only to a subordinate with high authority.” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Department of Energy, 520 F.Supp. 414, 416 (N.D.N.Y.1981). See Albany Business, 780 F.Supp. at 934 (Acting Administrator of Wage and Hour Division of DOL is a high level subordinate/delegatee who can properly invoke the deliberative process privilege); Mary Imogene, 136 F.R.D. at 44-45 (administrator who is appointed by President and confirmed by Senate qualified as a “high level subordinate”). As in Albany Business, this court finds that the Acting Administrator of Wage and Hour Division of DOL has the authority to invoke the privilege.

Delegation is only proper if the agency has issued guidelines on the use of the privilege. Albany Business 780 F.Supp. at 935.

At a minimum, the guidelines must be of sufficient specificity to fulfill the interests behind requiring participation of the agency head in the invocation. Coastal Corp., 86 F.R.D. at 518 (citing Amoco Prod. Co. v. Department of Energy, 1 Energy Mgmt. (CCH) ¶ 9752, at 9930 n. 16 (D.Del.1979)). The guideline requirement is indispensable because it ensures that the privilege is invoked consistently, see Pierson, 428 F.Supp. at 395, and that the delegatee official will be able to render decisions based on privileged information after reasoned judgment. Mobil Oil, 520 F.Supp. at 416; Exxon Corp. v. Department of Energy, 91 F.R.D. 26, 44 (N.D.Tex.1981).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 F.R.D. 56, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9847, 1993 WL 147296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martin-v-new-york-city-transit-authority-nyed-1993.