St. Paul's Benevolent Educational & Missionary Institute v. United States

506 F. Supp. 822, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16562
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedApril 29, 1980
DocketCiv. A. C 79-2047 A
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 506 F. Supp. 822 (St. Paul's Benevolent Educational & Missionary Institute v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Paul's Benevolent Educational & Missionary Institute v. United States, 506 F. Supp. 822, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16562 (N.D. Ga. 1980).

Opinion

ORDER

VINING, District Judge.

The controversy in this matter is the plaintiff’s objection to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) decision to disclose a computer tape and related tabulations to Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson & Company, pursuant to a request by these parties under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. (The plaintiffs originally filed their complaint against the United States and certain officers and employees of the CDC, but the above-named companies were subsequently permitted to intervene.) On November 8,1979, the court issued a temporary restraining order preventing the CDC from disclosing to Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson & Company the materials which were requested by them under the FOIA, and with the consent of the parties this order remains in effect. On January 8,1980, the court remanded the case to the CDC for the development of a record articulating the basis for its decision to release the requested materials. Following an administrative hearing, the hearing officer recommended that the requested materials be disclosed under the FOIA and the CDC adopted that recommendation as its decision. The expanded record is now before the court on Abbott Laboratories’ motion to dissolve the TRO and for a denial of injunctive relief.

BACKGROUND

The CDC is a federal government agency within the Department of Health and Human Resources. The plaintiffs are a group of non-profit, church-related organizations *824 that from the winter of 1977 to December 1, 1978, conducted a survey to gather data on the feeding of infants in low-income families in the United States to determine whether the feeding pattern could be correlated with morbidity and mortality and to find out whether particular marketing practices influence the choice of a particular feeding pattern. The findings were to provide the basis for a report concerning breast-fed and formula-fed infants. For that reason the survey concentrated on questions concerning what influenced the mother to choose either breast-feeding or bottle-feeding and other questions that were related to the growth and development patterns of the babies.

The data for this survey was gathered by the plaintiffs through the use of a questionnaire prepared by them. This questionnaire was developed solely by the plaintiffs; there was no government participation in its design or drafting. The collection of the data—that is, the actual interviewing of the low-income mothers—was also conducted by the plaintiffs with absolutely no government participation. Several predominately low-income areas within the country, both rural and urban, that had significant populations of a major ethnic or racial group, were selected for the survey. Trained individuals from the selected areas did the actual interviewing and data collection and sent the results to New York. Approximately 1,650 questionnaires were completed by the interviewers by December 1, 1978. All the work and funding for the completion of the questionnaires was contributed by the plaintiffs or other non-governmental sources and, indeed, there was no government connection with the project at this stage.

Dr. Milo Shannon-Thornberry, then located in New York, was the original coordinator of this project. In February 1979, he was in charge of completing the plaintiffs’ survey project. At that time, the questionnaires had been completed but the following work remained to be done on the survey project:

a. Convert the data on the completed questionnaires to a computer tape;
b. Make certain statistical tabulations of the data on the resultant computer tape through the application of a computer program;
c. Make an analysis of the data so tabulated; and
d. Draft a report based upon the tabulated data, the computer tape, and the analysis thereof; and publish said report.

From the initiation of the project through the actual collection of the data, but before any contact with the CDC, Dr. ShannonThornberry devoted thousands of hours of his staff time for one and one-half years. Approximately 2,400 hours were devoted to the actual use of the questionnaires to collect the data.

The project came to Atlanta because Dr. Shannon-Thornberry decided to relocate from New York to Atlanta. The computer work still had to be done, and the CDC was chosen by Dr. Shannon-Thornberry to do that work essentially because he was then located in Atlanta. The CDC did not possess any special facilities or equipment that would have mandated its selection to perform the work that remained to be done.

The CDC agreed to assist the plaintiffs and perform the computer work requested. The original understanding with the CDC called for it to: convert the data on the completed questionnaire to a computer tape, make certain statistical tabulations of the data on the resultant computer tape through the application of computer programs, and make an analysis of the data so tabulated.

The CDC personnel involved with the project were employed in the agency’s Bureau of Smallpox Eradication. The Director of the CDC’s Bureau of Smallpox Eradication is John Michael Lane, a medical doctor. That Bureau has two divisions, a Nutrition Division and an Immunization Division. Milton Nichaman is a medical doctor and is the Director of the Nutrition Division. David C. Miller is a medical doctor and is a Medical Officer with the Nutrition Division.

*825 One of the functions of the Nutrition Division of the CDC, and the CDC as a whole, is the collection, analysis, and distribution of data concerning the status of communicable diseases and nutrition of the United States population. The CDC creates some of the data it distributes, but the majority of the data is reported to the CDC by state and local government agencies. Some data is obtained from private parties. The data obtained by the CDC is distributed throughout the world to anyone requesting the data but primarily to public health agencies, physicians, universities, and private industry.

At the time of the plaintiffs’ request for the CDC’s help in completion of the survey project, Dr. Shannon-Thornberry delivered to the CDC personnel involved (Dr. Lane and Dr. Miller) 20 to 40 of the completed questionnaires. After reviewing these questionnaires, Dr. Lane agreed that the CDC, through the Nutrition Division, would provide the assistance described above. In exchange for the CDC’s assistance, the CDC was to receive a copy of the computer tape produced (for its own internal use) and some infant weighing scales used by the plaintiffs in conducting the survey. (The receipt of these scales, however, was incidental to the CDC’s agreement to help the plaintiffs and was not a factor in its decision to help them.) Also, it was understood that because the CDC was doing the analysis, the project could not draw conclusions that were contrary to its analysis.

One of the reasons behind the agency’s agreement to help the plaintiffs was the CDC’s consideration of the importance of infant and child nutrition relative to breastfeeding in the domestic and international scene.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hooker v. United States Department of Health and Human Services
887 F. Supp. 2d 40 (District of Columbia, 2012)
Laverde v. Department of Housing & Urban Development
3 Mass. Supp. 56 (Massachusetts District Court, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
506 F. Supp. 822, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-pauls-benevolent-educational-missionary-institute-v-united-states-gand-1980.