Wolk Law Firm v. United States

371 F. Supp. 3d 203
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 9, 2019
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 16-05632
StatusPublished

This text of 371 F. Supp. 3d 203 (Wolk Law Firm v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wolk Law Firm v. United States, 371 F. Supp. 3d 203 (E.D. Pa. 2019).

Opinion

EDUARDO C. ROBRENO, J.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs are a law firm retained to represent aircraft accident victims and their families, and the parents of Mark Goldstein, an aircraft accident victim. ECF No. 16 ¶¶ 1, 3. The Amended Complaint only *207identifies the Goldstein family as clients of the law firm. Id. ¶ 4.

Plaintiffs filed this suit against the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) because the NTSB has denied Plaintiffs' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests1 for documents related to seven aircraft accident investigations.2 See id. ¶¶ 10-14. Plaintiffs requested the NTSB to produce various types of materials, including "investigation materials," "missing pieces of the [Goldstein] accident aircraft wreckage," "logbooks and video footage of the accident," and "data download from equipment onboard the accident aircraft." See id. ¶ 13.

Earlier in the litigation, the Court granted the NTSB's motion to dismiss Count I -- "Obstruction of Justice and Violation of Due Process". See ECF No. 15. Only Count II remains in this case -- "Violation of the Freedom of Information Act".

The NTSB filed a motion for summary judgment. ECF No. 51. The NTSB's briefing includes a " Vaughn" index, ECF No. 51-1, that describes the nature of the materials it continues to withhold from Plaintiffs and the reason why those materials are being withheld. See Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973). The NTSB also submitted copies of documents and videos to the Court for in camera review.

Upon consideration of the parties' arguments, and following an in camera review, the Court finds that the NTSB properly denied Plaintiffs' FOIA requests for the documents and videos. However, the Court finds that in this case, information concerning the wreckage and the wreckage itself has not been argued to be exempt under the FOIA, and so must be produced.

II. LAW

The "FOIA creates a presumption favoring disclosure" of Government documents. Manna v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 51 F.3d 1158, 1163 (3d Cir. 1995). However, certain categories of documents are exempt from the FOIA's production requirements, i.e., an agency may withhold materials that fall within one or more of the nine enumerated exemptions. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). As relevant to this case, by statutory exemption number, the FOIA does not apply to matters and materials that are:

(2) related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency;
(3) specifically exempted from disclosure by statute if that statute requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue or establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld;
*208(4) trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential;
(5) inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency, provided that the deliberative process privilege shall not apply to records created 25 years or more before the date on which the records were requested; and
(6) personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Id.

A district court reviews an agency's use of a FOIA exemption to withhold documents de novo. Id. § 552(a)(4)(B).

The agency has the burden of showing that a statutory exemption applies. Id.; see also Manna, 51 F.3d at 1163 (citing McDonnell v. United States, 4 F.3d 1227, 1241 (3d Cir. 1993) ).

The agency can sustain its burden under the FOIA by submitting a detailed explanation, that can take many different forms and combinations, that "describe[s] the material withheld and detail[s] why it fits within the claimed exemption." McDonnell, 4 F.3d at 1241 ; Lame v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 654 F.2d 917, 922 (3d Cir. 1981) ("[T]the district court must have furnished to it, in whatever form, public or private, all of the detailed justifications advanced by the government for non-disclosure."). The court may order the agency to submit copies of the withheld materials for in camera review. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B) ; see also Ferri v. Bell, 645 F.2d 1213, 1225-26 (3d Cir. 1981), modified, 671 F.2d 769 (3d Cir. 1982).

The agency is entitled to summary judgment in a FOIA case if the agency "describe[s] the withheld information and the justification for withholding [it] with reasonable specificity, demonstrating a logical connection between the information and the claimed exemption" and the agency's submissions in support of withholding "are not controverted by either contrary evidence in the record nor by evidence of agency bad faith." Manna, 51 F.3d at 1163-64 (quoting Am. Friends Serv. Comm. v. Dep't of Def., 831 F.2d 441, 444 (3d Cir. 1987) ). The court may also grant summary judgment after in camera review. See

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
371 F. Supp. 3d 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wolk-law-firm-v-united-states-paed-2019.