Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/611-f-2d-1132-596949830
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:13:15+00:00

Document:
Party Name: Harry E. HOOVER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR et al., Defendants-Appellees.
James E. Roberts, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.
Wendy M. Keats, Leonard Schaitman, U. S. Dept. of Justice-Civil Div., App. Staff, Washington, D. C., J. R. Brooks, U. S. Atty., Birmingham, Ala., for defendants-appellees.
Before AINSWORTH, VANCE and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
compel the Department of the Interior to make available for inspection and copying an appraisal report made relative to appellant's cave and surrounding lands. The district court dismissed the suit because of the pendency of a subsequently filed condemnation proceeding brought by the Department to acquire Hoover's property. On appeal, appellant contends that he is entitled under the FOIA to obtain the appraisal report. We disagree, and therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.
Appellant's cave is significant because it provides a home for the rare "gray bat," an endangered species. 1 The Department of the Interior considered acquiring appellant's cave for that reason, either through purchase or condemnation. Accordingly, in December 1977 the Department obtained, at the cost of $18,000, an appraisal of the cave and 264 acres surrounding it. The appraisal was purchased from an independent nongovernment appraiser with expertise in cave properties. 2 Based on the appraisal, the Department, on February 16, 1978, offered appellant $325,000 for his property. At the same time, the Department presented appellant with a summary statement of the basis of the offer as required by section 301(3) of the United Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4601 et seq., 4651(3).
Appellant did not accept the offer, but instead sent the Department a letter dated April 4, 1978, requesting further information pursuant to the FOIA. Among other items, appellant sought "a copy of the appraisal upon which (the Department) based the $325,000.00 offer." In response, the Department, in a letter dated April 21, 1978, complied with most of appellant's requests, 3 but declined to disclose the appraisal report. The Department asserted that the FOIA did not mandate disclosure of appraisals during the "negotiation process," and until such time as the property was purchased or condemned, the report would not be made available. The Department based its refusal on Exemption 5 of the FOIA which exempts from disclosure "inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency." 5 U.S.C. § 552(b) (5). The Department described two ways in which disclosure would adversely affect the operation of the Department's land acquisition program. First, disclosure would inhibit and prolong the "negotiation process by encouraging debates over the specifics of an appraisal report." Second, disclosure would introduce "an imbalance in favor of the landowner in the negotiating process" by giving him premature and unilateral access to the government's appraisal. The Department's letter also informed appellant of his right to appeal the decision.
Exemption 5. The Department enclosed a memorandum of law from the Department's Office of the Solicitor detailing the legal basis for its refusal to disclose the appraisal.
A simple request for production of the appraisal report in (the condemnation) action will place the burden on the United States to produce the report or carry the burden of satisfying the court in that action that it should not be made available in that litigation. The court is of the opinion that the Freedom of Information Act may not be used as a substitute for judicial resolution of discovery matters which may arise in pending litigation and that the discoverability of the report more appropriately should be resolved in the pending litigation.
This appeal requires consideration of three issues. The first issue is whether or not the district court was correct in dismissing the instant FOIA suit based upon the fact that there was a pending condemnation action between the parties. Since we find that the district court erred in dismissing the FOIA suit on that ground, we must consider the merits of appellant's claim. The second issue is whether the appraisal constitutes an intra-agency memorandum under the terms of Exemption 5. The third issue, which the district court declined to consider, is whether the appraisal is discoverable in litigation between a private party and the agency. We agree with the district court that the appraisal is an intra-agency memorandum. We further hold that the report is not routinely discoverable in litigation with the agency. As a result, we find that the appraisal falls within the provisions of Exemption 5, and need not be disclosed.
The Department contends that the district court properly exercised its inherent equitable powers when it dismissed the instant FOIA suit because of the pending condemnation proceeding. The Department relies on a number of cases supporting broad application of the district court's equitable powers to stay or dismiss its proceedings where other actions raising similar issues are pending. See, e. g., Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 1246, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976) ("(a)s between federal district courts, . . . though no precise rule has evolved, the general principle is to avoid duplicative litigation"); Kerotest Manufacturing Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co., 342 U.S. 180, 183-84, 72 S.Ct. 219, 221, 96 L.Ed. 200 (1952); Landis v. North American Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254-55, 57 S.Ct. 163, 166, 81 L.Ed. 153 (1936). The Department cites Renegotiation Board v. Bannercraft Clothing Co., 415 U.S. 1, 94 S.Ct. 1028, 39 L.Ed.2d 123 (1974), for the proposition that district courts retain their general equitable powers in FOIA actions.
The Department urges that the dismissal is supported by the general proposition that the FOIA was not intended to benefit private litigants. NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 143 n.10, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1513 n.10, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975). Inherent in the argument is the conception that the issues to be resolved in the FOIA action and the condemnation proceeding are essentially the same, and that to allow both suits to proceed would inevitably result in the waste of judicial resources. See Semmes Motors, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 429 F.2d 1197, 1203 (2d Cir. 1970) ("(c)ourts already heavily burdened with litigation with which they must of necessity deal should . . . not be called upon to duplicate each other's work in cases involving the same issues and the same parties," Citing Crosley Corp. v. Hazeltine Corp., 122 F.2d 925, 930 (3d Cir. 1941), Cert. denied, 315 U.S. 813, 62 S.Ct. 798, 86 L.Ed. 1211 (1942)).

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