Opinion ID: 77938
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether Disputed Issues of Fact Preclude Summary Judgment

Text: The Tribe next maintains that even assuming the evidence provided a sufficient basis upon which the court could judge the reasonableness of the search, rather than granting summary judgment, the district court should have conducted an evidentiary hearing to resolve numerous inconsistencies in the testimony. This argument again sets aside the merits question of whether the search was adequate, and instead challenges the district court's definition of certain factual discrepancies as irrelevant. [8] According to the Tribe, the district court inappropriately relied on a sister case from its district for the proposition that an agency is entitled to summary judgment if no material facts are in dispute and if it demonstrates `that each document that falls within the class requested either has been produced . . . or is wholly exempt from the Act's inspection requirements.' Florida Immigrant Advocacy Ctr. v. Nat'l Sec. Agency, 380 F.Supp.2d 1332, 1336-37 (S.D.Fla.2005). Instead, the Tribe believes that, given the number of relevant disputed facts, the district court should have looked to a different case from the Southern District of Florida that advocates conducting an evidentiary hearing to resolve the disputed factual issues. Sun-Sentinel Co. v. US. Dep't of Homeland Sec., 431 F.Supp.2d 1258, 1276 (S.D.Fla. 2006) (disputed issues of material fact made summary judgment in FOIA case inappropriate and the court must hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve the factual issues). The Tribe's argument regarding factual disputes in the Rule 56 record focuses primarily on alleged inconsistencies between the averments in Dominy's Affidavit and the Rule 56 testimony provided by other deponents. In his affidavit, Dominy claimed that, upon receipt of the Tribe's February 18, 2004 FOIA request, his office contacted MancusiUngaro and Harper and asked them to identify other personnel who might have records responsive to the Tribe's request. The Tribe asserts that the district court only considered that portion of the Rule 56 evidence that supported its conclusion that the search was adequate. [9] Specifically, the Tribe points to three categories of disputed ed evidence that it believes should have prevented the grant of summary judgment: (1) evidence from Scheidt that he did not recall responding to the June request; (2) deposition testimony that contradicts Dominy's Affidavit that responsive documents were produced, and demonstrates that certain documents were not produced even though they were responsive; and (3) evidence regarding who should have been contacted for records and who actually coordinated the search. The court will address each argument in turn.
The Tribe points again and again to evidence that at least one employee on Dominy's listDan Scheidt, the lead scientist on the phosphorus criterionappears to have been overlooked with respect to the search in response to the June 3rd FOIA request concerning the default phosphorus criterion. Dominy claimed that each person listed in his Affidavit received a copy of the February 18th FOIA request and was again contacted about the Tribe's June 3rd FOIA request. Dominy also stated that all employees working on the EPA's phosphorus criterionpresumably including Scheidtsearched for responsive records. However, Scheidt testified that he did not recall providing documents responsive to the Tribe's June 3rd FOIA request which targeted documents concerning his area of expertise. The district court's order recognized that Scheidt [] indicated he did not recall responding to Plaintiff's second request. The. Tribe contends that whether Scheidt received the June 3rd request, and whether he ever responded it to it, are issues of material fact that are relevant to the adequacy of the search and that the district court should have ordered a new search so that Scheidt could determine whether he had additional documents responsive to Plaintiff's requests. The EPA maintains that the Tribe is simply mistaken and that there is not an issue of material fact regarding whether Scheidt was ever sent the June 2004 FOIA request given his testimony that no new documents would have been produced after the February FOIA. The undisputed testimony indicates the following: (1) Scheidt testified at his deposition that he had other documents responsive to the Tribe's FOIA requests that he did not produce because he assumed the Tribe had them; (2) Scheidt further testified that he excluded from his disclosure scientific publications, agency reports, journal articles and Florida Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) testimony; (3) after the deposition, the EPA provided to the Tribe more than 30 documents from Scheidt; and (4) Scheidt later provided a sworn Affidavit stating that any documents in his possession that would have been responsive to the June 2004 FOIA request were also responsive to the February 2004 FOIA request that he did receive and to which he did respond. [10] Even now, after having received additional documents from Scheidt, the Tribe still believes that the EPA's search was not adequate to uncover all Scheidt's documents based solely on the fact that he did not recall seeing or responding to the Tribe's June 3rd request. Scheidt has admitted that he did not recall the request specifically, but he has also explained his efforts to locate responsive documents and produce them after the time that the request was made. Even if he did not lay eyes on the request in written form, his post-request search would have covered any documents responsive thereto. Therefore, his admission does not create a disputed fact. The undisputed evidence indicates that Scheidt was deposed and asked questions about what documents he had and what he did to search for documents that would have satisfied both requests. We find that the district court did not err in finding that Scheidt's testimony was undisputed and that his testimony did not create a material issue of fact regarding his search.
Next the Tribe points to several alleged inconsistencies between what the deponents thought they had provided and what was actually provided. For example, Scheidt testified that he had produced documents responsive to the Tribe's FOIA request concerning effects on the Tribe as a downstream user. The Tribe believes, however, that based upon a review of the document list and Vaughn Index, those documents were not provided. Additionally, Scheidt admitted that he failed to produce notes of ERC meetingsnotes that the Tribe believes were clearly requested by the February 18th request and should have been produced. Finally, Mancusi-Ungaro admitted at his deposition that the EPA had failed to produce a document he had faxed to the State of Florida that was responsive to the Tribe's FOIA requests. Mancusi-Ungaro also said that he could not recall whether he sent other documents to the State of Florida that would have been responsive to the FOIA requests. Based principally on these examples, the Tribe points to inconsistencies between what the EPA averred was provided and what the testimony shows should have been provided but was not. The EPA does not offer a specific response to each of the documents identified by the Tribe above, opting instead to argue generally that an agency is not required to prove that every single responsive document was produced to demonstrate the adequacy of the search. See Nation Magazine, Washington Bureau v. U.S. Customs Serv., 71 F.3d 885, 892 n. 7 (D.C.Cir.1995). Accordingly, the EPA maintains that a search is not presumed unreasonable simply because an agency failed to produce all relevant documents. Nation Magazine, 71 F.3d at 892 n. 7. c. Evidence Regarding Other Employees Who Had Records Who Were Not Contacted and Who Actually Coordinated the Search The Tribe next highlights what it considers to be contradictory evidence regarding how the search was conducted. First, the Tribe notes that even though Dominy lists Richard Harvey (Director of the EPA's South Florida office in West Palm Beach and an employee of Region 4 Water Division) as a person who received both requests, there is no documented proof in the record that Harvey ever received or responded to the requests. Mancusi-Ungaro testified that he does not recall giving Harvey's name to Pearce, and Harper said she did not coordinate with Harvey to gather documents. Nevertheless, despite the Tribe's arguments, testimony from Pearce indicates that she gave Harvey the FOIA requests. Further, in a search of this magnitude, the lack of witness recollection of specific contact with Harvey does not create a material disputed fact. [11] The Tribe also accuses Dominy and Pearce of misrepresenting that Mancusi-Ungaro had a more active role in coordinating the search, while Mancusi-Ungaro testified that he merely searched for documents in his possession, but had no role in contacting employees or conducting the search. Moreover, the Tribe asserts that the EPA's claim (through the testimony of Pearce) that Harper was the coordinator chosen to filter the FOIA requests and gather documents from other employees was contradicted by Harper's own testimony that, with regard to the February request, she delivered only her own documents to Pearce. Indeed, contrary to both the Dominy Affidavit and Pearce deposition, other evidence in the record suggests that, as to the June request, Harper did not provide names or act as a coordinator. Again, the EPA does not specifically respond to any of the Tribe's assertions or the supporting evidence, averring only generally that the Tribe repeatedly mischaracterizes Pearce's role as having searched for responsive records when, in fact, Pearce coordinated the search for responsive records. The EPA's failure to address these issues head on is not only troubling, but fatal to its position on this appeal. The evidence to which the Tribe points goes beyond suggesting that the EPA failed to produce a stray document or two. Rather, the inconsistencies in the testimony indicate that the process employed by the. EPA was defective, thereby rendering its FOIA search and response inadequate. Accordingly, we find there are material issues of fact regarding whether those conducting the search reasonably made an effort to contact all employees who had responsive records and whether the search efforts were properly coordinated. For this reason alone, the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the EPA on the adequacy of the search was inappropriate.