Opinion ID: 77938
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the Level of Detail in the Testimony

Text: Thus, the court turns to the second layer of the Tribe's sufficiency argumentthe level of search detail outlined by the testimony as a whole. The Rule 56 record includes five depositions that were taken in this case. In each of those depositions, the Tribe questioned the deponent regarding how he or she conducted a search, which files were reviewed, what search terms were used, how the documents were produced to Pearce, whether any documents were withheld from production, who made the decisions about withholding, and other relevant questions. Pearce testified that she was asked specific questions about the substance of Dominy's Affidavit, including who searched for responsive documents. She corroborated the points in Dominy's Affidavit regarding the people and offices that were contacted. Thus, the Tribe's singular focus on the Dominy Affidavit is misguided. It is irrelevant that Dominy failed to aver that all files likely to contain responsive materials were searched and did not detail the exact procedures used by each individual involved to search for records, including how the records were searched and the search terms used, the type of search performed, or which files were searched. Although Dominy described only in general terms how the EPA logged and filtered the request to various employees throughout the agency (i.e., Dominy's office contacted sixteen EPA employees regarding the Tribe's FOIA requests, that is only one part of the complete picture). The deposition testimony from other individuals who actually performed the search fills in any missing blanks about the specifics of how the search was conducted. To be sure, the Tribe did not have the opportunity to depose all sixteen employees involved in the search in order to ask each and every one of them specific questions about their searches. But that is not the issue here. The Tribe does not contend on appeal that it was erroneously denied adequate discovery. Rather, the question is whether the district court needed testimony before it from each of the sixteen employees that the EPA identified in order to consider' the adequacy of the searchas the Tribe puts it, to have testimony from each individual involved regarding whether they searched the same kinds of records or whether some performed one kind of search and others performed a different kind of search, or even whether all sixteen employees actually searched. [7] The Tribe maintains that such exacting testimony from each person involved is called for in light of decisions such as the D.C. Circuit's opinion in Oglesby v. U.S. Dep't of the Army, 920 F.2d 57 (D.C.Cir. 1990), which requires reasonable detail, that the search method . . . was reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents. Oglesby, 920 F.2d at 68. Specifically, Oglesby held that: [a] reasonably detailed affidavit, setting forth the search terms and the type of search performed, and averring that all files likely to contain responsive materials (if such records exist) were searched, is necessary to afford a FOIA requester an opportunity to challenge the adequacy of the search and to allow the district court to determine' if the search was adequate in order to grant summary judgment. Oglesby, 920 F.2d at 68. Later in Steinberg v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 23 F.3d 548 (D.C.Cir.1994), the D.C. Circuit reiterated that agency affidavits that `do not denote which files were searched, do not reflect any systematic approach to document location, and do not provide information specific enough to enable [the requestor] to challenge the procedures utilized' are insufficient to support summary judgment. Steinberg, 23 F.3d at 552. This Circuit has not imposed the specific requirements set forth in the D.C. Circuit. Nor has it even come close to adopting a more exacting rule like that suggested by the Tribe herea rule that would extend beyond Oglesby and Steinberg to require not just one reasonably detailed affidavit on behalf of the EPA setting forth the required details, but testimony from every participant in the search setting forth terms used, the type of search performed, and averring that all files likely to contain responsive materials (if such records exist) were searched. This Circuit has only stated that the agency must show beyond a material doubt . . . that it has Conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents. Ray v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 908 F.2d 1549, 1558 (11th Cir. 1990). To pronounce a rule in this Circuit setting forth the Tribe's requested extension of the D.C. Circuit rule would place too heavy a burden on an agency responding to a FOIA request to provide testimony from each individual involved in the FOIA search. Implicit in the Tribe's argument is its disapproval of the fact that the employees involved in the search maintain their files in individual manners and, hence, went about their searches in individual methods. No one, however, testified that they held back documents that they thought were responsive with the exception of the now disputed publicly available documents (addressed infra ). Thus, the better course here is to ask whether, based upon this court's prior precedent and the plethora of evidence in this case, the Dominy Affidavit, in conjunction with the other deposition testimony provided, provided sufficient evidence for the trial court to determine whether the EPA conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents. Ray v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 908 F.2d 1549, 1558 (11th Cir.1990) (quotations omitted), rev'd on other grounds, U.S. Dep't of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, 112 S.Ct. 541, 116 L.Ed.2d 526 (1991). We answer this threshold question in the affirmative.