Henson v. Dept. of Health and Human Services

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Freedom of Information Act
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 17-1750
Decision Date: 
June 15, 2018
Federal District: 
S.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiff’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claim, alleging that defendants failed to comply with dictates of FOIA, where plaintiff sought documents related to pre-market approval process for certain glucose monitoring system, even though defendant-agency had eventually supplied plaintiff with 8,000 pages of documents. Dist. Ct. could properly dismiss two of defendant’s employees as defendants in instant action, since section 552(a)(4)(B) precludes only “agency” from withholding agency records. Also,

Dist. Ct.
could stay discovery for purpose of setting briefing schedule for any summary judgment motion, where stay was consistent with speedy and inexpensive resolution of case. Moreover, record supported
Dist. Ct.
’s finding that defendant-agency conducted adequate search for relevant records, where: (1) defendant-agency supplied detailed affidavits describing its search process; and (2) plaintiff did not point to specific claims of exemptions with which he disagreed. Too,
Dist. Ct.
did not clearly err in determining that claimed exemptions were valid.