Henson v. HHS, No. 14-908, 2017 WL 1090815 (S.D. Ill. Mar. 23, 2017) (Herndon, J.)

Henson v. HHS, No. 14-908, 2017 WL 1090815 (S.D. Ill. Mar. 23, 2017) (Herndon, J.)

Re: Multiple FOIA requests, majority of which concern FDA's premarket approval of particular device and its supplements

Disposition: Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search: "The Court believes, and Plaintiff . . . presents no evidence to refute, that the search undertaken by the FDA was reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents." "The declarations and charts show how plaintiff's FOIA requests were processed . . . and the final result of the disclosures . . ., all of which offers further support for the Court's conclusion."
   
• Exemption 4: "Based on [defendants'] explanation regarding Exemption 4, and no evidence to the contrary, the Court finds the redaction under Exemption 4 to be appropriate." The court relates that defendants stated that they "'generally relied on FOIA Exemption 4 to withhold information related to . . . trade secrets or confidential commercial information used to support [an] application . . . and supplements to [that application].'" "'For example, [defendants] asserted FOIA Exemption 4 to withhold information relating to . . . raw material used in [a] manufacturing process, raw material used in [a] testing process, and [a] pump's battery film.'" "[Defendants] also relied on FOIA Exemption 4 to redact . . . confidential commercial information in documents related to [the] processing of [a] Trade Complaint[.]'"
   
• Exemption 5, Deliberative Process Privilege: "[T]he Court finds the redaction under Exemption 5 is appropriate." The court relates that defendant withheld "'pre-decisional deliberations regarding how to manage Plaintiff's voluminous correspondence with FDA[,]'" "'emails that discussed FOIA requests submitted by requestors other than Plaintiff[,]'" and "'Plaintiffs appeal of an FDA FOIA request.'"
   
• Exemption 6: "[T]he Court finds the redactions of personal privacy information under Exemption 6 to be appropriate." The court relates that defendant withheld information concerning "specific…patients[ of a company]" as well as "a limited amount of private personal information related to [a company] and to FDA personnel."
   
• Litigation Considerations, "Reasonably Segregable" Requirements: The court finds that "FDA ensured that any information that could reasonably be segregated within [the] records was disclosed to plaintiff."