Hysell v. IRS, No. 12-0426, 2014 WL 1379261 (D.D.C. Apr. 9, 2014) (Roberts, C. J.)

Hysell v. IRS, No. 12-0426, 2014 WL 1379261 (D.D.C. Apr. 9, 2014) (Roberts, C. J.)

Re: Request for records concerning plaintiff

Disposition: Granting defendant's renewed motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  The court holds that defendant's "motion for summary judgment will be granted."  The court finds that "[t]he IRS has met its burden 'by submitting reasonably detailed, nonconclusory affidavits describing its efforts' to locate records responsive to plaintiff's FOIA requests."  The court notes that "[p]laintiff's sole objection to the IRS' searches stems from what he perceives as the agency's failure to understand the nature of his requests."  However, the court finds that "[t]he IRS is not obliged to go beyond the four corners of the request to divine its meaning, particularly where, as here, each of plaintiff's requests was reasonably interpreted as one for information about plaintiff himself."