Jarvis v. HUD, No. 21-00088, 2022 WL 4598579 (D.D.C. Sept. 30, 2022) (Faruqui, Mag. J.)

Jarvis v. HUD, No. 21-00088, 2022 WL 4598579 (D.D.C. Sept. 30, 2022) (Faruqui, Mag. J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning plaintiff and plaintiff’s mother, as well as certain communications between agency employees

Disposition:  Granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  The court holds that “[b]ecause HUD ‘describes how . . . [they] searched . . . all record systems likely to contain responsive records’ and produced all such records, their search is adequate.”  The court also finds that “HUD destroyed any other hard-copy files that may have existed in accordance with HUD’s retention policy.”  “An agency is permitted to destroy material in accordance with a neutral record retention policy.”  “FOIA does not require ‘agencies to create or retain documents; it only obligates them to provide access to those which it in fact has created and retained.’”