Powell v. IRS, No. 15-11033, 2016 WL 7473446 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 29, 2016) (Borman, J.)

Powell v. IRS, No. 15-11033, 2016 WL 7473446 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 29, 2016) (Borman, J.)

Re: Request for certain tax documents

Disposition: Denying plaintiff's objections, adopting Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation, granting Defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies: "[T]he Court concludes that the Magistrate Judge properly held Plaintiff failed to administratively exhaust his FOIA claim in regards to his December 4, 2014 request and Plaintiff's arguments to the contrary are without merit." The court relates that "[p]laintiff admits that he did not file an appeal[,]" and finds that "[w]hile Plaintiff argues he did not need to file an appeal because 'Defendant never produced the documents to Plaintiff,' Plaintiff overlooks the fact that the January 15, 2015 response constituted a partial denial of Plaintiff's FOIA request." However, regarding another request, the court finds that "[t]he Magistrate Judge properly found that Plaintiff had exhausted his administrative remedies because Defendant failed to comply with the applicable time limit pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C)(i)."
   
• Litigation Considerations, Mootness and Other Grounds for Dismissal: The court finds that "[p]laintiff received a copy of [a] requested document and was allowed to inspect the original document[.]" "Accordingly, Plaintiff's current request to inspect and receive of copy of this exact same document is now moot and his objection without merit."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records: First, "[t]he Court rejects Plaintiff's objection" to the Magistrate Judge's conclusion as to defendant's search [in response to one request] because "[p]aintiff does not contradict Defendant's declaration that it does not 'maintain the records [at issue].'" Second, in response to another request, the court finds that "[d]efendant has evidenced a reasonable search for the requested records through [a] sworn declaration" and plaintiff "does not contradict or undermine the reasonableness of Defendant's search for the requested documents."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Proper FOIA Requests: The court holds that plaintiff's arguments "do not undermine the Magistrate Judge's legal conclusion that [one of] Plaintiff's request[s] failed to conform to the proper FOIA procedures" because "he had not submitted the correct form."