Reedom v. SSA, No. 15-0406, 2016 WL 3581996 (D.D.C. June 27, 2016) (Collyer, J.)

Reedom v. SSA, No. 15-0406, 2016 WL 3581996 (D.D.C. June 27, 2016) (Collyer, J.)

Re: Requests for various records concerning plaintiff

Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies:  "The Court will grant Defendant's motion on the ground that Plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies prior to filing this civil action."  First, the court finds that "[d]efendants have demonstrated that Plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to his FOIA requests for earnings records and other information" because "he failed to submit the proper authorization for release of information[,]" "neither paid fees associated with two of his requests . . ., nor appealed the denial of his request for a fee waiver," "failed to describe reasonably the records he sought[,]" and "did not pursue an administrative appeal of any of the SSA's initial determinations."  Second, the court finds that "[p]laintiff did not exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to his . . . request to Rural Development."  "Although Plaintiff sought an administrative appeal of Rural Development's initial 'no records' response, the appeal had not been completed when Plaintiff filed this lawsuit."  Third, the court finds that "[p]laintiff's four FOIA requests to the IRS called for the written consent of all the individual taxpayers whose information he sought . . . as is required by regulation[.]"  "Plaintiff has not complied."