Rosiere v. U.S., No. 16-1100, 2016 WL 2993877 (10th Cir. May 24, 2016) (Matheson, Jr., J.)

Rosiere v. U.S., No. 16-1100, 2016 WL 2993877 (10th Cir. May 24, 2016) (Matheson, Jr., J.)

Re: Appeal of district court's dismissal of pro se FOIA complaint as duplicative of other complaints requester filed in District of Nevada and District of New Jersey

Disposition: Affirming district court's dismissal of plaintiff's complaint

• Litigation Considerations, Mootness and Other Grounds for Dismissal:  The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit holds that the district court "did not abuse its discretion in dismissing [the requester's] complaint."  The court rejects the requester's argument that "'individualized tracking numbers'" referenced "in § 552(7)(A) means he may sue for identical FOIA requests in two separate courts so long as each FOIA request is made on a separate date and assigned an individualized tracking number."  "But FOIA does not allow a party to seek 'orders from two different judges directing the production of the same documents.'"  The court finds that "[the requester's] FOIA requests underlying the complaints he filed in three separate federal district courts are identical except for their dates."  Finally, the court finds that "[t]he District of Colorado complaint was also not the first [the requester] filed in federal court – he filed the District of Nevada complaint approximately two months before filing in the District of Colorado."