Swick v. U.S. Dep't of the Army, No. 18-1658, 2022 WL 782416 (D.D.C. Mar. 15, 2022) (Bates, J.)

Swick v. U.S. Dep't of the Army, No. 18-1658, 2022 WL 782416 (D.D.C. Mar. 15, 2022) (Bates, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning plaintiff

Disposition:  Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment and denying plaintiff's cross-motion for summary judgment.

• Litigation Considerations: "[R]egarding [plaintiff's] request for 'any and all documents in [her] OPM personnel file [or that are being maintained separately] containing [her] name, social security number, [or] date of birth,' . . . it is uncontested that the Army has sent [plaintiff] over 200 pages of personnel records."  "When considering this production previously, the Court noted that '[plaintiff] has not identified, and the Court is not aware of, any other types of personnel records that exist for a former federal employee like [plaintiff].'"  "[Plaintiff] claims that the Army's production is missing 'a medical certificate stemming from [an] occupational health/fitness exam [she] completed [on] October 4, 2012.'"  "In other circumstances, such an allegation might preclude a finding of mootness."  "In this case, however, [plaintiff's] assertion that the Army's production is missing a medical certificate is more for posterity's sake than it is substantive."  "[Plaintiff] explicitly states that she 'is not attempting to widen [the Army's] search' for records responsive to her FOIA request."  "Instead, she appears to merely want it noted for the record that the Army's production did not include this document."  "Regardless of whether this omission exists, because [plaintiff] is otherwise satisfied with the Army's production and 'is not attempting to widen [the Army's] search,' . . . the litigation surrounding [plaintiff] request for her personnel records is now moot."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records; Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  "As an initial matter, the only unproduced record that [plaintiff] claims she is entitled to is the data from her MCMI-III test."  "The Army's declarations demonstrate [plaintiff's] data could have been stored on only three, or possibly even two, computers."  "The Army's declarations also contain sworn statements, made under threat of perjury, that these computers have never been connected to the network and have no external data back-up, meaning [plaintiff's] data could be located only on these computers' hard drives."  "Only one of these three computers contained records that could have contained [plaintiff's] data . . . and the Army searched that computer for [plaintiff's] name, date of birth, date of appointment, and provider's name."  "These extensive steps satisfy the Army's obligation to 'make "a good faith effort["] [to locate [plaintiff's] records] using methods which can be reasonably expected to' succeed."  "[Plaintiff] never challenges the appropriateness of the Army's methods or suggests alternative methods that could have been successful."  "And it is the Court's conclusion that the Army's methods were sufficient."
  
  "[Plaintiff] argues that the Army's declarations are not sufficiently detailed."  "But whether data has been deleted from the pertinent computers is irrelevant to the question before the Court—whether the Army has conducted a reasonable search for [plaintiff's] records."  Additionally, "the Army submitted two detailed declarations summarizing the reasons for its conclusion that [plaintiff's] data must be on one of three computers and its failed attempts to locate [plaintiff's] data from those computers' hard drives."  "Each of these declarations spans multiple pages and contains enough information about the Army's process to be 'relatively detailed and non-conclusory.'"  "In sum, the Army has demonstrated, through detailed declarations, that it conducted extensive searches reasonably calculated to uncover [plaintiff's] MCMI-III data."  "Though the Army was unable to locate [plaintiff's] data, the Army has satisfied its FOIA obligations and is entitled to summary judgment."