Yagman v. Haspel, No. 18-55784, 2019 WL 1958024 (9th Cir. May 1, 2019) (per curiam)

Yagman v. Haspel, No. 18-55784, 2019 WL 1958024 (9th Cir. May 1, 2019) (per curiam)

Re:  Request for records identifying individuals who engaged in torture

Disposition:  Affirming in part and reversing in part district court's grant of government's motion for summary judgment; remanding case for further proceedings

• Procedural Requirements, Proper FOIA Requests:  The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit relates that it "remand[ed] for further proceedings, . . . suggest[ing] that the district court stay the case and allow [the requester] to work with the CIA to formulate a revised FOIA request that reasonably describes the records sought."  The court finds that, "[i]n denying [the requester's] motions to re-open, the district court did not acknowledge many of [the requester's] changes, in particular his reliance on the 2012 Senate Committee Study."  "Rather, the district court emphasized that [the requester's] revisions had broadened, rather than narrowed, the scope of his FOIA request."  "That [the requester] may have broadened the scope of his request to encompass more documents is irrelevant to the reasonable description inquiry at issue here, however."  "By ignoring [the requester's] specifications and focusing instead on the scope of his request, the district court abused its discretion in denying [the requester's] motion to re-open the case."
   
• Attorney Fees:  The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit "we conclude[s] that the district court abused its discretion by denying [the requester] his costs on appeal."  "The district court provides no logical explanation for why [the requester] was penalized for his terseness on meet-and-confer calls while the CIA's failure to conduct a required meet-and-confer call as required went unaddressed."