Gatore v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec.

286 F.Supp.3d 25

Rica GATORE, et al., Plaintiffs,

v.UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 15–459 (RBW)

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Signed December 21, 2017

David Laundon Cleveland, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Alexander Kenneth Haas, Carl Ezekiel Ross, Johnny Hillary Walker, III, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office—District of Columbia, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

REGGIE B. WALTON, United States District Judge

Catholic Charities and eight individual plaintiffs brought this civil action against the defendant, the United States Department of Homeland Security, under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. § 552 (2012), seeking, inter alia, documents relating to the defendant's processing of FOIA requests for the assessments of asylum officers. See Amended Complaint ("Am. Compl.") ¶¶ 1–4, 61. Currently pending before the Court is Catholic Charities' Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment as to Ninth Cause of Action ("Pl.'s Renewed Summ. J. Mot."), which actually seeks an award of attorney's fees and costs because Catholic Charities was awarded summary judgment on its ninth cause of action. Upon careful consideration of the parties' submissions,¹ the Court concludes for the reasons set forth below that it must grant Catholic Charities' motion.

I. BACKGROUND

The Court's opinions and prior orders set forth in detail the factual and procedural history of this case, and therefore, the Court finds it unnecessary to reiterate that history here. However, the following summary is relevant to Catholic Charities' present request for attorney's fees and costs. On February 13, 2015, Catholic Charities submitted a FOIA request to the defendant seeking "[d]ocuments relating to the processing, answering, and responding to FOIA requests for assessments of asylum officers." Am. Compl., Exhibit ("Ex.") 9 (Catholic Charities' FOIA Request).² On February 18, 2015, the defendant requested additional time to process the request, citing "unusual circumstances." See Def.'s Summ. J. Mot., Ex. 1 (Declaration of Jill A. Eggleston (July 21, 2015)), Ex. H (Letter from Jill A. Eggleston, Director, FOIA Operations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Servs., to David L. Cleveland, Catholic Charities of Washington (Feb. 18, 2015)) at 1. The plaintiffs' amended complaint alleged as its ninth cause of action that the "[d]efendant ... provided nothing in response" to Catholic Charities' FOIA request. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 61–62.

On June 24, 2015, still having received no documents in response to its request, Catholic Charities filed a motion for summary judgment as to its ninth cause of action. See Pl.'s Summ. J. Mot. at 1. Thereafter, in October 2015, the defendant produced three documents in response to Catholic Charities' FOIA request. Pl.'s Mem. at 3; Def.'s Resp. at 6. Although the Court found "that the defendant's delay in processing Catholic Charities' FOIA request appear[ed] to be unjustified," the Court denied Catholic Charities' summary judgment motion because Catholic Charities "failed to address this Circuit's standard for the award of costs and attorney fees under the FOIA." Gatore v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec., 177 F.Supp.3d 46, 54–55 (D.D.C. 2016) (Walton, J.).

On May 27, 2016, the defendant filed a supplemental Vaughn index, which referenced a "FOIA Processing Guide" (the "Guide"). See Notice of Supplemental/Revised Vaughn Index, Ex. 1 (Supplemental Declaration of Jill A. Eggleston (May 27, 2016)) ¶¶ 8–10. In response, Catholic Charities filed its Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment as to Ninth Cause of Action, in which it argued that the Guide fell within the scope of its FOIA request and requested that the Guide be produced to it within ten days. See Pl.'s Renewed Summ. J. Mot. at 4. The motion further requested that the Court order the defendant to pay Catholic Charities "attorney['s] fees of $13,643 and costs of $400." Id. at 10. The defendant did not respond to Catholic Charities' motion.

On February 3, 2017, the Court partially granted Catholic Charities' renewed summary judgment motion and ordered the defendant to produce the Guide to Catholic Charities within ten days as requested. See Order at 9 (Feb. 3, 2017), ECF No. 58 (the "February 3, 2017 Order"). Although the Court additionally "conclud[ed] that Catholic Charities [wa]s both eligible for and entitled to an award of attorney's fees and costs," id. at 6, in light of the defendant's failure to respond to Catholic Charities' motion, the Court ultimately found it appropriate to "give the defendant an opportunity to submit a response ... to the amount sought, to ensure that this issue is fully briefed prior to its resolution," id. at 8. Accordingly, the Court ordered the defendant to "show cause ... why the Court should not award the amount of attorney's fees and costs requested by Catholic Charities." Id. at 9.

On February 14, 2017, the defendant filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court's February 3, 2017 Order. See generally Defendant's Motion to Reconsider & Stay, or Alternatively, to Modify the February 3, 2017[ ] Order and Memorandum in Support (Feb. 14, 2017). On June 27, 2017, the Court denied the defendant's motion for reconsideration, and again ordered the defendant to produce the Guide within ten days and show cause why Catholic Charities should not be awarded the amount of attorney's fees and costs requested. See Order at 6 (June 27, 2017), ECF No. 79. On July 21, 2017, over two years after Catholic Charities made its FOIA request pursuant to its ninth cause of action, the defendant produced the Guide to Catholic Charities. See Pl.'s Reply at 2.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The FOIA provides that courts "may assess against the United States reasonable attorney fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred in any case ... in which the [plaintiff] has substantially prevailed." 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E)(i). "This language naturally divides the attorney-fee inquiry into two prongs, which [District of Columbia Circuit] case law has long described as fee 'eligibility' and fee 'entitlement.' " Brayton v. Office of the U.S. Trade Rep., 641 F.3d 521, 524 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (quoting Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Dep't of Commerce, 470 F.3d 363, 368–69 (D.C. Cir. 2006) ). "The eligibility prong asks whether a plaintiff has 'substantially prevailed' and thus 'may' receive fees." Id."If so, the court proceeds to the entitlement prong and considers a variety of factors to determine whether the plaintiff should receive fees." Id. (quoting Judicial Watch, 470 F.3d at 369 ). "Finally, '[a] plaintiff who has proven both eligibility for and entitlement to fees must submit [its] fee bill to the court for [its] scrutiny of the reasonableness of (a) the number of hours expended and (b) the hourly fee claimed.' " Judicial Watch, 470 F.3d at 369 (quoting Long v. IRS, 932 F.2d 1309, 1313–14 (9th Cir. 1991) ).

III. ANALYSIS

A. Eligibility for and Entitlement to Attorney's Fees and Costs

As referenced above, this Court previously concluded that Catholic Charities is eligible for and entitled to attorney's fees and costs based on its ninth cause of action. See February 3, 2017 Order at 6 ("In light of the Court's conclusion that the ... Guide must be furnished to Catholic Charities, it is beyond debate that Catholic Charities has substantially prevailed in this litigation, and consequently, it is eligible for attorney's fees." (citation omitted)); id. at 6–7 (finding that each of the four entitlement factors weigh in favor of Catholic Charities and concluding that "Catholic Charities is ... entitled to an award of attorney's fees and costs"). The defendant concedes that "Catholic Charities prevailed on its ninth cause of action and ... is eligible for attorney's fees on that discrete issue," Def.'s Resp. at 6, and therefore, the Court need not reconsider its previous conclusion as to eligibility. The defendant disputes, however, that Catholic Charities is entitled to any amount of fees, arguing that all four entitlement factors weigh in its favor because the Guide "is of no public value," "Catholic Charities' request [for the Guide] was for private advantage and not for public informational purposes," and the defendant "was not unreasonable in not releasing the full ... Guide to Catholic Charities." Id. at 4–6.³ The Court disagrees, and will again conclude that Catholic Charities is entitled to some amount of attorney's fees and costs.

In assessing whether a plaintiff is entitled to attorney's fees, the Court typically considers four factors: "(1) the public benefit derived from the case; (2) the commercial benefit to the plaintiff; (3) the nature of the plaintiff's interest in the records; and (4) the reasonableness of the agency's withholding of the requested documents." McKinley v. Fed. Hous. Fin. Agency, 739 F.3d 707, 711 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (quoting Tax Analysts v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 965 F.2d 1092, 1093 (D.C. Cir. 1992) ). As to the first factor, which requires the Court to consider both "the effect of the litigation for which fees are requested and the potential public value of the information sought," Davy v. CIA, 550 F.3d 1155, 1159 (D.C. Cir. 2008) (quoting Tax Analysts, 965 F.2d at 1093 ), the defendant argues that the Guide "is of no public value," see Def.'s Resp. at 4–5, citing as support for this position a decision in which the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that documents relating to the Smithsonian's museum shops had no potential public value because "no evidence exist[ed] that the release of the ... documents w[ould] contribute to the public's ability to make vital political choices," and the plaintiff "sought these documents for the sole purpose of facilitating her employment discrimination suit," Cotton v. Heyman, 63 F.3d 1115, 1120 (D.C. Cir. 1995). The documents here, however, do not compare with the documents in Cotton. Unlike the documents requested in Cotton, the...