Case Detail

FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ruled that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency properly withheld records under Exemption 5 (privileges) and Exemption 8 (bank examination reports) in response to a request from the James Madison Project and Kadhim Shubber, a reporter for the Financial Times, for records concerning the consent order including a civil penalty against Wells Fargo for opening up customer accounts without permission. OCC located 669 responsive pages but decided to withhold them entirely under Exemption 5 and Exemption 8. JMP and Shubber challenged only 34 pages, withheld under both exemptions. Berman Jackson initially indicated that "although FOIA exemptions must generally be 'narrowly construed,' it is well-established that the scope of Exemption 8 is 'particularly broad.'" Recognizing the breadth of Exemption 8, JMP and Shubber contended that the public domain exception applied since the American Banker, a trade publication, had described the agency's decisions. OCC told Berman Jackson that it had reviewed the American Banker article, highlighted the OCC public disclosures within the article, and concluded that the 34 pages were much more specific than anything revealed in the American Banker article. Relying on the agency's review, Berman Jackson noted that "the public disclosures identified by the plaintiffs are general statements regarding the outcome of the Horizontal Review that do not disclose bank-specific examination results or reveal the agency's deliberations and recommendations. Because the public disclosures are not as specific as the information the agency avers is contained in the pages at issue, the exception does not apply." Berman Jackson then rejected JMP and Shubber's segregability argument. Berman Jackson noted that "the agency declarant has averred that OCC conducted a detailed review of the responsive documents, and that none of the withheld pages could be reasonably segregated and disclosed and plaintiff has not presented any evidence to the contrary. Thus, the declarations submitted by defendant are sufficient to fulfill the agency's obligation to show with reasonable specificity that a document cannot be further segregated."
Issues: Exemption 8 - Bank examination records, Exemption 5 - Privileges

Date Filed	Doc #	Docket Text
2019-08-14	1	COMPLAINT against DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY ( Filing fee $ 400 receipt number 0090-6321199) filed by THE JAMES MADISON PROJECT, KADHIM SHUBBER. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet, # 2 Exhibit Rule 7.1 certification, # 3 Summons Treasury, # 4 Summons USADC, # 5 Summons USAG)(Moss, Bradley) (Entered: 08/14/2019)
2019-08-14	2	LCvR 26.1 CERTIFICATE OF DISCLOSURE of Corporate Affiliations and Financial Interests by JAMES MADISON PROJECT (zeg) (Entered: 08/15/2019)
2019-08-15		Case Assigned to Judge Rudolph Contreras. (zeg) (Entered: 08/15/2019)
2019-08-15	3	SUMMONS (3) Issued Electronically as to DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, U.S. Attorney and U.S. Attorney General (Attachment: # 1 Notice and Consent)(zeg) (Entered: 08/15/2019)
2019-08-27	4	RETURN OF SERVICE/AFFIDAVIT of Summons and Complaint Executed. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY served on 8/19/2019 (Attachments: # 1 Summons Treasury)(Moss, Bradley) (Entered: 08/27/2019)
2019-08-27	5	RETURN OF SERVICE/AFFIDAVIT of Summons and Complaint Executed on United States Attorney General. Date of Service Upon United States Attorney General 08/19/2019. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit USAG receipt)(Moss, Bradley) (Entered: 08/27/2019)
2019-08-27	6	RETURN OF SERVICE/AFFIDAVIT of Summons and Complaint Executed as to the United States Attorney. Date of Service Upon United States Attorney on 8/19/2019. Answer due for ALL FEDERAL DEFENDANTS by 9/18/2019. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit USADC receipt)(Moss, Bradley) (Entered: 08/27/2019)
2019-09-18	7	NOTICE of Appearance by Matthew Evan Kahn on behalf of All Defendants (Kahn, Matthew) (Entered: 09/18/2019)
2019-09-18	8	ANSWER to Complaint by DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.(Kahn, Matthew) (Entered: 09/18/2019)
2019-09-19	9	Case randomly reassigned to Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Judge Rudolph Contreras is no longer assigned to the case. (ztnr) (Entered: 09/20/2019)
2019-09-27	10	ORDER. Before the Court in this FOIA case are a complaint and an answer. The requirements of Local Civil Rule 16.3 and Rule 26(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure appear to be inapplicable. Defendant shall file a dispositive motion or, in the alternative, a report setting forth the schedule for the completion of its production of documents to plaintiffs, on or before October 25, 2019. SO ORDERED. Signed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on 9/27/2019. (lcabj2) (Entered: 09/27/2019)
2019-10-24	11	NOTICE OF SUBSTITUTION OF COUNSEL by Alan Burch on behalf of DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Substituting for attorney Matthew Kahn (Burch, Alan) (Entered: 10/24/2019)
2019-10-25	12	MOTION for Summary Judgment by DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (Attachments: # 1 Statement of Material Facts, # 2 Exhibit Declaration of Frank D. Vance, Jr., # 3 Text of Proposed Order)(Burch, Alan) (Entered: 10/25/2019)
2019-11-08	13	Memorandum in opposition to re 12 MOTION for Summary Judgment filed by JAMES MADISON PROJECT, KADHIM SHUBBER. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 1 - Moss Declaration, # 2 Statement of Facts Response, # 3 Text of Proposed Order)(Moss, Bradley) (Entered: 11/08/2019)
2019-11-13	14	Consent MOTION for Extension of Time to File Response/Reply as to 12 MOTION for Summary Judgment by DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (Attachments: # 1 Text of Proposed Order)(Burch, Alan) (Entered: 11/13/2019)
2019-11-14		MINUTE ORDER granting 14 Motion for Extension of Time. Defendant must file its reply in support of its motion for summary judgment 12 by November 22, 2019. SO ORDERED. Signed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on 11/14/2019. (lcabj2) (Entered: 11/14/2019)
2019-11-22	15	REPLY to opposition to motion re 12 MOTION for Summary Judgment filed by DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Supplemental Declaration of Frank D. Vance, Jr.)(Burch, Alan) (Entered: 11/22/2019)
2020-08-13	16	ORDER. Pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 56 and 58, and the accompanying Memorandum Opinion, it is hereby ORDERED that defendant's motion for summary judgment 12 is GRANTED. This is a final, appealable order. SO ORDERED. Signed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on 8/13/2020. (lcabj2) (Entered: 08/13/2020)
2020-08-13	17	MEMORANDUM OPINION. Signed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on 8/13/2020. (lcabj2) (Entered: 08/13/2020)
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