Case Detail
| Case Title | COZEN O'CONNOR v. THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| District | Eastern District of Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Philadelphia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Number | 2:2017cv01490 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Filed | 2017-04-03 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Closed | 2018-09-14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge | HONORABLE JAN E. DUBOIS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plaintiff | COZEN O'CONNOR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Description | The law firm of Cozen O'Connor submitted a FOIA request to the Office of Foreign Assets Control for records concerning granting licenses to persons or companies to trade with Cuba. The agency acknowledged receipt of the request and told the law firm that it had no records. Cozen O'Connor filed an administrative appeal. The agency's original decision was upheld on appeal. Cozen O'Connor then filed suit. Complaint issues: Adequacy - Search, Litigation - Vaughn index, Litigation - Attorney's fees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Documents | Docket Complaint Complaint attachment 1 Complaint attachment 2 Complaint attachment 3 Opinion/Order [17] Opinion/Order [18] FOIA Project Annotation: A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that the Office of Foreign Assets Control did not conduct an adequate search in response to a request from the law firm of Cozen O'Connor for records about granting licenses to individuals or companies to conduct business in Cuba. OFAC decided that its Licensing Division was the only component likely to have responsive records. However, after conducting a database search containing five key words, OFAC located no records. Cozen O'Connor filed an administrative appeal, which was denied. Cozen O'Connor then filed suit. The court rejected the agency's allegations, finding that on its face the search was clearly insufficient. The court noted that the agency's affidavit indicating that the Licensing Division was the only component likely to have responsive records "shows the opposite: there are divisions or entities within OFAC that should have been included in defendant's search," including the Office of Compliance and Enforcement. The court observed that "in this case, defendant has failed to explain why it limited its search to the Licensing Division, when the agency's own declaration shows that documents in the possession of other divisions 'may be relevant.' Viewing the record in the light most favorable to defendant, the Court concludes that there is no genuine issue of material fact that the scope of defendant's search was inadequate." The court criticized the search terms as well. The court pointed out that "defendant's search terms were not reasonably calculated to uncover documents relevant to [the third item in plaintiff's request] for the 'criteria that OFAC uses to determine' whether to grant licenses. None of the search terms used by defendant are related to that 'criteria.' Defendant's search terms instead focus only on plaintiff's first two requests covering defendants' procedures and policies for reviewing applications." Cozen O'Connor argued that materials available on OFAC's website indicated other sources of information about licenses. OFAC asserted the references only applied to licenses in general, not to licenses for Cuba. However, the court noted that "the documents distinguish between general and specific licenses, instruct applicants on what to include in applications for specific licenses, and provide guidance to applicants on specific topics. It is reasonable to infer that defendant has additional documents related to the policies and procedures embodied in the documents supplied by plaintiff. Considered in light of the inadequacy of the scope of defendant's search and the inadequacy of the search terms used by the defendant, the 'positive indications of overlooked materials' in this case show that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to the inadequacy of defendant's search." The court sent the case back to the agency for a more thorough search.
Issues: Search - Reasonableness of search | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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