Beard v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, No. 17-2668, 2018 WL 1123618 (E.D. La. Mar. 1, 2018) (Lemmon, J.)

Beard v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, No. 17-2668, 2018 WL 1123618 (E.D. La. Mar. 1, 2018) (Lemmon, J.)

Re: Request for emails concerning connection to public water supply

Disposition: Denying defendant's motion for summary judgment; partially granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Vaughn Index/Declaration:  The court holds that "[a]fter reviewing the Vaughn index, the court finds that it is not adequate to explain the withheld documents and the justification for withholding them for all of the reasons asserted by plaintiffs."  The court relates "Plaintiffs argue that the Vaughn index produced by [defendant] is inadequate because it does not identify the senders and recipients of the emails [withheld under Exemption 5] as either internal agency employees, employees of other government agencies or non-governmental employees."  "Plaintiffs also argue that some of the subject lines indicate that the emails contain final reports, which would not be predecisional, or talking points, which could be for public disclosure if the document is preparing an agency employee for a public meeting."  "Further, plaintiffs argue that [defendant] failed to segregate out and produce purely factual information which would not be subject to exclusion under Exemption 5."  The court "order[s] that the defendant produce an amended Vaughn index[.]"