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Ehlmann v. DHS, No. 12 CV 1392, 2013 WL 3724906 (E.D. Mo. July 15, 2013) (Sippel, J.)

Date
Re: Request for lists of severe repetitive-loss properties or structures, including owners, addresses and cumulative totals of claims paid for each property or structure Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment
  • Exemption 6:  The court finds that "[defendant] validly withheld disclosure of the information at issue under FOIA Exemption 6."  The court states that "[t]he inquiry in the present case is whether the public interest in favor of disclosure of the names and addresses of the . . . insureds . . . outweighs the privacy interests of those insureds."  The court notes that, "[plaintiff] asserts that he is trying to create a public dialogue about whether [defendant] is being a reasonable steward of tax dollars by publically addressing the claims history of specific [properties]."  The court finds that the public interest is satisfied by what has been provided to plaintiff.  "The disclosure of the owners' names and addresses of the specific properties addressed in [defendant]'s disclosure documents will not serve any substantial public interest or shed additional light on [defendant]'s management . . . ."  Instead, the court finds that "[t]he disclosure of the names and addresses would be an unwarranted invasion of the insureds' privacy."
Court Decision Topic(s)
District Court opinions
Exemption 6
Updated August 6, 2014