Ibeagwa v. IRS, No. 14-369, 2014 WL 4978320 (W.D. Wis. Oct. 6, 2014) (Crabb, J.)

Ibeagwa v. IRS, No. 14-369, 2014 WL 4978320 (W.D. Wis. Oct. 6, 2014) (Crabb, J.)

Re: Request for plaintiff's tax documents

Disposition: Denying defendant's motion to dismiss

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  The court "den[ies] defendant's motion to dismiss."  First, the court "agree[s] with plaintiff that defendant's motion is not framed properly as a question of mootness or jurisdiction."  Instead, the court finds that the relevant issue is "whether the agency conducted a search that was 'reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.'"  The court notes that "defendant admits that it has not produced everything plaintiff requested."  The court finds that "there are substantive problems" with defendant's search.  The court finds that defendant's declaration "describes the steps [it] took to locate plaintiff's requested documents, but [it] does not explain why [it] chose to look where [it] did and whether there may be other places the documents could be found."  Additionally, "[e]ven with respect to the places defendant searched, it is not clear whether the search was reasonable."