COMMONWEALTH OF PA DEP'T OF PUBLIC WELFARE v. U.S.

Full title: COMMONWEALTH OF PA DEP'T OF PUBLIC WELFARE, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES…

Court: United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania

Date published: Dec 21, 2006

Civil Action No. 05-1285 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 21, 2006)

Opinion

Civil Action No. 05-1285.

December 21, 2006

Doc. Nos. 8 and 13.

DONETTA AMBROSE, District Judge

MEMORANDUM ORDER

The above captioned complaint was received by the Clerk of Court on September 16, 2005, and was referred to United States Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan for pretrial proceedings in accordance with the Magistrates Act, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), and Rules 72.1.3 and 72.1.4 of the Local Rules for Magistrates.

The Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation (Doc. No. 22), filed on November 22, 2006, recommended that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 8) be granted with regard to the issue of the adequacy of the FOIA search, but denied without prejudice in all other respects. The Report and Recommendation further recommended that Plaintiff's Rule 56(f) Motion (Doc. No. 13) be denied without prejudice on the issue of the adequacy of the FOIA search, but granted on the remaining issues. Service was made on all counsel of record. Plaintiff filed timely Objections to the Report and Recommendation (Doc. No. 23) on December 1, 2006, to which Defendants filed a timely response on December 12, 2006 (Doc. No. 26). Defendants filed timely Objections to the Report and Recommendation on December 6, 2006 (Doc. No. 24), to which Plaintiff filed a timely response on December 18, 2006 (Doc. No. 28). After review of the pleadings and documents in the case, together with the Report and Recommendation and the objections thereto, the following order is entered:

AND NOW, this 21^st day of December, 2006,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 8) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED WITH PREJUDICE as to the adequacy of the FOIA search, and DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE in all other respects.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff's Rule 56(f) Motion (Doc. No. 13) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. Plaintiff's Rule 56(f) Motion is DENIED WITH PREJUDICE on the issue of the adequacy of the FOIA search, and GRANTED on the remaining issues. Plaintiff is entitled to limited discovery on the remaining issues, the parameters of which shall be set by the Magistrate Judge.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation (Doc. No. 22) of Magistrate Judge Lenihan, dated November 22, 2006, is adopted as the opinion of the Court.