Kean v. NASA, 1:03-cv-02509

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request in order to facilitate document retrieval. In August
2003, plaintiff also sent NASA a specific list of accessions
(record indexes) that referred to potentially relevant records at
the National Archives.
Plaintiff’s appeal was granted by letter dated June 18,
2003. In that letter, signed by Associate Deputy Administrator
James Jennings, NASA informed plaintiff that it would conduct a
new search that would include all the NASA Centers and that
documents from earlier, similar FOIA requests had been located
and would be released to her. Specifically, the letter stated
that NASA would look for the missing fragology files that
plaintiff had requested, that the new search would include the
six additional categories from plaintiff’s letter of appeal, and
that all of this would be done on an expedited basis. 1st Decl.
of Margaret Roberts, Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J., Attach. 5, at Ex.
2 (“Jennings letter”).
NASA, however, initially failed to properly act on the
Jennings letter. That failure appears to be a result of poor
tracking and the relocation of NASA’s FOIA Office in August 2003.
Not having heard from NASA after she received the Jennings
letter, plaintiff informed the agency by letter dated October 15,
2003, that she intended to sue.
NASA’s new FOIA Officer, Stephen McConnell, received a copy
of plaintiff’s October letter and initiated what the parties
Case 1:03-cv-02509-EGS Document 45 Filed 03/27/07 Page 4 of 21