Opinion
Case No. 16-cv-05326-HSG
09-18-2018
DAN VIGDOR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SUPER LUCKY CASINO, INC., et al., Defendants.
ORDER ON ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO SEAL
Re: Dkt. Nos. 80, 88, 92, 112, 115, 122, 126, 130, 133, 140
Pending before the Court are the parties' administrative motions to seal various documents pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5. Dkt. Nos. 80, 88, 92, 112, 115, 122, 126, 130, 133, and 140.
I. LEGAL STANDARD
Courts generally apply a "compelling reasons" standard when considering motions to seal documents. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass'n, 605 F.3d 665, 678 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006)). "This standard derives from the common law right 'to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents.'" Id. (quoting Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178). "[A] strong presumption in favor of access is the starting point." Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178 (quotation omitted). To overcome this strong presumption, the party seeking to seal a judicial record attached to a dispositive motion must "articulate compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of access and the public policies favoring disclosure, such as the public interest in understanding the judicial process" and "significant public events." Id. at 1178-79 (quotation omitted). "In general, 'compelling reasons' sufficient to outweigh the public's interest in disclosure and justify sealing court records exist when such 'court files might have become a vehicle for improper purposes,' such as the use of records to gratify private spite, promote public scandal, circulate libelous statements, or release trade secrets." Id. at 1179 (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc'ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978)). "The mere fact that the production of records may lead to a litigant's embarrassment, incrimination, or exposure to further litigation will not, without more, compel the court to seal its records." Id.
The Court must "balance[] the competing interests of the public and the party who seeks to keep certain judicial records secret. After considering these interests, if the court decides to seal certain judicial records, it must base its decision on a compelling reason and articulate the factual basis for its ruling, without relying on hypothesis or conjecture." Id. Civil Local Rule 79-5 supplements the compelling reasons standard set forth in Kamakana: the party seeking to file a document or portions of it under seal must "establish[] that the document, or portions thereof, are privileged, protectable as a trade secret or otherwise entitled to protection under the law . . . The request must be narrowly tailored to seek sealing only of sealable material." Civil L.R. 79-5(b).
Records attached to nondispositive motions, however, are not subject to the strong presumption of access. See Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179. Because such records "are often unrelated, or only tangentially related, to the underlying cause of action," parties moving to seal must meet the lower "good cause" standard of Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Id. at 1179-80 (quotation omitted). This requires only a "particularized showing" that "specific prejudice or harm will result" if the information is disclosed. Phillips ex rel. Estates of Byrd v. Gen. Motors Corp., 307 F.3d 1206, 1210-11 (9th Cir. 2002); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c). "Broad allegations of harm, unsubstantiated by specific examples of articulated reasoning" will not suffice. Beckman Indus., Inc. v. Int'l Ins. Co., 966 F.2d 470, 476 (9th Cir. 1992) (quotation omitted).
II. DISCUSSION
The various documents and portions of documents the parties seek to seal are more than tangentially related to the underlying cause of action, and the Court therefore applies the "compelling reasons" standard. The parties have provided a compelling interest in sealing portions of the various documents listed below because they contain confidential business and financial information relating to the operations of Defendants. See Apple Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., Ltd., No. 11-CV-01846-LHK, 2012 WL 6115623 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 10, 2012); see also Agency Solutions.Com, LLC v. TriZetto Group, Inc., 819 F. Supp. 2d 1001, 1017 (E.D. Cal. 2011); Linex Techs., Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Co., No. C 13-159 CW, 2014 WL 6901744 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 8, 2014) (holding sensitive financial information falls within the class of documents that may be filed under seal). The parties have identified portions of the unredacted versions of motions and exhibits as containing confidential business information; the Court finds sufficiently compelling reasons to grant the motions to file the below-indicated portions under seal.
A number of Plaintiffs' proposed redactions indicate that they are contingent upon Defendants filing a declaration in support of those portions sought to be redacted. As evidenced in the chart, the Court DENIES the sealing of documents relating to Defendants' CBI for which neither party has provided support.
The parties request the following portions of the various documents be sealed:
| Docket NumberPublic/(Sealed) | Document | Portion(s) Sought to be Sealed | Ruling (basis) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80-3/(80-1) | Plaintiff's Motion forLeave to File a FourthAmended Complaint | Proposed redactions listed inDkt. No. 80 | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(80-2) | Murray Declaration | Proposed redactions listed inDkt. No. 80, plus page 5, lines1-12 of the proposed FourthAmended Complaint andredline.The Court DENIES the motionto seal Exhibits A-C to Exhibit1 to the Murray Declaration andquotations from thesedocuments. | GRANTED INPART |
| No Public VersionFiled/(88-3) | Exhibit 9 to EstrinDeclaration(Plaintiff's Responsesto Defendant's ThirdSet of Interrogatories) | 7:8-10; 17:7-9; 24:2-4, 24:10-12; 25:28-26:2; 27:28-28:2;28:9-10; 29:18-19; 30:13-15;31:15-19; 32:23-25; 37:27-38:1;40:1-2 | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(92-5) | Fourth AmendedComplaint | Proposed redactions in Dkt. No.92-4, plus page 5, lines 1-12 ofthe proposed Fourth AmendedComplaint.The Court DENIES the motionto seal Exhibits A-C to the | GRANTED INPART |
| Fourth Amended Complaint andquotations from thesedocuments. | |||
| No Public VersionFiled/(112/4) | Defendants' Motionfor SummaryJudgment | Page 3, lines 6-7 Page 6, lines6-12, 14-22 Page 7, lines 1 Page14, lines 13-17 Page 16, lines13-14 Page 17, lines 11, 27Page 24, lines 7-11, 15-16, 18-19 Page 25, lines 2-3, 6-8, 10-12, 25-26 | GRANTED INPART |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Public VersionFiled /(112-5) | Exhibit 1 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| Entire documentsealed/(112-6) | Exhibit 2 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(112-7) | Exhibit 5 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(112-8) | Exhibit 8 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(112-9) | Exhibit 9 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(112-10) | Exhibit 10 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled /(112-11) | Exhibit 13 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled /(112-12) | Exhibit 14 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled /(112-13) | Exhibit 15 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled /(112-14) | Exhibit 16 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled/(115-5) | Plaintiffs' Motion forPartial SummaryJudgment | 1:14, 2:10-3:22, 4:3-6, 5:12, 13-14, 5:20-6:1, 5:27-28, 6:6-9,6:12-20, 9:25, 10:6, 11:8-11,12:27-28, 12:28-13:1, 13:4-6,13:10-11, 13:26-27The Court DENIES the motionto seal: 5:10, 10:8 | GRANTED INPART |
| 118/(115-6) | Appendix of Exhibits | Redactions listed in Dkt. No.120 | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(122-6) | Plaintiffs' Oppositionto Defendants'Motion for SummaryJudgement | 1:25-4:7, 4:8-7:6, 7:7-13, 7:14-11:16, 13:9-10, 13:11-20, 14:6-13, 14:14-17, 14:22-24, 15:20-23, 15:27-28, 16:18-21, 17:5-20, 18 n.8, 20:1-8, 20:18-22,20:25-26:8, 21:16-28, 23:4-7,23:19-24:2, 24:15-25:10,including n. 10, 25:11-15The Court DENIES the motionto seal: 4:8-7:6, 13:11-20,14:14-17, 15:1-15,16:8-9,25:11-15 | GRANTED INPART |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Public VersionFiled/(122-4) | Appendix of Exhibits | Vigdor Declaration, BradwayDeclaration, MargulisDeclaration at 1:21-23, JacobsDeclaration at 3:7-4:3, Exhibits:1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 25, 26,27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57,60, 61, 62, 63, 64The Court DENIES the motionto seal Exhibits: 19, 37, 38, 47,48, 53, 54, 55, 58, 59 | GRANTED INPART |
| No Public VersionFiled/(126-4) | Defendants'Opposition toPlaintiffs' Motion forPartial SummaryJudgment | Page 4, lines 17-19 Page 5,lines 1-8 & 15-17 Page 8, lines16-18 & 22 Page 9, lines 1-11Page 13, lines 7 & 26 Page 17,lines 24-25 Page 18, lines 1, 18-21, 23-24 Page 19, lines 1 &10-11 Page 20, lines 2-6 & 24Page 21, lines 1-2, 12-14, 25-26The Court DENIES the motionto seal: Pages 3, lines 24 & 26Page 5, lines 12-14 | GRANTED INPART |
| Entire documentsealed/(126-5) | Exhibit A to TalaricoDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(126-6) | Exhibit B to TalaricoDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(126-7) | Exhibit C to HurDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled/(126-8) | Exhibit D to HurDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled/(126-9) | Exhibit E to HurDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupporting |
| declaration) | |||
| No Public VersionFiled/(126-10) | Exhibit F to HurDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entire documentsealed/(126-11) | Exhibit G to TimminsDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| 130-3/(130/4) | Defendants Reply inSupport of Motion forSummary Judgment | Page 6, lines 13-15 Page 8,lines 13-15 Page 9, lines 3-5Page 11, lines 5-8 & 11 Page13, lines 26-28 Page 14, lines 4& 23 Page 15, lines 10 & 23 | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(130-5) | Exhibit 17 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| No Public VersionFiled/(130-6) | Exhibit 18 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | DENIED (nosupportingdeclaration) |
| Entire documentsealed/(130-7) | Exhibit 19 to AllenDeclaration | Entire document | GRANTED |
| No Public VersionFiled/(133-5) | Plaintiffs' Reply inSupport of Motion forSummary Judgment | Pages 1:18-20, 3:3-5, 3:14-4:5,1:18-20, 4:19-21, 6:20-21, 7:7-9, 7:28-8:3, 8:19-23, 8:24-28,9:2-5, 9:17-18, 9:21-25, 9:26-27, 10:7-8, 11:17-19, 12:22-25(n. 5), 13:8-11, 15:13-14The Court DENIES the motionto seal:7:4, 8:1-4 | GRANTED INPART |
| 133-6/(133-7) | Supplemental JacobsDeclaration | Paragraph 2 | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(133-7) | Exhibit 65 | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(133-7) | Exhibit 66 | Entire document | GRANTED |
| Entire documentsealed/(133-7) | Exhibit 67 | Entire document | GRANTED |
| 140-3/(140-4) | Plaintiffs' Objectionsto EvidenceSubmitted byDefendants with TheirReply in Support ofDefendants' Motionfor SummaryJudgment | Pages 1:13-16; 2:1, 2:6-7; 2:9-10; and 2:12-20 | GRANTED |
III. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART Dkt. Nos. 80, 92, 112, 115, 122, 126, 130, and 133, and GRANTS Dkt. Nos. 88 and 140. The Court DIRECTS the parties to file public versions of all documents for which the proposed sealing has been denied and/or for which no public version has been filed, as indicated in the chart above. Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5(f)(1), documents filed under seal as to which the administrative motions are granted will remain under seal. The public will have access only to the redacted versions accompanying the administrative motions.
IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: 9/18/2018
/s/_________
HAYWOOD S. GILLIAM, JR.
United States District Judge