Ryan v. Costco Wholesale Corporation et al
Filing
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ORDER denying 36 Motion to Seal. If Defendants want the Court to consider Exhibit 3, they must resubmit the document for filing in the public record within 5 days of entry of this order, in accordance with LRCiv 5.6(e). Signed by Judge Douglas L Rayes on 2/6/24. (MAP)
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
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John Ryan,
No. CV-22-00419-PHX-DLR
Plaintiff,
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v.
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Costco Wholesale Corporation, et al.,
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ORDER
Defendants.
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Plaintiff John Ryan brings this premises liability case against Defendants Costco
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Wholesale Corporation and Costco Wholesale Membership Incorporated based on a slip
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and fall that occurred in February 2020. Defendants have moved for summary judgment.
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(Doc. 34.) As Exhibit 3 in support of that motion, Defendants submitted to the Court a disc
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containing two angles of surveillance footage of Plaintiff’s fall, along with a media player
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program with which to view the footage. Defendants move for leave to file Exhibit 3 under
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seal. (Doc. 36.)
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The public has a right to access judicial records. San Jose Mercury News, Inc. v.
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U.S. Dist. Court—N. Dist. (San Jose), 187 F.3d 1096, 1101 (9th Cir. 1999). The Court
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therefore begins “with a strong presumption in favor of access to court records,” Foltz v.
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State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003), and a party seeking
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to overcome this presumption and file a record under seal generally must provide a
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compelling reason for doing so, Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092,
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1096 (9th Cir. 2016). The Ninth Circuit has carved out an exception to this general rule
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“for sealed materials attached to a discovery motion unrelated to the merits of the case.”
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Id. at 1097. A party seeking to seal such materials “need only satisfy the less exacting ‘good
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cause’ standard.” Id. Although earlier decisions from the Ninth Circuit sometimes used the
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words “dispositive” and “non-dispositive” to describe the dividing line between those
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records governed by the compelling reasons standard and those governed by the good cause
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standard, the Ninth Circuit has since clarified that “[t]he focus ... is on whether the motion
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at issue is more than tangentially related to the underlying cause of action.” Id. at 1099.
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The exception to the ordinary compelling reasons standard applies only to records that are
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unrelated or merely tangentially related to the merits of a case. Sealing documents
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appended to a motion that is more than tangentially related to the merits of a case requires
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a compelling justification. Defendants’ motion is governed by the more demanding
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compelling reasons test because the exhibit they seek to seal is attached to a dispositive
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motion and more than tangentially related to the merits. Defendants offer two reasons why
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they believe Exhibit 3 should be sealed, neither of which the Court finds compelling.
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First, Defendants note that they designated the surveillance footage as
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“Confidential” pursuant to the protective order entered in this case. (Doc. 19.) “[B]ut the
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fact that a document is treated as confidential pursuant to a protective order is not, without
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more, a compelling reason for sealing that document once it is used to support a dispositive
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motion.” Blum v. Banner Health, No. CV-20-00409-PHX-DLR, 2021 WL 5446460, at *1
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(D. Ariz. Nov. 22, 2021).
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Second, Defendants argue that the surveillance footage “is deserving of protection
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from use or publication outside the scope of this lawsuit” because “Costco’s primary use
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for its surveillance system is asset protection and theft deterrence[.]” (Doc. 36 at 1.) But it
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is common knowledge that commercial retail businesses routinely use surveillance cameras
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to protect their wares and deter theft. The unremarkable fact that Costco stores use
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surveillance cameras is not a compelling reason to seal the footage. Accordingly,
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IT IS ORDERED that Defendant’s motion to seal (Doc. 36) is DENIED. If
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Defendants want the Court to consider Exhibit 3, they must resubmit the document for
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filing in the public record within 5 days of entry of this order, in accordance with LRCiv
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5.6(e).
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Dated this 6th day of February, 2024.
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Douglas L. Rayes
United States District Judge
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