United States of America et al v. Lee Memorial Health System
Filing
210
ORDER granting in part 209 Relator's unopposed motion for leave to file certain items under seal. By July 1, 2022, Relator will file its motion challenging Lee Memorial's privilege or protection claims concerning the sequestered document. See order for details. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nicholas P. Mizell on 6/24/2022. (GSK)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
FORT MYERS DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
and ANGELA D’ANNA,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Case No. 2:14-cv-437-SPC-NPM
LEE MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM, and
CAPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, INC.,
Defendants.
ORDER
Before the court is Relator’s unopposed motion for leave to file certain items
under seal (Doc. 209). Relator seeks leave to file under seal: (1) a sequestered
document for which Lee Memorial has made a privilege claim; (2) a motion
challenging Lee Memorial’s privilege claim; and (3) other exhibits in support of the
motion. Id. at ¶ 6-8.
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(B), Relator is authorized
to submit the sequestered document under seal, so the issue before the court is
whether the motion and its other exhibits should also be sealed.
Apparently, the other exhibits to the motion are neither privileged nor
protected work-product. They have merely been designated confidential by Lee
Memorial. (Doc. 209, ¶ 7-8). Such a designation alone, however, does not warrant
filing under seal. See LOCAL RULE 1.11(a); see also CASE MANAGEMENT
SCHEDULING ORDER (Doc. 157, p. 3); MIDDLE DISTRICT
OF
AND
FLORIDA CIVIL
DISCOVERY HANDBOOK (p. 3).
The local rules provide for resolving whether such items should be filed under
seal. To file an item that plausibly qualifies for sealing and that the filing party knows
or reasonably should know another party considers confidential, the filing party must
file instead of the item a placeholder only identifying the item and must notify the
other party within seven days after filing the placeholder. See LOCAL RULE 1.11(d)
(explaining the filing of another parties’ confidential item(s) in further detail).
In the interest of adjudicative transparency, the motion itself should not be
filed under seal. United States v. Lee Mem’l Health Sys., No. 2:14-cv-437-FtM38CM, 2018 WL 5014534, *3 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 16, 2018) (citing F.T.C. v. AbbVie
Prod. LLC, 713 F.3d 54, 62 (11th Cir. 2013) (“The public’s right of access to judicial
proceedings and records applies to public pleadings filed on the docket, such as a
complaint and exhibits to a complaint.”).
If it is impossible or not reasonably practical to present the arguments without
divulging the particular contents of the sequestered document for which Lee Health
asserts privilege or protection (a document commonly contains both privileged and
non-privileged material), or without divulging any particular material within other
exhibits that plausibly qualifies for sealing, then the motion challenging Lee
-2-
Memorial’s privilege or protection claims about the sequestered document may be
filed in the public record with the least amount of redactions necessary, and an
unredacted motion may be filed under seal. Accordingly, Relator’s unopposed
motion for leave to file under seal is GRANTED IN PART. By July 1, 2022,
Relator will file its motion challenging Lee Memorial’s privilege or protection
claims concerning the sequestered document.
If the motion must divulge the particular contents of the sequestered document
for which Lee Memorial asserts privilege or protection, or it must divulge particular
material within other exhibits that plausibly qualifies for sealing, then it will be filed
with the least amount of redactions possible, and an unredacted version will be
contemporaneously supplied to the clerk for filing under seal.
Further, by July 1, 2022, the sequestered document and any unredacted
version of the motion will be supplied to the clerk as separate PDFs on a flash drive
in an envelope, and the outside of the envelope will reference this order. The
motion—redacted if necessary—filed with the court via CM/ECF will be
accompanied by placeholders and the parties will follow the procedure set forth in
Local Rule 1.11(d).
Before any of these items are filed, the parties must confer to minimize the
need for using any placeholders or redactions. If an unredacted version of the
motion is supplied to the clerk for filing under seal, it will be accompanied by
-3-
separate PDFs for each exhibit and not any placeholders. The PDF file names will
comport with the document naming conventions discussed in the CMSO (Doc. 157).
ORDERED on June 24, 2022.
-4-
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.
Why Is My Information Online?