Guarantee Insurance Company v. Heffernan Insurance Brokers, Inc. et al
Filing
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ORDER granting 177 Motion to Seal. The Clerk of the Court is directed to return the documents filed under seal at ECF No. 177-1 to Defendants. Signed by Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman on 10/15/2014. (lpr)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
MIAMI DIVISION
CASE NO. 13‐23881‐CIV‐MARTINEZ/GOODMAN
GUARANTEE INSURANCE CO.,
Plaintiff,
v.
HEFFERNAN INSURANCE BROKERS,
INC., et al.,
Defendants.
______________________________________/
ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO SEAL
This Cause is before the Undersigned on Defendants Heffernan Insurance
Brokers, Inc. (“Heffernan”) and Socius Insurance Services, Inc. (“Socius,” and, together
with Heffernan, “Defendants”) Motion to Seal Emails to Which Defendants Have
Asserted Work Product Protection for Ex Parte Review by the Court (the “Motion”).
[ECF No. 177]. The Court held a hearing on this and related matters on October 3, 2014,
at which Plaintiff Guarantee Insurance Co. (“Guarantee”) made it clear that it does not
object to the relief requested herein. After review of the Motion, and all pertinent
portions of the record, it is ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the Motion is GRANTED.
As referenced below, the Undersigned has already completed the ex parte review of the
documents filed under seal. The Clerk of the Court is directed to return the documents
filed under seal at ECF No. 177‐1 to Defendants.
I.
The Legal Standard for Sealing Filed Court Documents
Information exchanged by litigants between themselves during discovery may
remain behind a veil of secrecy. Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 33 (1984).
There are sound reasons for this. At common law, discovery proceedings were not
open to the public. Id. (internal citations omitted). Pragmatically, much of discovery is
conducted in private and much of the information exchanged during discovery is only
tangentially relevant to the actual issues in the litigation. Id.
But when discovery materials are filed in connection with a substantive pretrial
motion, the public’s common law right of access attaches to the documents and the veil
of secrecy must be lifted. Romero v. Drummond Co., Inc., 480 F.3d 1234, 1245 (11th Cir.
2007). The sealing proponent may overcome this common law right of access by
showing good cause, i.e., that the balance tips in its favor to keep the material sealed
and against the public’s common law right of access. Id. at 1247 (citation omitted); Emess
Capital, LLC v. Rothstein, 841 F. Supp. 2d 1251, 1254‐55 (S.D. Fla. 2012).
A party’s designation of whether a document is “confidential” under a
Confidentiality Agreement does not control whether the document is entitled to be
sealed under Local Rule 5.4. See Consejo de Defensa Del Estado de La Republica de Chile v.
Espirito Santo Bank, No. 09‐20613‐CIV‐GRAHAM/TORRES, 2010 WL 2712093 (S.D. Fla.
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July 7, 2010) (noting that even the entry of a Confidentiality Order by the Court does not
alter the sealing process or procedure). Under Local Rule 5.4, the presumption in this
district is that court filings and proceedings are public. Local Rule 5.4(a). The Local
Rule, however, provides the procedure to follow when a party seeks to file something
under seal: the party must file a motion, “setting forth a reasonable basis for departing
from the general policy of a public filing.” Local Rule 5.4(b) (emphasis added).
Likewise, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 authorizes a court, for good cause, to enter
a protective order to seal or to limit disclosure.
II.
The Documents at Issue
Here, there is ample reason to seal the filed emails. First, these documents have
not been attached to a substantive pretrial motion of any kind. Second, at issue here is a
discovery dispute—i.e., whether the documents that Defendants claim are protected
work product should in fact be produced. The Court has agreed to review the
documents in camera, and it is for this reason alone that they have been filed at all. It
follows in a case like this that there is good cause for the documents to be filed under
seal. For these reasons, the Motion is GRANTED. The documents may be filed under
seal. The Court has already completed its ex parte review, and, contemporaneously with
granting this Motion, also ruled on the Motion to Compel that these documents relate
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to. The Clerk of the Court is directed to return the documents filed under seal at ECF
No. 177‐1 to Defendants.
DONE AND ORDERED in Chambers, in Miami, Florida, October 15, 2014.
Copies furnished to:
Honorable Jose E. Martinez
All Counsel of Record
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