Allstate Insurance Company et al v. Balle et al
Filing
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ORDER Granting 437 Plantiffs' Motion to Seal. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that 436 Plaintiffs' Motion to Seal is DENIED as moot. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 2/20/14. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - EDS)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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DISTRICT OF NEVADA
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ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, et al.,
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Plaintiffs,
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vs.
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PETER MARIO BALLE, et al.,
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Defendants.
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Case No. 2:10-cv-02205-APG-NJK
ORDER GRANTING IN PART
MOTION TO SEAL
(Docket No. 338)
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Pending before the Court are Plaintiffs’ emergency motions to seal, Docket Nos. 436 and 437.
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The motions appear to be identical to one another with the exception that Docket No. 436 is not signed.
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Accordingly, Docket No. 437 supersedes Docket No. 436, and Docket No. 436 is hereby DENIED as
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moot.
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In the remaining motion to seal, Docket No. 437, Plaintiffs seek to file under seal their
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emergency motion to enforce settlement. See Docket No. 438 (sealed emergency motion to enforce
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settlement). Pursuant to the procedure outlined in Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d
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1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006), Plaintiffs submitted a memorandum of points and authorities in support of
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the motion to seal. Docket No. 437. For the reasons discussed below, the Court hereby GRANTS the
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motion to seal.
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I.
STANDARD
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The Ninth Circuit has held that there is a strong presumption of public access to judicial records.
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See Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006); Foltz v. State Farm
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Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003). A party seeking to file documents under seal
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bears the burden of overcoming that presumption. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 678
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(9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178). Parties “who seek to maintain the secrecy of
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documents attached to dispositive motions must meet the high threshold of showing that ‘compelling
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reasons’ support secrecy.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1180.1 Those compelling reasons must outweigh the
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competing interests of the public in having access to the judicial records and understanding the judicial
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process. Id. at 1178-79; see also Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 & n.6 (court must weigh “relevant factors,”
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including the public’s interest in understanding the judicial process). Further, to the extent any
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confidential information can be easily redacted while leaving meaningful information available to the
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public, the Court must order that redacted versions be filed rather than sealing entire documents. Foltz,
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331 F.3d at 1137; see also Vaccine Ctr. LLC v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC, 2013 U.S. Dist. Lexis 68298, *9-
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10 (D. Nev. May 14, 2013) (discussing redaction requirement).
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II.
ANALYSIS
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The information at issue in the pending motion to seal includes the specific terms of settlement
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discussions as well as several versions of the settlement agreement itself. Docket No. 438. The Court
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has reviewed Plaintiffs’ motion as well as each of the exhibits attached thereto and concludes that they
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all contain confidential settlement information which is traditionally kept secret for policy reasons and
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which warrants keeping them sealed. Further, the Court finds that both good cause and compelling
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reasons exist to seal this information that overcome the presumption of public access and that the
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documents cannot be easily redacted while leaving meaningful information available to the public.
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Kamakana and Foltz involve non-parties’ attempts to obtain sealed court documents. The same
analysis and standards apply to a party’s motion to seal. See Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 n.5; see also
Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1182 n.9 (for the case before it, noting that “[t]he effective bottom line is that
the district court was determining whether documents should be sealed”).
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III.
CONCLUSION
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For good cause shown,
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ motion to seal, Docket No. 437, is GRANTED.
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Plaintiffs’ emergency motion to enforce settlement, Docket No. 438, will remain under seal.
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IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ motion to seal, Docket No. 436, is DENIED as
moot.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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DATED: February 20, 2014.
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______________________________________
NANCY J. KOPPE
United States Magistrate Judge
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