McCabe v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc.

Filing 45

ORDER granting 41 Motion to Seal. Signed by Chief Judge James C. Dever III on 4/22/2014. (Sawyer, D.)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
WESTERN DIVISION
Civil Action No. 5:13-CV-00125-D
)
JILL C. MCCABE,

)

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Plaintiff,
vs.
ABBOTT LABORATORIES, INC.,

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)
)

ORDER

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Defendant.
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____________________________ )
This matter is before the Court on Defendant Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s Motion to
Seal, and maintain under seal, (1) Attachments 6, 7, 18 and 22 of the Appendix to Abbott's
Memorandum in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 27); (2) Attachments 1
through 3 to the Declaration of Kristin Brooks (Dkt. 28); and (3) Attachments 6 and 9 of the
Appendix to Plaintiffs Response in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment
(Dkt. 31 ). The Court has reviewed the arguments of counsel and, being otherwise sufficiently
advised, will grant the motion.
Abbott's interests in maintaining under seal the confidential business information
described in the above-listed documents overcomes the public's First Amendment right of access.
The public filing of these documents has the potential to harm Abbott's competitive standing by
allowing access of this confidential business information - (a) the programs, methods and
formulas through which Abbott provides incentive compensation to its employees and (b)
Abbott's specialty pharmacy customer list, business information and contact information - to its
direct competitors in the pharmaceutical industry; thereby heavily outweighing the public's
interest in openness, particularly where, as here, the information contained in the documents to

be sealed is not generally available to the public in the first place and has no bearing whatsoever
on any public matter.
The public has been given notice of Abbott's request to seal and a reasonable
opportunity to challenge the request, and no challenges have been made.
The alternatives to sealing the documents are inadequate, because the information
set forth in these documents constitute confidential business information that Abbott has
protected and maintained internally and the disclosure of which would potentially harm Abbott's
competitive standing and provide a competitive advantage to its direct competitors in the
pharmaceutical industry.

Moreover, the confidential information about its incentive

compensation programs that Abbott seeks to protect is set forth throughout each document.
Therefore, filing redacted copies of these documents would be impracticable and render the
documents incomprehensible.
Additionally, Plaintiffs counsel has consented to this Motion and to sealing and
maintaining the identified documents under seal.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Attachments 6, 7, 18 and 22 ofthe
Appendix to Abbott's Memorandum in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 27);
Attachments 1 through 3 to the Declaration of Kristin Brooks (Dkt. 28); and (3) Attachments 6
and 9 of the Appendix to Plaintiffs Response in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary
Judgment (Dkt. 31) shall be filed under seal and shall remain under seal in accordance with
Local Civil Rule 79.2(b).

It is so ordered this _1J_ day

of~. 2014
Uni d States District Court Judge

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