Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Rankin

Filing 25

ORDER granting 19 Motion to Seal; denying without prejudice 13 Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim and this case is DISMISSED without prejudice to either party to reopen should settlement not be consummated on or before March 2, 2015. Counsel is reminded to read the order in its entirety for detailed information. Signed by Senior Judge James C. Fox on 1/15/2015. (Edwards, S.)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
WESTERN DIVISION
No. 5:14-CV-216-F
MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE,
INSURANCE COMPANY,
Plaintiff,

v.
DENNIS E. RANKIN, JR.,
Defendant.

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ORDER

This matter is before the court on Defendant's Motion to Seal [DE-19]. In an order
filed January 9, 2015 [DE-21], the court stated that it had carefully considered the prerequisites
for a motion to seal set forth in In re Knight Publishing Company, 743 F.2d 231 (4th Cir. 1984)
and Stone v. Univ. of Maryland Med. Sys. Corp., 855 F.2d 178, 179-80 (4th Cir. 1988), and
concluded that these prerequisites had been satisfied, with the exception ofDefendant showing that
there existed no alternative to the sealing of entire documents. Specifically, the court observed that
it appeared that private information could be redacted, and the court directed Defendant to file
proposed redacted versions of the documents.
Defendant has timely complied with the court's directive. After reviewing the proposed
redactions, the court finds that they redact only the necessary private information of Defendant.
Accordingly, the Motion to Seal [DE-19] is ALLOWED, and the Clerk of Court is DIRECTED
to maintain the following documents under permanent SEAL: (1) the Complaint, and the
attachments thereto [DE-l, DE-1-1, DE-1-2, DE-1-3]; (2) the Answer [DE-9], and (3) the Reply
[DE-14].
Defendant indicated in his motion to seal that the parties have reached a settlement of this
matter. Accordingly, Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss [DE-13] is DENIED without prejudice, and

this case is DISMISSED without prejudice to either party to reopen should settlement not be
consummated on or before March 2, 2015.
SO ORDERED.
This the 15th day of January, 2015.

esC. Fox
enior United States District Judge

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