McGhee v. North American Bancard, LLC
- Proceeding
- district
- Area
- civil
- Panel
- Anthony J. Battaglia (author)
Analysis
Plaintiff moved to seal portions of documents containing confidential proprietary information in support of his motion for class certification. The Court granted the motion, finding that sealing was appropriate under either the 'good cause' or 'compelling reasons' standard.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Motion to seal portions of documents in support of class certification granted.“Good cause and compelling reasons appearing, the Court GRANTS the motion to seal.” | agree with court The court correctly identified the split in the Ninth Circuit regarding the applicable standard for sealing class certification documents. By determining that the documents contained sensitive proprietary information and that sealing was appropriate under either standard, the court reached a defensible result without needing to resolve the circuit split. The reliance on district court cases from within the Ninth Circuit (N.D. Cal. and W.D. Wash.) is appropriate for this procedural matter. |
The order itself: sound — The order is procedurally sound. It correctly identifies the relevant legal standards and the existing split in the district courts within the Ninth Circuit. It avoids the need to resolve the split by applying a functional test (proprietary information) that satisfies both standards. The citations are to recent, relevant district court decisions within the circuit. There are no significant gaps in the reasoning for this specific procedural motion.
Opinion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 12 GERALD MCGHEE, an individual, on Case No.: 17-cv-00586-AJB-KSC behalf of himself and all others similarly 13 situated, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S 14 Plaintiff, MOTION TO SEAL SELECT PORTIONS OF DOCUMENTS IN 15 v. SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFF’S MOTION 16 NORTH AMERICAN BANCARD, LLC, FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION Defendant. PURSUANT TO L.R. 79.2 AND 17 PROTECTIVE ORDER 18 (Doc. No. 85) 19 20 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion to file under seal portions of various 21 documents in support of his motion for class certification. (Doc. No. 85.) The portions of 22 these documents contain information designated by Defendants as “CONFIDENTIAL” 23 under the terms of the Protective Order in this action, (Doc No. 67). Defendant has not 24 opposed the motion. Good cause and compelling reasons appearing, the Court GRANTS 25 the motion to seal. 26 In the Ninth Circuit, courts are split on whether the “good cause” or “compelling 27 reasons” standard applies to sealed documents in the class certification context. Compare 28 Ramirez v. GEO Grp., No. 3:18-cv-02136-LAB-MSB, 2019 WL 6782920, at *3 (S.D. Cal. 1 11, 2019) (‘The vast majority of courts within this circuit treat motions for class 2 || certification as non-dispositive motions to which the good cause sealing standard applies.”’) 3 || internal quotation marks omitted) with Yan Mei Zheng v. Toyota Motor Corp., No. 5:17- 4 ||cv-06591-BLF, 2019 WL 6841324, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 16, 2019) (“This Court follows 5 ||numerous other district courts within the Ninth Circuit in concluding that the compelling 6 reasons standard applies to motions to seal documents relating to class certification.”’). The 7 || documents Plaintiff here seeks to seal contain sensitive proprietary information. (Doc. No. 8 at 4-5.) The Court need not resolve whether the good cause or compelling reasons 9 || standard applies because under either standard, sealing of these documents is appropriate. 10 Yan Mei Zheng-Lawson v. Toyota Motor Corp., No. 17-CV-06591-BLF, 2019 WL 11 3413253, at *2 (N.D. Cal. July 29, 2019) (sealing sensitive proprietary information); 12 || Nichols v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., No. 2:18-CV-01253-RAJ, 2020 WL 5105442, at *2 (W.D. 13 || Wash. Aug. 31, 2020) (sealing proprietary competitive information under either the good 14 || cause or the compelling reasons standard). 15 As such, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’ motion to seal Exhibits 4, 5, 9, and 10. 16 17 IT IS SO ORDERED. 18 Dated: December 1, 2020 © 19 Hon, Anthony J.Battaglia 20 United States District Judge 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28