Allegiant Travel Company v. Kinzer

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided July 19, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-01649·Unknown

Opinion

3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 5

6 ALLEGIANT TRAVEL COMPANY, et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-01649-JAD-NJK 7 Petitioner(s), ORDER 8 v. [Docket No. 2] 9 JOHN KINZER, 10 Respondent(s). 11 Pending before the Court is Petitioner’s motion to seal. Docket No. 2; see also Docket No. 12 10 (unredacted sealed version); Docket No. 14-3 (public redacted version).1 Pursuant to the 13 Court’s order, Docket No. 11, Petitioner filed a supplement that narrows the scope of the sealing 14 request, proposes redactions, and provides further argument, Docket No. 14. Petitioner filed some 15 redacted documents on the public docket. See Docket No. 14-2 (redacted petition to confirm), 16 Docket No. 14-3 (redacted motion to seal). For the reasons discussed below, the motion to seal as 17 narrowed in the supplement is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. 18 I. STANDARDS 19 There is a strong presumption of public access to judicial records. Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 20 1178. A party seeking to file documents under seal bears the burden of overcoming that 21 presumption. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 678 (9th Cir. 2010). 22 Parties “who seek to maintain the secrecy of documents attached to dispositive motions 23 must meet the high threshold of showing that ‘compelling reasons’ support secrecy.” Kamakana, 24 25

26 1 The motion is not opposed. Neither an unopposed motion nor a stipulation to seal should be granted as a matter of course, however, because the Court is balancing party interests in 27 confidentiality against the public’s interest in transparency. See Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-79 (9th Cir. 2006); see also eBay Inc. v. Boch, No. 19-cv-04422- 28 BLF, 2022 WL 1131720, at *1 n.1 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 21, 2022) (parties cannot stipulate to sealing). 1 447 F.3d at 1180.2 The Ninth Circuit has indicated that “‘compelling reasons’ sufficient to 2 outweigh the public’s interest in disclosure and justify sealing court records exist when such ‘court 3 files might have become a vehicle for improper purposes,’ such as the use of records to gratify 4 private spite, promote public scandal, circulate libelous statements, or release trade secrets.’” 5 Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179 (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978)). 6 “The mere fact that the production of records may lead to a litigant’s embarrassment, 7 incrimination, or exposure to further litigation will not, without more, compel the court to seal its 8 records.” Id. 9 The burden to show compelling reasons is not met by making conclusory assertions; rather, 10 the movant must “articulate compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings.” Id. at 11 1178 (emphasis added). For example, the Ninth Circuit has rejected efforts to seal documents 12 under the “compelling reasons” standard based on “conclusory statements about the contents of 13 the documents–that they are confidential and that, in general,” their disclosure would be harmful 14 to the movant. Id. at 1182. Such “conclusory offerings do not rise to the level of ‘compelling 15 reasons’ sufficiently specific to bar the public access to the documents.” Id. In allowing the 16 sealing of a document, the Court must “articulate the basis for its ruling, without relying on 17 hypothesis and conjecture.” See, e.g., Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 (quoting Hagestad v. Tragesser, 49 18 F.3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995)). 19 Any request to seal must be “narrowly tailored” to remove from the public sphere only 20 material that warrants secrecy. Harper v. Nev. Prop. 1, LLC, 552 F. Supp. 3d 1033, 1040-41 (D. 21 Nev. 2021) (citing Ervine v. Warden, 214 F. Supp. 3d 917, 919 (E.D. Cal. 2016)). If any 22 confidential information can be easily redacted while leaving meaningful information available to 23

24 2 Whether a motion is “dispositive” for sealing purposes turns on whether it is “more than tangentially related to the underlying cause of action.” Center for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., 25 LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101 (9th Cir. 2016). Petitioner advocates for the lower “good cause” standard to apply to its motion to seal. Docket No. 10 at 4. In particular, Petitioner argues that a 26 motion to confirm an arbitration award is only tangentially related to the merits of a case because the Court’s review of the arbitration decision is a limited one. See id. at 3-4. The Court does not 27 share Petitioner’s view and, instead, agrees with the decisions finding that the “compelling reasons” standard applies. See, e.g., Bloom Energy Corp. v. Badger, No. 21-cv-02154-PJH, 2021 28 WL 4079208, at *12 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 8, 2021). 1 the public, the Court must order that redacted versions be filed rather than sealing entire 2 documents. See Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1137 (9th Cir. 2003); see 3 also in re Roman Catholic Archbishop of Portland in Ore., 661 F.3d 417, 425 (9th Cir. 2011). 4 Courts consider the confidential nature of settlement discussions and agreements in 5 addressing later motions to seal settlement information. See, e.g., Mayorga v. Ronaldo, No. 2:19- 6 cv-00168-JAD-CWH, 2019 WL 3459230, at *3 (D. Nev. July 31, 2019). Courts similarly consider 7 the confidential nature of arbitration proceedings in addressing later motions to seal arbitration 8 information. See, e.g., Zitan Techs., LLC v. Liang Yu, No. 3:18-cv-00395-RJC-WGC, 2021 WL 9 3024284, at *3 n.2 (D. Nev. July 16, 2021). Nonetheless, such settlement or arbitration 10 information is not entitled to sealing in later proceedings simply because the parties bargained for 11 confidentiality; the calculus changes once the parties reenter the courthouse for adjudication of 12 their dispute. See Harper, 552 F. Supp. 3d at 1041; see also Bloom Energy, 2021 WL 4079208, 13 at *12 (“The fact that the parties privately bargained to keep [an arbitration] proceeding 14 confidential does not nullify the requirement that a party proffer a qualifying reason to justify 15 sealing that document when put at issue in a public forum” (emphasis in original)).3 Given the 16 competing interests at play in such a scenario, several courts addressing a proceeding to enforce a 17 settlement agreement have allowed the sealing of confidential information not pertinent to the 18 issue before the Court, while generally requiring transparency of the settlement terms that are 19 directly implicated in the latest round of judicial decision-making. E.g., Harper, 552 F. Supp. 3d 20 at 1042. 21 II. ANALYSIS 22 Petitioner’s sealing and redaction requests cover a variety of judicial filings. The Court 23 will address the different filings separately. 24 25

26 3 The local rules make clear that settlement terms that were otherwise confidential may be disclosed to the public by the Court in a subsequent proceeding arising out of a motion to enforce 27 settlement. Local Rule 16-5 (“In the event of a dispute to enforce a settlement agreement, the court may order the disclosure of confidential information”). The arbitration at issue here was 28 essentially a proceeding to enforce settlement. See, e.g., Docket No. 14-2 at 4. 1 A.

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