Collado v. City of New York

193 F. Supp. 3d 286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79357, 2016 WL 3450148
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 15, 2016
Docket11-CV-9041 (DAB)
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 193 F. Supp. 3d 286 (Collado v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collado v. City of New York, 193 F. Supp. 3d 286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79357, 2016 WL 3450148 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Deborah A. Batts, United States District Judge

Defendants the City of New York (“City”), the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), Sergeant Ronald Smith (“Smith”) and Detectives James Connolly (“Connolly”) and James White (“White”) have moved, by way of letter motions, to be permitted to file under seal or redact certain documents and exhibits submitted to the Court in conjunction with Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment.1 Plaintiff opposes such sealing. For the reasons that follow, Defendants’ Motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

DISCUSSION

There is a general presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents. Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 119 (2d Cir.2006). In Lugosch, the Second Circuit described a three-step inquiry to be used by district courts prior to permitting judicial documents to be withheld from public view. The first step is to determine whether the [289]*289document in question is, in fact, a judicial document. Id “[T]he mere filing of a paper or document with the court is insufficient to render that paper a judicial document subject to the right of public access. ... In order to be designated a judicial document, the item filed must be relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process.” Id (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). However, “documents submitted to a court for its consideration in a summary judgment motion are—as a matter of law— judicial documents to which a strong presumption of access attaches.” Id. at 121.

Once it has determined that the document in question is a judicial document, the Court evaluates the weight to be accorded the presumption of public access that attaches. Id. The Court should consider “the role of the material at issue .in the exercise of Article III judicial power and the resultant value of such information to those monitoring the federal courts. Generally, the information will fall somewhere on a continuum from matters that directly affect an adjudication to matters that come within a court’s purview solely to insure their irrelevance.” Id. Finally, the Court must “balance competing considerations,” such as the impairment of law enforcement methods or information and the privacy interests of litigants. Id. at 120. The party seeking to file a document under seal bears the burden of demonstrating that sealing is warranted. DiRussa v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 121 F.3d 818, 826 (2d Cir.1997).

Defendants seek a sealing order as to: documents, and related redactions, that pertain to the 2011 ’ shooting; two exhibits that Defendants contend must be redacted based on the law enforcement privilege; and documents, and related redactions, that pertain to the 2009 Shooting.2 The Court will consider each in turn.

Defendants seek to file under seal numerous internal NYPD documents pertaining to the 2011 shooting.3 Plainly, under the standards set forth above, those documents are judicial documents subject to a strong presumption of public access. The documents comprise a significant proportion of the factual record before the Court and they pertain to matters that “directly affect” the Court’s adjudication of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Indeed, it would be difficult for a member of the public to get a full picture of the Court’s reasoning without access to those documents.

Against this strong presumption of public access, Defendants fail to articulate a compelling countervailing rationale for filing the documents under seal. Defendants argue that the documents were produced pursuant to the Protective Order agreed to by the Parties, and should therefore remain confidential. (Defs.’ Ltr. to Ct., Jan. 29, 2016, at 2-3.) However, that a document was produced in discovery pursuant to a protective order has no bearing on the presumption of access that attaches [290]*290when it becomes a judicial document. See Raffaele v. City of New York, No. 13-CV-4607, 2014 WL 2673464, at *2 (E.D.N.Y. June 9, 2014). Defendants additionally contend that Plaintiff “puts the , cart before the horse” insofar as public disclosure should await the trial in this matter, when all of the evidence that is relevant and admissible will become public record. (Defs.’ Ltr. to Ct., Feb. 12, 2016, at 1.) There is no guarantee, of course, that all of the documents Defendants seek to file under seal will later be introduced into evidence at trial, particularly where (as here) claims against certain defendants are disposed of at the summary judgment stage. And more importantly, Defendants’ argument simply ignores that Lugosch, which itself concerned public access to documents underlying a pending motion for summary judgment, was abundantly clear in holding that summary judgment is an “adjudication,” independent of a trial, “the basis of which should, absent exceptional circumstances, be subject to public scrutiny.” Lugosch, 435 F.3d at 121 (quoting Joy v. North, 692 F.2d 880, 893 (2d Cir.1982)). Clearly, Defendants’ proposed solution would frustrate that purpose.

Finally, Defendants characterize the documents as confidential personnel records in conclusory fashion without specifying either the “higher values” served by secrecy or the nature of any personal or tactical information those documents contain. Defendants also allude to New York Civil Rights Law Section 50-a, which presumptively prevents disclosure of police officers’ personnel files “except as may be mandated by lawful court order.” NYCRL § 50-a(l). Its purpose “is to protect irrelevant materials from disclosure: to prevent fishing expeditions, not to safeguard privacy itself.” King v. Conde, 121 F.R.D. 180, 192 (S.D.N.Y.1988) (citing Matter of Capital Newspapers v. Burns, 67 N.Y.2d 562, 505 N.Y.S.2d 576, 496 N.E.2d 665 (1986)). However, Section 50-a “does not govern discovery in federal cases, and there is no analogue in federal law to this provision.” Mercado v. Div. of N.Y. State Police, 989 F.Supp. 521, 522 (S.D.N.Y.1998). Thus, while Section 50-a arguably weighs in favor of confidentiality, its importance wanes considerably where, as here, the records in issue are unquestionably relevant.

Ultimately, the value of preserving the confidentiality of Defendants’ personnel records cannot overcome the “strong presumption” in favor of public access to documents that are central to the Court’s adjudication of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. The Court accordingly DENIES Defendants’ Motion as it pertains. to the documents and redactions related to the 2011 shooting.

Next, Defendants urge the Cóurt to permit the redaction of certain deposition excerpts' based on the law enforcement privilege. (See Defs.’ Ltr. to Ct., Mar.

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193 F. Supp. 3d 286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79357, 2016 WL 3450148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collado-v-city-of-new-york-nysd-2016.