Culinary Foods, Inc. v. Raychem Corp.

151 F.R.D. 297, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11085, 1993 WL 335260
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided August 10, 1993·No. No. 92 C 8152·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

BOBRICK, United States Magistrate Judge.

Before the court is the motion of plaintiffs Culinary Foods, Inc, and Soledad Sagun, as administrator of the estate of Remigio Sa-gun, for a protective order covering items discovered and yet to be discovered from defendant Raychem Corporation.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises out of the January 11, 1992 fire which occurred at Culinary Foods, Inc, located at 1240-46 W. George St. in Chicago, Illinois. Culinary Foods asserts that the fire was the result of certain Ray-chem products which were installed at the location and asserts product liabilities claims against Raychem. Specifically, plaintiffs assert that “FreezGard,” one of Raychem’s self-regulating pipe heating cable products, was unreasonably dangerous and defective and was the cause of the January 11, 1992 fire. Furthermore, plaintiffs seek punitive damages from defendant claiming that defendant was fully aware of the dangers and defects in its self-regulating heat cable products yet continued to manufacture and market the products.

The motion currently before the court is somewhat unusual in that Culinary is seeking a protective order for materials which they seek to discover from Raychem. We perceive that Culinary’s unusual request comes from its view of Raychem’s past litigation strategies in other similar cases in which Raychem would file a motion for a rather broad protective order; Culinary thus files its current motion with the court thereby forcing Raychem to file a response to justify its position. Culinary asserts that their motion for a protective order will streamline the litigation. Raychem responds with its own version of an appropriate protective order.

II. ANALYSIS

The law applicable to protective orders is found in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c)(7) which provides: “for good cause shown ... the court may make any order ... that a trade secret or other confidential research, development, or commercial information not be disclosed or be disclosed only in a designated way.” In order to establish that information should be subject to a protective order, the party seeking protection bears the burden of establishing: (1) that the information is in fact a trade secret or confidential commercial information and (2) that there is good cause to protect the information. Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 785 F.2d 1108, 1121 (3rd Cir.1986). The requirement of good cause is based upon a fundamental premise that “pre-trial discovery must take place in the public unless compelling reasons exist for denying the public access to the proceedings.” Wilk v. American Medical Association, 635 F.2d 1295, 1299 (7th Cir.1980) citing American Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Grady, 594 F.2d 594, 596 (7th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 971, 99 S.Ct. 1533, 59 L.Ed.2d 787 (1979). Thus, purported trade secrets and other confidential commercial information are not automatically protected from disclosure, good cause must also be established. United States v. International Business Machines Corp., 67 F.R.D. 40, 42, n. 1 (S.D.N.Y.1975). Courts have imposed a variety of language as to what satisfies the requirements of good cause.1 However, once the burden of establishing good cause is met, the burden shifts to the party seeking discovery to show why the court should allow dissemination of the [301]*301materials. Wauchop v. Domino’s Pizza, Inc., 138 F.R.D. 539, 545 (N.D.Ind.1991).

With this in mind, Culinary acknowledges that they intend to discover confidential information and agrees that Raychem has certain information which should be subject to a protective order. Culinary admits and contends that, “all information, with the exception of Rayehem’s knowledge of the dangers associated with the use of its self-regulating pipe heating cables and what Raychem did and did not do in light of that knowledge, is entitled to Rule 26(e) protection, thereby precluding publication, dissemination and/or use outside this litigation.” (Culinary’s Brief in Support of Protective Order, p. 7). We agree in part and disagree in part with this general statement.

First, although at this juncture we make no finding as to whether Rayehem’s products are dangerous and whether Ray-chem knew of the dangers and either failed to take action or attempted to conceal the information, we agree that such information, if found, is not entitled to Rule 26(c) protection. Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 106 F.R.D. 573, 576 (D.N.J.1985), rev’d on other grounds, 785 F.2d 1108 (3rd Cir.1986). A claim that public disclosure of information will be harmful to a defendant’s reputation is not “good cause” for a protective order. Wauchop v. Domino’s Pizza, Inc., 138 F.R.D. at 546. Although the information regarding the hazards of products and the corporation’s knowledge of the information may be embarrassing and incriminating, this alone is insufficient to bar public disclosure. Cipollone v. Liggett, 106 F.R.D. at 576-77. Furthermore, where trade secrets are not at issue, common sense would indicate that the greater a corporation’s motivations for secrecy, the greater the public’s need to know. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. F.T.C., 710 F.2d 1165, 1180 (6th Cir.1983). In addition, we agree with the district court in its reconsideration of Cipollone, in which the court states that although the information will certainly embarrass Raychem, “[i]t is inconceivable to this court that under such circumstances the public interest is not a vital factor to be considered in determining, whether to further conceal that information and whether a court should be a party to that concealment.” 113 F.R.D. 86, 87 (D.N.J.1986). Where products are indeed hazardous, information concerning the dangers of the products and the corporations lack of action to prevent the dangers or its attempt to conceal the dangers should not be subject to protection under Rule 26(c).

However, we do not agree that information concerning what Raychem did do in light of the knowledge of. the danger of its products is necessarily outside the realm of Rule 26(c) protection. We do not read the Cipollone cases so broadly as to include information of what a corporation did in light of the dangers of its products. Cipollone does not hold that valiant attempts to correct hazards must also be disclosed. Cipollone states “[defendants continue to be entitled to protection from the disclosure of matters which are truly secret, where disclosure thereof will affect the operation of their business, but not their potential liability. Formulae, marketing strategy, and other matters whose disclosure would affect defendants with their respective competitors or in conjunction with the day-to-day operation of their business are entitled to protection.

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Culinary Foods, Inc. v. Raychem Corp., 151 F.R.D. 297, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11085, 1993 WL 335260 (N.D. Ill. 1993).

151 F.R.D. 297 (Culinary Foods, Inc. v. Raychem Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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