Delashaw v. Seattle Times Company

District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided May 28, 2020·No. 2:18-cv-00537·Unknown

Opinion

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE

9 10 JOHNNY B. DELASHAW, JR., CASE NO. C18-537 JLR 11 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART v. AND DENYING IN PART 12 MOTIONS TO SEAL SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY, et 13 al., 14 Defendants. 15 I. INTRODUCTION 16 Before the court are two motions to seal: (1) Defendant Seattle Times Company’s 17 (“the Times”) motion to seal (1st MTS (Dkt. # 104)); and (2) Plaintiff Johnny B. 18 Delashaw, Jr.’s motion to seal (2d MTS (Dkt. # 131)). Although the Times filed a 19 motion to seal in order to comply with the protective order in this case and the court’s 20 local rules (see Protective Order (Dkt. # 46)); Local Rules W.D. Wash. LCR 5(g), Dr. 21 Delashaw is the proponent of both motions to seal (see Delashaw 1st MTS Resp. (Dkt. 22 1 # 120); 2d MTS). The Times opposes its own motion to seal (see Times 1st MTS Reply 2 (Dkt. # 136)) and Dr. Delashaw’s motion to seal (Times 2d MTS Resp. (Dkt. # 142)).

3 Defendant Charles Cobbs joins the Times in opposition to the Times’ motion to seal (see 4 Cobbs 1st MTS Resp. (Dkt. # 118)), but did not file a response to Dr. Delashaw’s motion 5 to seal (see generally Dkt.). Finally, interested party Swedish Health Services 6 (“Swedish”) filed a response in support of sealing a number of the documents identified 7 in the Times’ motion to seal (see Swedish 1st MTS Resp. (Dkt. # 122)), but did not file a 8 response to Dr. Delashaw’s motion to seal (see generally Dkt.). The court has considered

9 the motions, the parties’ submissions concerning the motions, the relevant portions of the 10 record, and the applicable law. Being fully advised, the court GRANTS in part and 11 DENIES in part both motions.1 12 II. BACKGROUND 13 The court has detailed this case’s background in a prior order and will not repeat it

14 in detail here. (See 8/23/18 Order (Dkt. # 39) at 1-10.) At a high level, Dr. Delashaw 15 brings defamation and related tort claims against the Times based on claims made in a 16 series of articles published by the Times in early 2017 about Dr. Delashaw and the 17 Swedish Neuroscience Institute (“SNI”), and against Dr. Cobbs based on statements Dr. 18 Cobbs made to the Times, to other Swedish employees, and to the Washington State

19 Medical Quality Assurance Commission (“MQAC”). (See generally id.) 20

1 No party requests oral argument (see 1st MTS at 1; 2d MTS at 1; Delashaw 1st MTS 21 Resp. at 1; Swedish 1st MTS Resp. at 1; Cobbs 1st MTS Resp. at 1; Times 2d MTS Resp. at 1), and the court concludes that oral argument would not be helpful to its disposition of the motions, 22 see Local Rules W.D. Wash. LCR 7(b)(4). 1 III. ANALYSIS 2 A. Legal Standard

3 When deciding a motion to seal, courts “start with a strong presumption in favor 4 of access to court records.” Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 5 (9th Cir. 2003) (citing Hagestad v. Tragesser, 49 F.3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995)). This 6 presumption, however, “is not absolute and can be overridden given sufficiently 7 compelling reasons for doing so.” Id. (citing San Jose Mercury News, Inc. v. U.S. Dist. 8 Ct. N. Dist. (San Jose), 187 F.3d 1096, 1102 (9th Cir. 1999)). The standard for

9 determining whether to seal a record depends on the filing to which the sealed record is 10 attached. See id. at 1136-37. Because the sealed documents at issue here are attached to 11 motions that are “more than tangentially related to the merits of [this] case,” the court 12 applies the compelling reasons standard to determine if sealing is appropriate. See Ctr. 13 for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., 809 F.3d 1092, 1098-102 (9th Cir. 2016).

14 Under the compelling reasons standard, the party seeking to seal a judicial record 15 bears the burden of showing that “compelling reasons supported by specific factual 16 findings . . . outweigh the general history of access and the public policies favoring 17 disclosure.” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-79 (9th Cir. 18 2006) (internal citations omitted). A failure to meet that burden means that the record

19 will be filed in public. Id. at 1182. If a court decides to seal a record, it must “base its 20 decision on a compelling reason and articulate the factual basis for its ruling.” Id. at 1179 21 (quoting Hagestad, 49 F.3d at 1434). “In general, ‘compelling reasons’ sufficient to 22 outweigh the public’s interest in disclosure and justify sealing court records exist when 1 such ‘court files might have become a vehicle for improper purposes,’ such as the use of 2 records to . . . release trade secrets.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179 (quoting Nixon v.

3 Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978)). The final determination of what 4 constitutes a compelling reason is “best left to the sound discretion of the trial court.” 5 Nixon, 435 U.S. at 599. 6 In addition, in the Western District of Washington, parties seeking to file 7 documents under seal must follow the procedure laid out in Local Rule 5(g). See Local 8 Rules W.D. Wash. LCR 5(g); (see also Protective Order at 4 (“Local Civil Rule 5(g) sets

9 forth the procedures that must be followed and the standards that will be applied when a 10 party seeks permission from the Court to file material under seal.”)). Pursuant to Local 11 Rule 5(g), a party filing a motion to seal must include “a certification that the party has 12 met and conferred with all other parties in an attempt to reach agreement on the need to 13 file the document[s] under seal.” Id. LCR 5(g)(3)(A). The party seeking to keep the

14 documents under seal must also explain the bases for requiring the relief. Id. LCR 15 5(g)(3)(B). 16 B. The Motions to Seal 17 The Times provisionally filed under seal (1) an unredacted version of its motion 18 for summary judgment (see Times MSJ (Dkt. ## 106 (redacted) 109 (sealed))), (2) 22

19 exhibits to the first declaration of Jessica Goldman (see 1st Goldman Decl. (Dkt. ## 108 20 (redacted) 110 (sealed))); and (3) an unredacted version of its reply in support of its 21 motion for summary judgment (see Times MSJ Reply (Dkt. ## 136 (redacted) 153 22 (sealed))). Dr. Delashaw provisionally filed under seal one exhibit and one declaration, 1 both of which are attached to the declaration of Kristin E. Ballinger. (See Ballinger Decl. 2 (Dkt. ## 124 (redacted) 132 (sealed)).) The court first addresses the provisionally sealed

3 exhibits and declaration and then turns to the proposed redactions in the Times’ motion 4 and reply briefs. 5 1. The Times’ Motion to Seal 6 a. Unopposed Documents: Exhibits 1-2, 10, and 37 7 Rule 5(g)(3) states that either the party filing a motion to seal or a party who 8 designated a document confidential must file a “a specific statement of the applicable

9 legal standard and the reasons for keeping a document under seal.” Local Rules W.D. 10 Wash. LCR 5(g)(3). The Times and Dr. Cobbs oppose sealing Exhibits 1, 2, 10, and 37 11 to Ms. Goldman’s declaration (see Times 1st MTS Reply at 2-3; Cobbs 1st MTS Resp. at 12 9-11), and neither Dr. Delashaw nor Swedish offer grounds for maintaining the seal on 13 those exhibits (see Swedish 1st MTS Resp. at 5-6 (arguing that Exhibits 5, 9, 11-15, 17,

14 19, 21-22, 24-26, and 34-35 should remain under seal); Delashaw 1st MTS Resp. at 1-2 15 (arguing that exhibits 16-19 and 25-26 should remain under seal)).

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