Eidler v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.

• Court: District Court, N.D. California
• Decided: March 29, 2022
• Docket: 4:17-cv-03962
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 STACIA STINER, et al., Case No. 17-cv-03962-HSG 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO FILE 9 v. UNDER SEAL 10 BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVING, INC., et Re: Dkt. No. 264 al., 11 Defendants. 12 13 Pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 14 portions of the Proof of Service of the Motion for Substitution (“Proof of Service”). Dkt. No. 264 15 (“Mot.”). Plaintiffs seek to seal the Proof of Service and attached exhibits to remove any personal 16 identifying information of the named Plaintiffs’ family members. For the following reasons, the 17 Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion. 18 I. LEGAL STANARD 19 Courts generally apply a “compelling reasons” standard when considering motions to seal 20 documents. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 678 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Kamakana 21 v.City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006)). “This standard derives from the 22 common law right ‘to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records 23 and documents.’” Id. (quoting Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178). “[A] strong presumption in favor of 24 access is the starting point.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178 (quotations omitted). To overcome this 25 strong presumption, the party seeking to seal a judicial record attached to a dispositive motion 26 must “articulate compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings that outweigh the 27 general history of access and the public policies favoring disclosure, such as the public interest in 1 omitted). 2 Records attached to non-dispositive motions must meet the lower “good cause” standard of 3 Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as such records “are often unrelated, or only 4 tangentially related, to the underlying cause of action.” Id. at 1179–80 (quotations omitted). This 5 requires a “particularized showing” that “specific prejudice or harm will result” if the information 6 is disclosed. Phillips ex rel. Estates of Byrd v. Gen. Motors Corp., 307 F.3d 1206, 1210–11 (9th 7 Cir. 2002); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c). “Broad allegations of harm, unsubstantiated by specific 8 examples of articulated reasoning” will not suffice. Beckman Indus., Inc. v. Int’l Ins. Co., 966 9 F.2d 470, 476 (9th Cir. 1992) (quotation omitted). 10 II. DISCUSSION 11 Because the Proof of Service and associated documents that Plaintiffs seek to seal are 12 attached to a non-dispositive Motion for Substitution, the Court applies the lower “good cause” 13 standard. 14 Plaintiffs filed the Proof of Service for the limited purpose of showing that their nonparty 15 family members had notice of and did not oppose the underlying Motion for Substitution, which 16 the Court has already granted. See Dkt. No. 260. Plaintiffs seek to redact from the Proof of 17 Service the names and addresses of their nonparty family members. See Mot. at 3. 18 The Court finds that the names and addresses of Plaintiffs’ nonparty family members have 19 minimal relevance and are at best “only tangentially related” to the underlying causes of action 20 and therefore need not be accessible to the public. Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179. Moreover, the 21 nonparty family members have legitimate privacy interests in keeping their identities private. See 22 Chloe SAS v. Sawabeh Info. Servs. Co., No. 11-CV-04147-MMM, 2015 WL 12734004, at *3 23 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 4, 2015) (finding privacy interests of nonparties sufficient to justify sealing under 24 the good cause standard and citing cases); Doe v. City of San Diego, No. 12-CV-689-MMA-DHB, 25 2014 WL 1921742, at *4 (S.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (exhibit’s disclosure of personal information 26 and irrelevance to the matter are compelling reasons to seal the exhibit). 27 // 1 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion. 2 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 || Dated: 3/29/2022 | ° HAYWOOD S. GILLIAM, JR. 6 United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 11 12

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