Excel Fortress Limited v. Wilhelm

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Excel Fortress Limited, et al., No. CV-17-04297-PHX-DWL

10 Plaintiffs, ORDER

11 v.

12 Vaughn La Verl Wilhelm, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s unopposed motion to file certain documents 16 under seal (Doc. 183). The public has a general right to inspect judicial records and 17 documents, such that a party seeking to seal a judicial record must overcome “a strong 18 presumption in favor of access.” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 19 1178 (9th Cir. 2006). To do so, the party must “articulate compelling reasons supported 20 by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of access and the 21 public policies favoring disclosure . . . .” Id. at 1178-79 (internal quotation marks and 22 citations omitted). The Court must then “conscientiously balance the competing interests 23 of the public and the party who seeks to keep certain judicial records secret.” Id. at 1179 24 (internal quotation marks omitted). “After considering these interests, if the court decides 25 to seal certain judicial records, it must base its decision on a compelling reason and 26 articulate the factual basis for its ruling, without relying on hypothesis or conjecture.” Id. 27 (internal quotation marks omitted). 28 The “stringent” compelling reasons standard applies to all filed motions and their 1 || attachments where the motion is “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case.” 2\| Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1096, 1101 (9th Cir. 2016). A 3 || motion for full or partial summary judgment is clearly such a motion. 4 The documents contain trade secrets, and keeping these trade secrets confidential 5 || 1s a compelling reason that outweighs the general public right of access. Kamakana, 447 6|| F.3d at 1179. 7 Accordingly, 8 IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff's unopposed motion to file under seal (Doc. 183) 9|| is GRANTED. The Clerk of Court shall seal Exhibits 2, 3 and 4 to Exhibit A, the 10|| Declaration of D. Elroy Fimrite, to Plaintiff EFG America, LLC’s Response to Defendant’s Statement of Undisputed Material Facts and Statement of Additional 12 || Material Facts That Preclude Summary Judgment. 13 Dated this 13th day of September, 2019. 14 15 fom ee

17 United States District Judge 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

_2-