Hazari v. County of Santa Clara

Opinion

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 CYRUS HAZARI, Case No. 19-cv-04392-BLF

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S 9 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO FILE UNDER SEAL 10 COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, et al., [Re: ECF No. 90, 92] 11 Defendants.

12 13 Before the Court are Plaintiff’s administrative motions to file under seal, filed in connection 14 with his motion to set aside order. ECF 90, 92. Defendants did not submit any response to Plaintiff’s 15 motions. Having reviewed Plaintiff’s submissions and applicable sealing law, the Court GRANTS 16 Plaintiff’s requests to seal. 17 I. LEGAL STANDARD 18 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records and 19 documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City and Cnty. of Honolulu, 20 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597 21 & n.7 (1978)). Consequently, access to motions and their attachments that are “more than 22 tangentially related to the merits of a case” may be sealed only upon a showing of “compelling 23 reasons” for sealing. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101–02 (9th Cir. 24 2016). Filings that are only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed upon a lesser showing 25 of “good cause.” Id. at 1097. In addition, in this district, all parties requesting sealing must comply 26 with Civil Local Rule 79-5. That rule requires, inter alia, the moving party to provide “the reasons 27 for keeping a document under seal, including an explanation of: (i) the legitimate private or public 1 restrictive alternative to sealing is not sufficient.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(1). 2 Further, Civil Local Rule 79-5 requires the moving party to provide “evidentiary support 3 from declarations where necessary.” Civ. L.R. 79- 5(c)(2). And the proposed order must be 4 “narrowly tailored to seal only the sealable material.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(3). Further, when a party 5 seeks to seal a document because it has been designated as confidential by another party, the filing 6 party must file an Administrative Motion to Consider Whether Another Party’s Material Should be 7 Sealed. Civ. L.R. 79-5(f). In that case, the filing party need not satisfy the requirements of subsection 8 (c)(1). Civ. L.R. 79-5(f)(1). Instead, the party who designated the material as confidential must, 9 within seven days of the motion’s filing, file a statement and/or declaration that meets the 10 requirements of subsection (c)(1). Civ. L.R. 79-5(f)(3). A designating party’s failure to file a 11 statement or declaration may result in the unsealing of the provisionally sealed document without 12 further notice to the designating party. Id. Any party can file a response to that declaration within 13 four days. Civ. L.R. 79-5(f)(4). 14 II. DISCUSSION 15 Because the motion to seal pertains to a motion for relief from a nondispositive pretrial order, 16 the Court will apply the “good cause” standard. See Malig as Tr. for Malig Fam. Tr. v. Lyft, Inc., 17 No. 19-CV-02690, 2022 WL 1143360, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 31, 2022). 18 The material under consideration for sealing concerns health information that Plaintiff has 19 deemed confidential. See ECF 90, 92. The Court finds that Plaintiff has established compelling reasons 20 to seal information that would reveal confidential information about his health. See California Spine & 21 Neurosurgery Inst. v. United Healthcare Ins. Co., No. 19-CV-02417-LHK, 2021 WL 1146216, at 22 *3 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 12, 2021) (finding compelling reasons to seal personal health information of 23 patients). Additionally, the Court finds Plaintiff’s sealing requests to be narrowly tailored so that there 24 is no less restrictive alternative to redacting the information at issue. 25 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s requests to file under seal the exhibits at ECF 26 90 and ECF 92. 27 // Il. ORDER For the foregoing reasons, the Court ORDERS the exhibits filed at ECF 90 and ECF 92 to 2 remain under seal. 3 4 Dated: April 16, 2025 6 ETH LABSON FREEMAN 5 United States District Judge 8 9 10 11 a 12

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