Hoffman v. Transworld Systems Incorporated

Opinion

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

7 ESTHER HOFFMAN; SARAH DOUGLASS; CASE NO. 2:18-cv-01132 TSZ ANTHONY KIM; and IL KIM and DARIA KIM, 8 husband and wife and the marital community comprised thereof, on behalf of themselves and on STIPULATED MOTION AND 9 behalf of others similarly situated, ORDER TO SEAL PLAINTIFFS’ CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE TO 10 Plaintiffs, DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO 11 DISMISS ON FILE WITH THE vs. COURT AT DOCKET NO. 109 12 TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INCORPORATED; 13 PATENAUDE AND FELIX, A.P.C.; MATTHEW CHEUNG, and the marital community comprised of 14 MATTHEW CHEUNG and JANE DOE CHEUNG, 15 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2003-1, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2004-1, 16 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2004-2, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2005-1, 17 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2005-2, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2005-3, 18 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2006-1, 19 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2006-2, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2006-3, 20 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2006-4, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2007-1, 21 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2007-2, 22 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2007-3, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2007-4, 23 National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust, and DOES ONE THROUGH TEN, 24 Defendants, 25

H &D G ,P.S. 1 I. INTRODUCTION 2 COME NOW Plaintiffs, by and through undersigned counsel, and hereby respectfully 3 request the Court seal Plaintiffs’ Consolidated Response to Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss on 4 file with the Court at docket no. 109. Plaintiffs’ counsel has conferred with Defendants 5 regarding this matter and all counsel stipulate to the sealing of this record. 6 II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 7 Plaintiffs filed Plaintiffs’ Consolidated Response to Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss on 8 December 7, 2020. The document is on file with the Court at docket no. 109. The PDF version 9 of the document was converted from a Microsoft Word document that contained comments of 10 Plaintiffs’ counsel that were inserted in the editing process. When the document was converted 11 to PDF, the comments of counsel were transferred to the PDF and can be read in the electronic 12 version that is on file with the Court. Plaintiffs’ counsel noticed the error and immediately filed 13 a praecipe and a version of the Response with the comments removed. (Dkt. Nos. 110, 110-1). 14 Plaintiffs are now filing this motion to seal the version of their response filed at docket no. 109 15 so that their attorneys’ work product in the form of editing notes is not publicly available. 16 III. CERTIFICATION OF CONFERRAL 17 Pursuant to Local Rule 5(g)(3)(A), Plaintiffs’ counsel has conferred with all other 18 parties, and all parties have stipulated to sealing docket no. 109. 19 IV. ARGUMENT 20 A party seeking to keep documents sealed in a court proceeding bears the burden of 21 providing a “compelling reason” for doing so that is supported by facts. Wacom Co., Ltd. v. 22 Hanvon Corp., 2008 WL 623631, at *1 (W.D. Wash. March 4, 2008) (citing Hagestad v. 23 Tragesser, 49 F.3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995)). The “work-product” doctrine is generally a 24 “compelling reason” justifying a motion to seal. WatchGuard Techs., Inc. v. iValue 25 Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd., No. C15-1697-BAT, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132483, at *7 (W.D. Wash. 26 Aug. 18, 2017).

H &D G ,P.S. 1 Because Plaintiffs’ Response at docket no. 109 contains attorney work product that was 2 accidentally filed in the Court record and a copy without the attorney work product has been 3 filed, good cause exists to seal docket no. 109. All parties have agreed to the sealing of this 4 document. 5 V. CONCLUSION 6 For these reasons, Plaintiffs, with stipulation of all parties, respectfully ask the Court to 7 seal docket no. 109. 8 DATED this 10th of December 2020. 9 Attorneys for Plaintiffs: 10 LEONARD LAW BERRY & BECKETT, PLLP 11 /s/ Sam Leonard /s/ Guy Beckett 12 Sam Leonard, WSBA #46498 Guy W. Beckett, WSBA #14939 1001 4th Ave., Suite 3200 1708 Bellevue Avenue 13 Seattle, WA 98154 Seattle, WA 98122 14 Telephone: (206) 486-1176 Telephone: (206) 441-5444 Facsimile: (206) 458-6028 Facsimile: (206) 838-6346 15 E-mail: sam@seattledebtdefense.com E-mail: gbeckett@beckettlaw.com

16 HENRY & DeGRAAF, P.S. NORTHWEST CONSUMER LAW CENTER 17

18 /s/ Christina Henry /s/ Amanda Martin Christina L. Henry, WSBA #31273 Amanda N. Martin, WSBA #49581 19 787 Maynard Ave. S, 936 North 34th Street, Suite 300 Seattle, WA 98104 Seattle, WA 98103 20 Telephone: (206) 330-0595 Telephone: (206) 805-0989 21 Facsimile: (206) 400-7609 Facsimile: (206) 805-1716 E-mail: chenry@HDM-legal.com E-mail: Amanda@NWCLC.org 22

H &D G ,P.S. 1 Stipulated to by: 2 By:_/s Marc Rosenberg______________ By: /s/ Justin H. Homes______________ 3 Marc Rosenberg, WSBA No. 31034 Bryan C. Shartle, Pro Hac Vice 4 LEE SMART James K. Schultz, Pro Hac Vice 1800 One Convention Place Justin H. Homes, Pro Hac Vice 5 701 Pike St. SESSIONS, ISRAEL & SHARTLE, LLC Seattle, WA 98101-3929 Lakeway II 6 Telephone: (206) 624-7990 3850 North Causeway Blvd, Suite 200 mr@leesmart.com Metairie, LA 70002-7227 7 Telephone: (504) 828-3700 8 Attorney for Patenaude and Felix, A.P.C., Facsimile: (504) 828-3737 and Matthew Cheung bshartle@sessions.legal 9 jhomes@sessions.legal

10 By: /s/ Stephen G. Skinner_____________ Stephen G. Skinner, WSBA #17317 11 ANDREWS ▪ SKINNER, P.S. 12 645 Elliott Ave. W., Suite 350 Seattle, WA 98119 13 Telephone: 206-223-9248 Facsimile: 206-623-9050 14 Email: stephen.skinner@andrews- skinner.com 15

Attorneys for Defendants Transworld Systems 16 Inc. and National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts 17

18 ORDER 19 THIS MATTER having come before the Court upon stipulation by the Plaintiffs and the 20 Defendants, the Court having reviewed and considered the stipulation and all related pleadings 21 and documents on file in this case, NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY, 22 ORDERED that the document filed under docket no. 109 be SEALED. 23 Dated this 11th day of December 2020. A 24 25 Thomas S. Zilly 26 United States District Judge

H &D G ,P.S.