Kyle McCune v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

• Court: District Court, C.D. California
• Decided: August 6, 2025
• Docket: 2:24-cv-07890
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 SSaHrAahP SEhRaOpe LroA, WCa Fl.I BRaMr No. 281748 2 sarah@shaperolawfirm.com 100 Pine St., Ste. 530 3 San Francisco, CA 94111 4 Telephone: (415) 273-3504 Facsimile: (415) 358-4116 5 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 7 KYLE MCCUNE 8 SHEPPARD, MULLIN, RICHTER & HAMPTON LLP 9 A Limited Liability Partnership Including Professional Corporations 10 JOHN C. DINEEN, Cal Bar No. 222095 11 jdineen@sheppardmullin.com 501 West Broadway, 18th Floor 12 San Diego, California 92101-3598 13 Telephone: 619.338.6500 Facsimile: 619.234.3815 14 15 Attorneys for Defendant WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. 16 17 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 18 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 19 20 KYLE MCCUNE, an individual Case No. 2:24-CV-07890-FLA-SK 21 Plaintiff, STIPULATED PROTECTIVE 22 ORDER v. 23 WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.; and [DISCOVERY MATTER: 24 Does 1-50, inclusive REFERRED TO MAGISTRATE JUDGE STEVE 25 Defendants. KIM] 26 Assigned to: Hon. Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha 27 Courtroom 6B, 6th Floor 28 Complaint Filed: July 29, 2024 1 2 1. A. PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS 3 4 Discovery in this action is likely to involve production of confidential, 5 proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public 6 disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting this litigation may 7 be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to 8 enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The parties acknowledge that this 9 Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to 10 discovery and that the protection it affords from public disclosure and use extends 11 only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential treatment 12 under the applicable legal principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth 13 in Section 12.3 (Filing Protected Material), below, that this Stipulated Protective 14 Order does not entitle them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local 15 Rule 79-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and the standards that will 16 be applied when a party seeks permission from the court to file material under seal. 17 18 B. GOOD CAUSE STATEMENT 19 20 Good cause exists for a Protective Order because both Plaintiff and 21 Defendant’s document productions may disclose information relating to (1) private 22 bank customer information, such as account numbers; (2) Plaintiff’s Personally 23 Identifiable Information (“PII”); (3) the PII of non-party employees of Defendant; 24 (4) the confidential business practices of Defendant, which Defendant safeguards as 25 a means to ensure competitiveness in the financial industry; and (5) Defendant’s 26 confidential investigation practices relating to loss mitigation and foreclosure. See 27 Harmon v. City of Santa Clara, 323 F.R.D. 617, 623 (N.D. Cal. 2018) (identifying 28 1 privacy interests, among others when considering existence of good cause); 2 Nutratech, Inc. v. Syntech (SSPF) Int’l, Inc., 242 F.R.D. 552, 554 (C.D. Cal. 2007) 3 (recognizing trade secrets and confidential business information as legitimate 4 categories of information subject to protection). 5 6 2. DEFINITIONS 7 2.1 Action: Kyle McCune v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al., Case No. 2:24- 8 CV-07890-FLA-SK, originally filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court on July 29, 9 2024 and removed to the Central District of California on September 16, 2024. 10 2.2 Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the 11 designation of information or items under this Order. 12 2.3 “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items: information (regardless of 13 how it is generated, stored, or maintained) or tangible things that qualify for 14 protection under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), and as specified above in 15 the Good Cause Statement. 16 2.4 Counsel: Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well as 17 their support staff). 18 2.5 Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates information 19 or items that it produces in disclosures or in responses to discovery as 20 “CONFIDENTIAL.” 21 2.6 Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information, regardless 22 of the medium or manner in which it is generated, stored, or maintained (including, 23 among other things, testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced 24 or generated in disclosures or responses to discovery in this matter. 25 2.7 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter 26 pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as 27 an expert witness or as a consultant in this Action. 28 1 2.8 House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a party to this Action. 2 House Counsel does not include Outside Counsel of Record or any other outside 3 counsel. 4 2.9 Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, 5 or other legal entity not named as a Party to this action. 6 2.10 Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not employees of a 7 party to this Action but are retained to represent or advise a party to this Action and 8 have appeared in this Action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with a law firm 9 which has appeared on behalf of that party, including support staff. 10 2.11 Party: any party to this Action, including all of its officers, directors, 11 employees, consultants, retained experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their 12 support staffs). 13 2.12 Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces Disclosure or 14 Discovery Material in this Action. 15 2.13 Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide litigation 16 support services (e.g., photocopying, videotaping, translating, preparing exhibits or 17 demonstrations, and organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or medium) 18 and their employees and subcontractors. 19 2.14 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is 20 designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” 21 2.15 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery 22 Material from a Producing Party. 23 24 3. SCOPE 25 The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not only 26 Protected Material (as defined above), but also (1) any information copied or 27 extracted from Protected Material; (2) all copies, excerpts, summaries, or 28 1 compilations of Protected Material; and (3) any testimony, conversations, or 2 presentations by Parties or their Counsel that might reveal Protected Material. 3 Any use of Protected Material at trial shall be governed by the orders of the 4 trial judge. This Order does not govern the use of Protected Material at trial. 5 6 4. DURATION 7 Even after final disposition of this litigation, as defined in Section 13 (FINAL 8 DISPOSITION), the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Order shall remain 9 in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise in writing or a court order 10 otherwise directs. 11 12 5. DESIGNATING PROTECTED MATERIAL 13 5.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in Designating Material for Protection. 14 Each Party or Non-Party that designates information or items for protection under 15 this Order must take care to limit any such designation to specific material that 16 qualifies under the appropriate standards. The Designating Party must designate for 17 protection only those parts of material, documents, items, or oral or written 18 communications that qualify so that other portions of the material, documents, 19 items, or communications for which protection is not warranted are not swept 20 unjustifiably within the ambit of this Order. 21 Mass, indiscriminate, or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations 22 that are shown to be clearly unjustified or that have been made for an improper 23 purpose (e.g., to unnecessarily encumber the case development process or to impose 24 unnecessary expenses and burdens on other parties) may expose the Designating 25 Party to sanctions. 26 If it comes to a Designating Party’s attention that information or items that it 27 designated for protection do not qualify for protection, that Designating Party must 28 promptly notify all other Parties that it is withdrawing the inapplicable designation. 1 5.2 Manner and Timing of Designations. Except as otherwise provided in 2 this Order (see, e.g., second paragraph of Section 5.2(a) below), or as otherwise 3 stipulated or ordered, Disclosure or Discovery Material that qualifies for protection 4 under this Order must be clearly so designated before the material is disclosed or 5 produced. 6 Designation in conformity with this Order requires: 7 (a) for information in documentary form (e.g., paper or electronic 8 documents, but excluding transcripts of depositions or other pretrial or trial 9 proceedings), that the Producing Party affix at a minimum, the legend 10 “CONFIDENTIAL” (hereinafter “CONFIDENTIAL legend”), to each page that 11 contains protected material. If only a portion or portions of the material on a page 12 qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearly identify the protected 13 portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings in the margins). 14 A Party or Non-Party that makes original documents available for 15 inspection need not designate them for protection until after the inspecting Party has 16 indicated which documents it would like copied and produced. During the 17 inspection and before the designation, all of the material made available for 18 inspection shall be deemed “CONFIDENTIAL.” After the inspecting Party has 19 identified the documents it wants copied and produced, the Producing Party must 20 determine which documents, or portions thereof, qualify for protection under this 21 Order. Then, before producing the specified documents, the Producing Party must 22 affix the “CONFIDENTIAL legend” to each page that contains Protected Material. 23 If only a portion or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the 24 Producing Party also must clearly identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making 25 appropriate markings in the margins). 26 (b) for testimony given in depositions that the Designating Party identify 27 the Disclosure or Discovery Material on the record, before the close of the 28 deposition all protected testimony. 1 (c) for information produced in some form other than documentary and 2 for any other tangible items, that the Producing Party affix in a prominent place on 3 the exterior of the container or containers in which the information is stored the 4 legend “CONFIDENTIAL.” If only a portion or portions of the information 5 warrants protection, the Producing Party, to the extent practicable, shall identify the 6 protected portion(s). 7 5.3 Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent 8 failure to designate qualified information or items does not, standing alone, waive 9 the Designating Party’s right to secure protection under this Order for such material. 10 Upon timely correction of a designation, the Receiving Party must make reasonable 11 efforts to assure that the material is treated in accordance with the provisions of this 12 Order. 13 14 6. CHALLENGING CONFIDENTIALITY DESIGNATIONS 15 6.1 Timing of Challenges. Any Party or Non-Party may challenge a 16 designation of confidentiality at any time that is consistent with the Court’s 17 Scheduling Order. 18 6.2 Meet and Confer. The Challenging Party Shall initiate the dispute 19 resolution process under Civil Local Rule 37-1 et seq. 20 6.3 The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding shall be 21 on the Designating Party. Frivolous challenges, and those made for an improper 22 purpose (e.g., to harass or impose unnecessary expenses and burdens on other 23 parties), may expose the Challenging Party to sanctions. Unless the Designating 24 Party has waived or withdrawn the confidentiality designation, all parties shall 25 continue to afford the material in question the level of protection to which it 26 is entitled under the Producing Party’s designation until the Court rules on the 27 challenge. 28 1 7. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 2 7.1 Basic Principles. A Receiving Party may use Protected Material that 3 is disclosed or produced by another Party or by a Non-Party in connection with 4 this Action only for prosecuting, defending, or attempting to settle this Action. 5 Such Protected Material may be disclosed only to the categories of persons and 6 under the conditions described in this Order. When the Action has been 7 terminated, a Receiving Party must comply with the provisions of Section 13 below 8 (FINAL DISPOSITION). 9 Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at 10 a location and in a secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the 11 persons authorized under this Order. 12 7.2 Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items. Unless 13 otherwise ordered by the Court or permitted in writing by the Designating Party, a 14 Receiving Party may disclose any information or item designated 15 “CONFIDENTIAL” only to: 16 (a) the Receiving Party’s Outside Counsel of Record in this Action, as 17 well as employees of said Outside Counsel of Record to whom it is reasonably 18 necessary to disclose the information for this Action; 19 (b) the officers, directors, and employees (including House Counsel) of 20 the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action; 21 (c) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom 22 disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have signed the 23 “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A); 24 (d) the Court and its personnel; 25 (e) court reporters and their staff; 26 (f) professional jury or trial consultants, mock jurors, and Professional 27 Vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have 28 signed the “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A); 1 (g) the author or recipient of a document containing the information or a 2 custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew the information; 3 (h) during their depositions, witnesses, and attorneys for witnesses, in 4 the Action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary provided: (1) the deposing 5 party requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit A hereto; and (2) 6 they will not be permitted to keep any confidential information unless they sign the 7 “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A), unless otherwise 8 agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the Court. Pages of transcribed 9 deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material may 10 be separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except 11 as permitted under this Stipulated Protective Order; and 12 (i) any mediator or settlement officer, and their supporting personnel, 13 mutually agreed upon by any of the parties engaged in settlement discussions. 14 15 8. PROTECTED MATERIAL SUBPOENAED OR ORDERED PRODUCED 16 IN OTHER LITIGATION 17 If a Party is served with a subpoena or a court order issued in other litigation 18 that compels disclosure of any information or items designated in this Action as 19 “CONFIDENTIAL,” that Party must: 20 (a) promptly notify in writing the Designating Party. Such notification 21 shall include a copy of the subpoena or court order; 22 (b)promptly notify in writing the party who caused the subpoena or order 23 to issue in the other litigation that some or all of the material covered by the 24 subpoena or order is subject to this Protective Order. Such notification shall include 25 a copy of this Stipulated Protective Order; and 26 (c) cooperate with respect to all reasonable procedures sought to be 27 pursued by the Designating Party whose Protected Material may be affected. 28 1 If the Designating Party timely seeks a protective order, the Party served with 2 the subpoena or court order shall not produce any information designated in this 3 action as “CONFIDENTIAL” before a determination by the court from which the 4 subpoena or order issued, unless the Party has obtained the Designating Party’s 5 permission. The Designating Party shall bear the burden and expense of seeking 6 protection in that court of its confidential material, and nothing in these provisions 7 should be construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this Action 8 to disobey a lawful directive from another court. 9 10 9. A NON-PARTY’S PROTECTED MATERIAL SOUGHT TO BE 11 PRODUCED IN THIS LITIGATION 12 (a) The terms of this Order are applicable to information produced by a 13 Non-Party in this Action and designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such information 14 produced by Non-Parties in connection with this litigation is protected by the 15 remedies and relief provided by this Order. Nothing in these provisions should be 16 construed as prohibiting a Non-Party from seeking additional protections. 17 (b) In the event that a Party is required, by a valid discovery request, to 18 produce a Non-Party’s confidential information in its possession, and the Party is 19 subject to an agreement with the Non-Party not to produce the Non-Party’s 20 confidential information, then the Party shall: 21 (1) promptly notify in writing the Requesting Party and the Non-Party 22 that some or all of the information requested is subject to a confidentiality agreement 23 with a Non-Party; 24 (2) promptly provide the Non-Party with a copy of the Stipulated 25 Protective Order in this Action, the relevant discovery request(s), and a reasonably 26 specific description of the information requested; and 27 (3)make the information requested available for inspection by the Non- 28 Party, if requested. 1 (c)If the Non-Party fails to seek a protective order from this Court within 2 14 days of receiving the notice and accompanying information, the Receiving Party 3 may produce the Non-Party’s confidential information responsive to the discovery 4 request. If the Non-Party timely seeks a protective order, the Receiving Party shall 5 not produce any information in its possession or control that is subject to the 6 confidentiality agreement with the Non-Party before a determination by the Court. 7 Absent a court order to the contrary, the Non-Party shall bear the burden and 8 expense of seeking protection in this Court of its Protected Material. 9 10 10. UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 11 If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed 12 Protected Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this 13 Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in 14 writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its best efforts 15 to retrieve all unauthorized copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person 16 or persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of this 17 Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the “Acknowledgment and 18 Agreement to Be Bound” that is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 19 20 11. INADVERTENT PRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGED OR OTHERWISE 21 PROTECTED MATERIAL 22 When a Producing Party gives notice to Receiving Parties that certain 23 inadvertently produced material is subject to a claim of privilege or other protection, 24 the obligations of the Receiving Parties are those set forth in Federal Rule of Civil 25 Procedure 26(b)(5)(B). This provision is not intended to modify whatever 26 procedure may be established in an e-discovery order that provides for production 27 without prior privilege review. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) and 28 (e), insofar as the parties reach an agreement on the effect of disclosure of a 1 communication or information covered by the attorney-client privilege or work 2 product protection, the parties may incorporate their agreement in the stipulated 3 protective order submitted to the Court. 4 5 12. MISCELLANEOUS 6 12.1 Right to Relief. Nothing in this Order abridges the right of any person 7 to seek its modification by the Court in the future. 8 12.2 Right to Assert Other Objections. By stipulating to the entry of this 9 Protective Order, no Party waives any right it otherwise would have to object to 10 disclosing or producing any information or item on any ground not addressed in this 11 Stipulated Protective Order. Similarly, no Party waives any right to object on any 12 ground to use in evidence of any of the material covered by this Protective Order. 13 12.3 Filing Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any 14 Protected Material must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5. Protected Material 15 may only be filed under seal pursuant to a court order authorizing the sealing of the 16 specific Protected Material at issue. If a Party’s request to file Protected Material 17 under seal is denied by the court, then the Receiving Party may file the information 18 in the public record unless otherwise instructed by the court. 19 20 13. FINAL DISPOSITION 21 Final disposition shall be deemed to be the later of (1) dismissal of all claims 22 and defenses in this Action, with or without prejudice; and (2) final judgment herein 23 after the completion and exhaustion of all appeals, rehearings, remands, trials, or 24 reviews of this Action, including the time limits for filing any motions or 25 applications for extension of time pursuant to applicable law. After the final 26 disposition of this Action, within 60 days of a written request by the Designating 27 Party, each Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the Producing 28 Party or destroy such material. As used in this subdivision, “all Protected Material” 1 includes all copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries, and any other format 2 reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. Whether the Protected 3 Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving Party must submit a written 4 certification to the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, to the 5 Designating Party) by the 60 day deadline that (1) identifies (by category, where 6 appropriate) all the Protected Material that was returned or destroyed; and (2) 7 affirms that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies, abstracts, compilations, 8 summaries, or any other format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected 9 Material. Notwithstanding this provision, Counsel are entitled to retain an archival 10 copy of all pleadings, motion papers, trial, deposition, and hearing transcripts, legal 11 memoranda, correspondence, deposition and trial exhibits, expert reports, attorney 12 work product, and consultant and expert work product, even if such materials 13 contain Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute 14 Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 4 15 (DURATION). 16 17 14. Any violation of this Order may be punished by any and all appropriate 18 measures including, without limitation, contempt proceedings and/or 19 monetary sanctions. 20 21 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | Dated: August 5, 2025 2 SHAPERO LAW FIRM 3 4 By /s/ Sarah Shapero 5 SARAH SHAPERO 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 7 KYLE MCCUNE 8 9 Dated: August 5, 2025 10 SHEPPARD, MULLIN, RICHTER & HAMPTON LLP

12 13 By /s/ John C. Dineen 4 JOHN C. DINEEN

15 Attorneys for Defendant i WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.

17 18 | FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, IT IS SO ORDERED. 19 20| DATED: August 6, 2025 eo 22

23 Honorable Steve Kim United States Magistrate Judge 24 25 26 27 28 □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ -14- Case No. 2:24-cv-07890-FLA-SK

1 EXHIBIT A 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND 3 4 I, _____________________________ [print or type full name], of 5 _________________ [print or type full address], declare under penalty of perjury 6 that I have read in its entirety and understand the Stipulated Protective Order that 7 was issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California 8 on [date] in the case of Kyle McCune v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al., Case No. 9 2:24-CV-07890-FLA-SK. I agree to comply with and to be bound by all the terms 10 of this Stipulated Protective Order, and I understand and acknowledge that failure 11 to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment in the nature of 12 contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner any information 13 or item that is subject to this Stipulated Protective Order to any person or entity 14 except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order. 15 I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court 16 for the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this 17 Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after 18 termination of this action. I hereby appoint __________________________ [print 19 or type full name] of _______________________________________ [print or type 20 full address and telephone number] as my California agent for service of process in 21 connection with this action or any proceedings related to enforcement of this 22 Stipulated Protective Order. 23 Date: ______________________________________ 24 City and State where sworn and signed: _________________________________ 25 26 Printed name: _______________________________ 27 28 Signature: __________________________________