Massachusetts Bay Insurance Co. v. Seneca Insurance Company Inc

District Court, S.D. New York·Decided September 23, 2024·No. 1:21-cv-09184·Unknown

Opinion

— ae ee eee mS Aa Pa a fo atNe Ad eee POCA OMT Baa? USDC SDNY BOC PEELS = A □□ ae 4 & deuce re seer Bo aed i □□ > & “ i bdetalva J □□□ g~ % ELECTRONICALLY FILED [I i THe” Be JARED J, LIMBACH BE RIN TES erent te Direct Dink 973.200.6386 DONNELLY MINTER & KELLY, LLC i 1 Av OEE Or, of o of Ved i □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□ BM ean |) September 16, 2024 Via ECF | 30 Ui) sane PP piped Mor, The Honorable Colleen McMahon, U.S.D.J. yf yt 7 ofler fi □□ 500 Pearl Street, Room 2550 SK □ (a pel et □□□□ United States Courthouse fa La Ma BO KX □□ New York, New York 10007 i. nd @ kb □ Re: Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co., et al. v. Seneca Ins. Co., Inc., et al. , 4 □ Case No. 1:21-cv- foo# □□□□□□ □□ ase No 1:21-cv-09184 Leth. | KAR ). f= □□ Our File No. 349.202 Ce feos FY é ii he wy f 8 wn Dear Judge McMahon: Prk Sphnler 4 □□ □□□ □ ee LIK bow Our firm represents Plaintiffs Massachusetts Bay Insurance Company and Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. (collectively, "Plaintiffs") in the above-referenced declaratory judgment □ action. In furtherance of our letter of September 4, 2024 (ECF No. 155) and the Court's

Memorandum Endorsement of September 5, 2024 (ECF No. 156), the parties have met and conferred regarding redactions to portions of the parties' pending motions for summary judgment. Although the parties were able to reach consensus on certain issues, differences of opinion remain regarding whether portions of the record can or should be sealed. To that end, please accept this correspondence in lieu ofa more formal submission in support of Plaintiffs' request to seal portions of the motion record. PROCEDURAL HISTORY By way of background, on June 28, 2022, the Honorable Robert W. Lehrburger, U.S.M.J. entered an Agreed Confidentiality Order (the "Confidentiality Order") with the consent of all parties (ECF No, 72). Among other things, the Order permitted parties to designate documents Af eh os FL ahi □□□ □□□ bene > he YOK Meip PVE 6 aK f Zo hg th deed PEE ot wtb Liye Uh RL Casey 7) 163 Madison Avenue, Suite st A yt Eee — eee 40 Wall Street, 28th Floor Morristown, NJ 07960 . be hee fs New York, New York 10005 ‘Tel: 973.200.6400 AE AK bf peewee ‘Tel: 242.537.9125 - fe we ety yd CP OES, . La Fax: 973.200.6460] &- ee □□□ TT f f / Fax: 212.537.9198 dinklawgroup.com A 4 fe AE gad Lf) dmkiawgroup.com

? < Hon. Colleen McMahon, U.S.D.J. September 16, 2024 MINTER & KELLY, LLC Page 2

and information as "Confidential" during the course of discovery. The Order also included the following provisions: 7. Filing of Confidential Information. Any party wishing to file a document designated as Confidential Information in connection with a motion, brief, or other submission to the Court shall do so under seal. Any such filing must comply with the Federal and Local Rules and Procedures, including the "Rules for Redactions and Filing Under Seal" contained in the Appendix to Honorable Lehrburger's Individual Practices in Civil Cases which are incorporated herein. 8. Privileged Documents. Privileged documents are not addressed by this Order except that documents that are privileged as to one party but not as to another shall be produced to the party to whom the document ts not privileged, and the document may be designated as Confidential Information. Among the discovery exchanged in this declaratory judgment action are claim notes and status reports pertaining to the underlying personal injury case. Initially, the claim notes and reports containing privileged and confidential information regarding defense strategy for the underlying action were redacted out of consideration for the privileges and rights of the underlying defendants.! However, at the request of Defendant Seneca Insurance Co. ("Seneca") (ECF No. 82), the Court entered two Orders dated September 13 and 27, 2022 (ECF Nos. 97 & 100) compelling Plaintiffs to remove certain redactions, thereby giving the insurance defendants access to Plaintiffs’ full claim file with minimal redactions. It is these unredacted documents pertaining to the underlying action that are the subject of this letter motion. Both Plaintiffs and Seneca have e-filed redacted motions and separately

' Notably, at the time this discovery was requested exchanged, the underlying action remained ongoing, and the underlying plaintiffs, Ri Xian Wang and Mei Ying Lin (collectively, the "Claimants") were involved in this declaratory judgment action as interested parties.

AS Hon. Colleen McMahon, U.S.D.J. MINTER & KELLY, LLC see ine 3

submitted unredacted versions to the Court pursuant to the Confidentiality Order and the Court's September 5, 2024 Memo Endorsement. For the reasons that follow, Plaintiffs respectfully request the entry of an Order pursuant to Federal Civil Rule 5.2 sealing those portions of the motion record that encroach upon the privileges and protections of the underlying defendants, as well as the Plaintiffs and their agents and representatives. LEGAL ARGUMENT THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THIS CASE REQUIRE THE SEALING OF PORTIONS OF THE MOTION RECORD TO PROTECT THE PRIVILEGES AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF THE UNDERLYING DEFENDANTS. Although our courts have recognized "a general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents," that right "is not absolute" (Nixon v Warner Comm'cns., Inc., 435 US 589, 597-98 [1978]). As the Supreme Court has made clear, "[e]very court has supervisory power over its own records and files, and access has been denied where court files might have become a vehicle for an improper purpose" (id. at 598; see also In re Applications to Unseal 98 CR 1101(ILG), 568 Fed Appx 68, 69 [2d Cir 2014] [Summary Order] ["The right of access is, of course, qualified, and documents may be sealed in some cases."]). Moreover, the Court has held that "the decision as to access is one best left to the sound discretion of the trial court, a discretion to be exercised in light of the relevant facts and circumstances of the particular case" (Nixon, 435 US at 599). "The Second Circuit has articulated a three-step process for determining whether documents should be placed under seal" (JUS v Petrucci, 2024 WL 3518520, at *1 [SDNY July 23, 2024], quoting Church Ins. Co. v ACE Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 2010 WL 3958791, at *2 [SDNY Sept. 23, 2010]). The Court must first determine whether the documents are "judicial documents,”

AS Hon. Colleen McMahon, U.S.D.J. MINTER & KELLY, LLC see aed

"documents that are 'relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process™ (id., quoting Lugosch v Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F3d 110, 119 [2d Cir. 2006]). The Court must then consider "the weight of the presumption of access and the public's First Amendment right to access the documents" (id.). Finally, the Court "must balance competing considerations’ against the presumption of full public access" (id., quoting Lugosch, 435 F3d at 120). Put differently, the Court must determine whether sealing "is essential to preserve higher values and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest" (Bernstein v Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP, 814 F3d 132, 144 [2d Cir 2016], quoting Jn re N.Y. Times Co., 828 F2d 110, 116 [2d Cir 1987]). In the instant matter, there is no dispute that the items in question are "judicial documents" subject to a presumption of access. The question before the Court is whether that presumption is outweighed by the countervailing interests of privilege and confidentiality.

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Nixon v. Warner Communications, Inc.
435 U.S. 589 (Supreme Court, 1978)
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435 F.3d 110 (Second Circuit, 2006)
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655 F.3d 126 (Second Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Doe
568 F. App'x 68 (Second Circuit, 2014)