Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corporation

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 6, 2025
Docket1:19-cv-09193
StatusUnknown

This text of Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corporation (Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corporation, (S.D.N.Y. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK MONTEREY BAY MILITARY HOUSING, LLC, MONTEREY BAY LAND, LLC, MEADE COMMUNITIES LLC, FORT BLISS/WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE

HOUSING LP, RILEY COMMUNITIES LLC, FORT LEAVENWORTH FRONTIER HERITAGE CIVIL ACTION NO.: 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG) (SLC) COMMUNITIES, I, LLC, FORT LEAVENWORTH

FRONTIER HERITAGE COMMUNITIES, II, LLC, OPINION AND ORDER CARLISLE/PICATINNY FAMILY HOUSING LP, BRAGG COMMUNITIES LLC, FORT DETRICK/WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER LLC, PICERNE-FORT POLK FUNDING, LLC, RUCKER COMMUNITIES LLC, STEWART HUNTER HOUSING LLC, SILL HOUSING LLC, AETC HOUSING LP, AMC WEST HOUSING LP, LACKLAND FAMILY HOUSING, LLC, and VANDENBERG HOUSING LP,

Plaintiffs,

-v-

AMBAC ASSURANCE CORPORATION, JEFFERIES MORTGAGE FINANCE, INC., JEFFERIES & COMPANY INC., JEFFERIES L.L.C., JEFFERIES GROUP LLC, DANNY RAY, and CHETAN MARFATIA,

Defendants.

SARAH L. CAVE, United States Magistrate Judge. I.INTRODUCTION Before the Court is Plaintiffs’1 renewed motion to seal or redact certain materials submitted in connection with the parties’ motions for summary judgment, which are pending

1 Plaintiffs are 18 “project entities” that operate 16 privatized military housing projects (the “Projects”) authorized under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative of 1996 (“MHPI”): Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC, Monterey Bay Land, LLC, Meade Communities LLC, Fort Bliss/White Sands Missile Range Housing LP, Riley Communities LLC, Fort Leavenworth Frontier Heritage Communities I, LLC, Fort before the Honorable Paul G. Gardephe. (ECF No. 1031 (the “Sealing Motion”); see ECF Nos. 858; 867; 874; 880; 909 (the “MSJs”)). For the reasons set forth below the Sealing Motion is GRANTED. II.BACKGROUND

The factual background of this action is set out in detail in prior decisions issued by the Honorable Paul G. Gardephe and the undersigned. See Monterey Bay Mil. Hous., LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp., No. 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG), 2024 WL 5076424 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 11, 2024) (“Monterey Bay VI”); Monterey Bay Mil. Hous., LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp., No. 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG) (SLC), 2023 WL 5498962 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 25, 2023); Monterey Bay Mil. Hous., LLC v. Ambac Assurance

Corp., No. 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG) (SLC), 2023 WL 3779338 (S.D.N.Y. May 25, 2023); Monterey Bay Mil. Hous., LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp., No. 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG) (SLC), 2023 WL 315072 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 19, 2023); Monterey Bay Mil. Hous., LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp., No. 19 Civ. 9193 (PGG) (SLC), 2021 WL 4173929 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 14, 2021); Monterey Bay I, 531 F. Supp. 3d 673.2 The Court incorporates those factual summaries and all defined terms. In connection with the MSJs filed in July and August 2024, the parties moved to seal or

redact certain documents that were part of the summary judgment record. (ECF Nos. 857; 873; 876; 908; 934; 955; 958; 964; 965; 999; 1000; 1005; 1009;). As is relevant here, Plaintiffs sought to seal three categories of documents: (1) “Sensitive Business Documents”; (2) “Military Base

Leavenworth Frontier Heritage Communities, II, LLC, Carlisle/Picatinny Family Housing LP, Bragg Communities LLC, Fort Detrick/Walter Reed Army Medical Center LLC, Picerne-Fort Polk Funding, LLC, Rucker Communities LLC, Stewart Hunter Housing LLC, Sill Housing, LLC, AETC Housing LP, AMC West Housing LP, Lackland Family Housing, LLC, and Vandenberg Housing LP. Monterey Bay Military Housing, LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp., 531 F. Supp. 3d 673, 685 n.3 (S.D.N.Y. 2021) (“Monterey Bay I”). 2 Unless otherwise indicated, all internal citations and quotation marks are omitted from case citations. Parcel Descriptions”; and (3) “Materials Related to Internal Investigations.” Monterey Bay VI, 2024 WL 5076424, at *2 (citing ECF No. 965 at 2–5)). In Monterey Bay VI, as to the Sensitive Business Documents, Judge Gardephe found that

Plaintiffs’ “failure to provide document-level justifications for sealing these hundreds of documents” prevented him from making “‘specific, on-the record findings that higher values necessitate a narrowly tailored sealing.’” Id. (quoting Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 126 (2d Cir. 2006)). Judge Gardephe permitted sealing of Sensitive Business Documents only to the extent that they contain “personal identification and financial information . . . , such

as home addresses, phone numbers, [‘PII’] and banking information[,]” and otherwise denied Plaintiffs’ requests to seal these materials without prejudice. Id. at *2 & n.1. As to the Military Base Parcel Descriptions, Judge Gardephe found “that the privacy and security interests of the military and individual service members living on base outweigh any countervailing public interest in access to this information[,]” and granted Plaintiffs’ request to seal or redact this information. Id. at *3. Finally, Judge Gardephe denied Plaintiffs’ request to seal the Materials

Related to Internal Investigations, on the ground that Plaintiffs’ explanations for sealing were “conclusory, unsupported by case law, and not document-specific.” Id. at *3. Judge Gardephe permitted Plaintiffs to file a new sealing motion supported by a spreadsheet detailing for every document for which Plaintiffs sought sealing or redaction: (1) the sealing request number [the “Sealing Request”]; (2) the docket number of the sealed document; (3) the docket number of the public document; (4) the party that is seeking sealing; (5) the parent document of the document for which sealing or redaction is sought . . . ; (6) the exhibit number; (7) the location(s) of any redactions (or an indication that full sealing is sought); (8) the category of the document (e.g., sensitive medical information); (9) a description of the document; and (10) a justification for redaction or sealing that complies with the Lugosch standard. Id. at 6. In addition, Judge Gardephe cautioned that for any “document containing information that is more than a decade old, [Plaintiffs must] explain why sealing or redaction is appropriate given the stale nature of the information.” Id. On January 28, 2025, Plaintiffs filed the Sealing Motion and submitted a detailed spreadsheet (the “Spreadsheet”),3 which contains the information Judge Gardephe specified in

Monterey Bay VI for the approximately 1100 documents Plaintiffs sought to seal or redact (the “Documents”). (See ECF Nos. 1031–44).4 The vast majority of the Documents fall into the category of Sensitive Business Documents, as to which Judge Gardephe denied sealing without prejudice in Monterey Bay VI. See 2024 WL 5076424, at *2. Plaintiffs seek to seal or redact a smaller number of Documents on the ground that they contain Military Base Parcel Descriptions, PII, or banking information.

With the Sealing Motion, Plaintiffs also submitted declarations from: (1) William E. Culton, Secretary and General Counsel of Corvias Military Living, LLC, which is affiliated with the Corvias Plaintiffs;5 (2) Eric Roberson, Vice President of the Managing Member of each of the Michaels Plaintiffs;6 and (3) Leslie S. Cohn, Executive Vice President of Balfour Beatty Communities, which is affiliated with the BBC Plaintiffs.7 (ECF Nos. 1031-1; 1031-2; 1031-3 (the “Declarations”)). In

3 Plaintiffs provided a native-format version of the Spreadsheet to Chambers. (ECF No. 1031 at 1 n.1). 4 Plaintiffs withdrew their request to seal or redact as to 81 documents. (ECF Nos. 1031 at 1 n.1; 1045). 5 The Corvias Plaintiffs include: Meade Communities LLC, Riley Communities, LLC, Airborne Communities LLC (f/k/a Bragg Communities, LLC), Johnson Housing, LLC (f/k/ Picerne-Fort Polk Funding, LLC), Novosel Communities, LLC (f/k/a Rucker Communities LLC), and Sill Housing LLC. (ECF No. 1031-1 ¶ 2).

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