Oliver v. Meow Wolf, Inc

District Court, D. New Mexico·Decided April 25, 2023·No. 1:20-cv-00237·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO LAUREN ADELE OLIVER,

Plaintiff,

v. Civ. No. 20-237 KK/SCY

MEOW WOLF, INC., et al.,

Defendants.

ORDER ON JOINT CONSOLIDATED MOTION TO KEEP CERTAIN EXHIBITS UNDER SEAL

Before the Court is the parties’ Joint Consolidated Motion to Keep Certain Exhibits Under Seal (Docs. 546, 547) (“Motion”), filed April 11, 2023. Having considered the Motion, the record, and the relevant law, and being otherwise sufficiently advised, the Court FINDS that the Motion is well-taken in part and it is hereby GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as follows. “Courts have long recognized a common-law right of access to judicial records.” Mann v. Boatright, 477 F.3d 1140, 1149 (10th Cir. 2007). “Although this right is not absolute, there is a strong presumption in favor of public access … particularly … where the district court use[s] the sealed documents to determine litigants’ substantive legal rights.” United States v. Pickard, 733 F.3d 1297, 1302 (10th Cir. 2013) (citations and quotation marks omitted). [T]he presumption in favor of access to judicial records may be overcome where countervailing interests heavily outweigh the public interests in access. The burden is on the party seeking to restrict access to show some significant interest that outweighs the presumption.

Colony Ins. Co. v. Burke, 698 F.3d 1222, 1241 (10th Cir. 2012) (citation and quotation marks omitted). Nevertheless, “where the documents play only a negligible role in the performance of Article III duties, the weight of the presumption is low and amounts to little more than a prediction of public access absent a countervailing reason.” Riker v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 315 F. App’x 752, 755 (10th Cir. 2009) (unpublished) (quotation marks omitted).1 “[T]he district court, in exercising its discretion, must weigh the interests of the public, which are presumptively paramount, against those advanced by the parties.” Pickard, 733 F.3d at 1302 (quotation marks omitted). “Whether a trial court exercises sound discretion will be based

on the facts and circumstances of the individual case and the weighing of the parties’ interests.” Riker, 315 F. App’x at 755. The district court must also “consider whether selectively redacting just the … sensitive, and previously undisclosed, information from the sealed … documents and then unsealing the rest” would adequately protect the privacy interests at stake. Pickard, 733 F.3d at 1304. The parties filed the present Motion in response to the Court’s Order Denying Motions to Seal Without Prejudice and Setting Deadline (Doc. 542), filed March 28, 2023. In that Order, the Court denied ten of the parties’ motions to seal without prejudice to each designating party filing a single motion to seal addressing all at-issue information and exhibits in accordance with the

declaration requirement in paragraph 11 of the Protective Order (Doc. 56) entered in this case on October 22, 2020. (Doc. 542 at 2.) The Court further directed that any such motion should address (1) the designating party’s present interest in keeping the at-issue information and exhibits sealed from public view at this juncture vis-à-vis the public’s strong interest in having access to judicial records (and in light of any of the Court’s prior rulings in this case, as applicable); and (2) whether selectively redacting just the sensitive, and previously undisclosed, information from the sealed documents and then unsealing the rest would adequately protect the privacy interests at stake.

(Id. (emphasis in original).) The Court indicated that it would “keep the at-issue material temporarily sealed on the docket pending its consideration of any such [m]otions” but that if a

1 See United States v. Austin, 426 F.3d 1266, 1274 (10th Cir. 2005) (unpublished decisions are not binding precedent in the Tenth Circuit but may be cited for their persuasive value.) designating party failed to file a motion as ordered, the Court would “direct the unsealing of the exhibits that have not been addressed as required.” (Id.) In the present Motion, the parties first indicate that they no longer seek to seal ten of the at-issue exhibits. (Doc. 546 at 1 & n.2.) There are three pleadings that the parties filed under seal solely to preserve the confidentiality of one or more of these ten exhibits: (a) Defendants’ Motion

for Partial Summary Judgment Dismissing Plaintiff’s Claim of Violation of the Visual Artist Rights Act (Docs. 371, 372); (b) Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Limiting Remedies Available for Plaintiff’s Copyright Infringement Claim (Doc. 444); and, (c) Plaintiff’s Response [to] Defendants’ Motion to Exclude Expert Opinion Testimony of G. James Daichendt (Docs. 447, 448). With respect to each of these pleadings, the Court hereby ORDERS the party or parties that filed the pleading to file a notice of withdrawal of the pleading as filed in the public record with alleged confidential exhibits excluded (i.e., Docs. 371, 448), within ten (10) days of entry of this Order. The Court further directs the Clerk to UNSEAL each of these pleadings as previously filed under seal (i.e., Doc. 372, 444, 447).

Next, the parties ask the Court to seal two exhibits in their entirety, pointing out that these exhibits “are detailed financial statements including complete information on what Meow Wolf, Inc. has spent in each year on … all … facets of their cutting-edge immersive art business.” (Doc. 546 at 2; Doc. 546-1.) The Court agrees that “such competitively sensitive information is appropriately sealed.” (Doc. 546 at 2.) The Court therefore GRANTS the Motion insofar as it asks the Court to keep these exhibits—Exhibits F and G to Defendants’ Motion to Exclude the Expert Opinions of Russell W. Mangum III (Docs. 389-6, 389-7)—under seal, although the Court may revisit this determination if future proceedings materially alter the balance between Defendants’ and the public’s competing interests. Cf. Pickard, 733 F.3d at 1302 (“Consistent with [the] presumption that judicial records should be open to the public, the party seeking to keep records sealed bears the burden of justifying that secrecy, even where, as here, the district court already previously determined that those documents should be sealed.”). Finally, the parties seek leave to file twelve exhibits under seal, and to file redacted versions of these exhibits in the public record. (Doc. 546 at 3.) The parties contend that their proposed

redactions “are narrowly tailored to protect the parties’ non-public financial information and to protect nonparties’ privacy yet permit the public to understand the exhibits.” (Id.) The Court has reviewed the proposed redactions and makes the following findings: • Exhibit H to Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Contract and Related Claims is excerpted from the Preliminary Expert Report of Marianne L. DeMario. (Doc. 362-8.) The parties have properly supported the proposed redactions to this exhibit, with the following exceptions. The proposed redactions to the table on page 4 are inappropriate because the redacted sums have already been publicly disclosed on pages 6 to 7 of the redacted version of Exhibit CC to the parties’ Motion.2 (Doc. 546-2 at 4; Doc. 547-2 at 4;

Doc. 547-3 at 6-7); see Mann, 477 F.3d 1149 (fact that information appeared to have been previously publicly disclosed undermined party’s privacy concerns).

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Related

United States v. Austin
426 F.3d 1266 (Tenth Circuit, 2005)
Mann v. Boatright
477 F.3d 1140 (Tenth Circuit, 2007)
Riker v. Federal Bureau of Prisons
315 F. App'x 752 (Tenth Circuit, 2009)
United States v. Pickard
733 F.3d 1297 (Tenth Circuit, 2013)
Colony Insurance Co. v. Burke
698 F.3d 1222 (Tenth Circuit, 2012)