Schmidt v. Standard Life Insurance Company

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JANICE SCHMIDT and JUDY A. VANN- Case No. 1:21-cv-01784-JLT-CDB EUBANKS, on behalf of themselves and all 12 others similarly situated, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ 13 Plaintiffs, REQUEST TO SEAL

14 v. (Doc. 68)

15 STANDARD INSURANCE COMPANY, ORDER DIRECTING PLAINTIFFS TO PROTECTIVE LIFE INSURANCE FILE REDACTED VERSION OF SEALED 16 COMPANY, and DOES 1 TO 50, inclusive, DOCUMENT

17 Defendants. 18 19 Pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ renewed notice and request to seal a document, 20 filed (Doc. 68) and emailed to the undersigned’s chambers on August 18, 2023, described as 21 Exhibit 14 to the Declaration of Christopher R. Pitoun in Support of Plaintiff’s Motion for Class 22 Certification, Appointment of Class Representative and Class Counsel (the “Barrett Report”). 23 The Court has considered the factors set forth in Oregonian Publ’g Co. v. U.S. Dist. Court 24 for Dist. of Or., 920 F.2d 1462 (9th Cir. 1990). The Court finds that, for the reasons stated in 25 Plaintiffs’ Notice and Request, sealing the Barrett Report serves a compelling interest. The Court 26 further finds that, in the absence of closure, the compelling interests identified by Plaintiffs would 27 be harmed. In light of Plaintiffs’ agreement to the public filing of a redacted version of the 28 Barrett Report, the Court further finds that there are no additional alternatives to sealing the 1 | document that would adequately protect the compelling interests identified by Plaintiffs. 2 Accordingly, pursuant to Local Rule 141(b) and based upon the representations contained 3 | in Plaintiffs’ Notice and Request to Seal, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Exhibit 14 to the 4 | Declaration of Christopher R. Pitoun in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for Class Certification, 5 | Appointment of Class Representative and Class Counsel (the “Barrett Report’), shall be SEALED 6 | until further order of this Court. By separate order, the Court will transmit to the Clerk of Court 7 | the unredacted version of the Memorandum for filing under seal. 8 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, by no later than August 25, 2023, Plaintiffs SHALL FILE a 9 | redacted version of the Barrett Report consistent with the redactions identified with yellow 10 | highlighting in the version of the Barrett Report emailed to the undersigned’s chambers on 11 | August 18, 2023. 12 | IT IS SO ORDERED. 'S | Dated: _ August 21, 2023 | by 14 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28