Tan v. Quick Box, LLC

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedMarch 2, 2023
Docket3:20-cv-01082
StatusUnknown

This text of Tan v. Quick Box, LLC (Tan v. Quick Box, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tan v. Quick Box, LLC, (S.D. Cal. 2023).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 LEANNE TAN, an individual, on behalf Case No.: 20-cv-1082-LL-DDL of herself and all others similarly 12 situated, 13 ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S Plaintiff, MOTIONS TO SEAL 14 v. 15 KONNEKTIVE REWARDS, LLC, et

16 al., [Dkt. Nos. 258, 264] 17 Defendants. 18 19 Before the Court are two Motions for Leave to File Documents Under Seal 20 (the “Motions to Seal”) by Plaintiff Leanne Tan (“Plaintiff”). Dkt. Nos. 258, 264. 21 The Konnektive Defendants and the Quick Box Defendants (collectively, 22 “Defendants”) join. See Dkt. No. 267. For the reasons stated below, the Motions 23 to Seal are DENIED. 24 I. 25 BACKGROUND 26 In this putative consumer fraud class action, Plaintiff alleges Defendants and 27 others “scammed” her by enticing her to redeem an offer for a free trial of skin care 28 products, only to charge her, unwittingly, for the full price of the products and 1 ongoing installments of the same. See generally Dkt. No. 89. In Plaintiff’s case, 2 the alleged scam began with a text message that appeared to be from Amazon. 3 See id. Plaintiff alleges she was duped by means of the text message into signing 4 up to receive a sample of skin cream for only the price of shipping – less than 5 $5.00 – but that ultimately Defendants charged her more than $170.00 for products 6 she neither wanted nor consented to buy. See id. Plaintiff has moved to certify a 7 class of similarly aggrieved consumers, supported by her deposition testimony 8 about the text message she received. See Dkt. Nos. 229, 229-4 (under seal). 9 On January 4, 2023, the Konnektive Defendants moved for evidentiary 10 sanctions against Plaintiff, reporting that Plaintiff had spoliated her cell phone and 11 with it, the “fake text message” she allegedly received. Dkt. No. 254 (the 12 “Spoliation Motion”). The Quick Box Defendants joined the motion. Dkt. No. 255. 13 Defendants seek an order precluding Plaintiff from testifying, whether by 14 declaration or at trial, about the contents of the text messages that were allegedly 15 lost. Dkt. No. 260 at 6. Plaintiff opposed the Spoliation Motion, Dkt. No. 259, and 16 concurrently moved to seal Exhibits 1 and 4 to her opposition, as well as portions 17 of her opposition brief that quote from or reveal the contents of those exhibits. Dkt. 18 No. 258. 19 On February 2, 2023, Plaintiff moved for terminating sanctions, alleging that 20 Quick Box’s CEO, Stephen Adelé, “perjured himself” in declarations before the 21 District Court, undermining the judicial process and causing "severe[] prejudice” to 22 Plaintiff (the “Perjury Motion”). Dkt. No. 263. Plaintiff asks the Court to enter 23 default judgment against Adelé and Quick Box, LLC. See id. Plaintiff concurrently 24 moved to file 18 exhibits to the Perjury Motion under seal.1 Dkt. No. 264. 25

26 27 1 The Quick Box Defendants’ motion to file documents related to their opposition to the Perjury Motion under seal will be addressed in a separate order. See Dkt. 28 1 II. 2 LEGAL STANDARDS 3 “[T]he courts of this country recognize a general right to inspect and copy 4 public records and documents, including judicial records and documents.” Nixon 5 v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597 (1978). “Unless a particular court 6 record is one ‘traditionally kept secret,’ a ‘strong presumption in favor of access’ is 7 the starting point.” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th 8 Cir. 2006) (citing Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th 9 Cir. 2003)). “‘The presumption of access is ‘based on the need for federal courts, 10 although independent—indeed, particularly because they are independent—to 11 have a measure of accountability and for the public to have confidence in the 12 administration of justice.’” Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 13 1092, 1096 (9th Cir. 2016) (citation omitted). 14 A party seeking to seal a judicial record bears the burden of overcoming the 15 strong presumption of access. Foltz, 331 F.3d at 1135. The showing required to 16 meet this burden depends upon whether the documents to be sealed relate to a 17 motion that is “more than tangentially related to the merits of the case.” Ctr. for 18 Auto Safety, 809 F.3d at 1102. Where the underlying motion is “more than 19 tangentially related to the merits,” there must be “compelling reasons” to overcome 20 the public’s right of access. Id. at 1096–98. Where the underlying motion does not 21 surpass the tangential relevance threshold, materials may be sealed only upon a 22 showing of “good cause.” Id. Under either standard, limited redactions are to be 23 favored over the wholesale sealing of documents. See Whitecryption Corp. v. 24 Arxan Techs., Inc., No. 15-cv-00754-WHO, 2016 WL7852471, at *2 (N.D. Cal. 25 Mar. 9, 2016) (noting that records should be redacted “in the narrowest way 26 possible to preserve their confidential information while protecting the general right 27 of the public to access court records”). 28 / / / 1 III. 2 DISCUSSION 3 Before proceeding with its analysis, the Court takes the opportunity to 4 address parties’ briefing – or lack thereof – on the Motions to Seal. Although each 5 of Plaintiff’s filings was styled as a “motion for leave to file documents under seal,” 6 Plaintiff does not, in fact, want permission to file any documents under seal. See 7 Dkt. Nos. 258, 264. Instead, Plaintiff states in each of her single-page filings that 8 none of the materials at issue qualify for sealing, but that pursuant to the operative 9 protective order, she was required to file them under seal. See id. Plaintiff seeks 10 “relief from the requirements of the Protective Order.” Id. “[T]o avoid repetitive 11 briefing,” Plaintiff incorporated by reference a previously filed motion to seal and 12 stated that “for the same reasons articulated in that motion, the materials in this 13 motion . . . should not be required to be filed under seal.” Dkt. No. 258 at 2 14 (referencing Dkt. No. 230); Dkt. No. 264 at 2 (same). While this approach may 15 have spared Plaintiff time and effort, it did not have the same benefit for the Court. 16 Plaintiff is reminded that in seeking relief from the Court, it is her responsibility to 17 provide the Court with the legal and factual bases in support thereof. See CivLR 18 7.1.f. The Court is not obligated to scour the docket for similar motions Plaintiff (or 19 any other party) may have filed and graft the parties’ arguments into the present 20 dispute, regardless of any factual or legal overlap. The Court cautions Plaintiff – 21 and all parties – that going forward, motions will be decided on the moving papers 22 only, and the failure to provide the Court with complete briefing may result in denial 23 of the requested relief. See CivLR 7.1.d. 24 As to Defendants, their brief in support of sealing is replete with the rote 25 incantation that the documents concern “confidential” and “proprietary” business 26 information, without further analysis and unsupported by a declaration or other 27 evidence. See generally Dkt. No. 267. Such “perfunctory submission[s]” do not 28 assist the Court, who must then “decide [the] complex issue of sealing with no 1 adversarial briefing” from those litigants who are in the best position to explain why 2 their information meets the Ninth Circuit’s standard for sealing. See SiteLock LLC 3 v. GoDaddy.com LLC, No. CV-19-02746-PHX-DWL, 2021 WL 1574660, at *14 (D. 4 Ariz. Apr. 22, 2021) (denying motion to seal); see also AngioScore, Inc. v. TriReme 5 Med., Inc., No. 12-CV-3393 YGR, 2014 WL 2886246, at *2 (N.D. Cal.

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Tan v. Quick Box, LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tan-v-quick-box-llc-casd-2023.