Tapia v. NaphCare Inc

Opinion

7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 8 JAVIER TAPIA, 9 NO. 2:22-cv-01141-KKE Plaintiff, 10 STIPULATED MOTION TO MAINTAIN v. EXHIBIT 30 UNDER SEAL AND 11 ORDER TO SEAL NAPHCARE, INC., et al. 12 Defendants. 13 I. INTRODUCTION 14 The above-named Parties, by and through their respective counsel, jointly move this Court 15 for an Order pursuant to Local Civil Rule 5(g) to maintain under seal Exhibit 30 (Dkt. 61-30, 62, 16 62-1), previously filed with the Declaration of Ryan D. Dreveskracht in Support of Plaintiff’s 17 Discovery Motion filed on October 26, 2023, (Dkt. 61).1 The Parties hereby stipulate and agree as 18 follows: 19 1. Exhibit 30 is a subject of Plaintiff’s Motion to Overrule NaphCare Inc.’s Assertion 20 of Privilege and Compel Deposition Testimony of Dr. Elliot Wade. (Dkt. 59). 21 22 23

24 1 Plaintiff also filed Exhibit 14 under seal because it was designated by NaphCare, Inc. Confidential under the parties’ protective order (Dkt. 43). Dkt. 61-14, 62. NaphCare, Inc. has agreed to withdraw the Confidentiality designation for Exhibit 14 and the parties agrees that the exhibit may be unsealed. 25 2 under seal the above referenced exhibit until the Court has the opportunity to resolve the dispute.

3 II. LEGAL STANDARD 4 3. For non-dispositive motions, the public’s right to access to records filed before a 5 court yields if there is a “good cause.” Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 6 1180 (9th Cir. 2006). 7 III. ARGUMENT 8 4. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(B) provides that when a party notifies 9 another party of the inadvertent production of information subject to privilege, the receiving party 10 “may promptly present the information to the court under seal for a determination of the claim.” 11 Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)(B) (emphasis added). Courts have found that documents subject to

12 privilege disputes may properly be filed under sealed. WatchGuard Techs., Inc. v. iValue 13 Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd., No. C15-1697-BAT, 2017 WL 3581624, at *2 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 18, 2017) 14 (collecting cases granting motions to seal documents subject to privilege claims under the higher 15 “compelling reasons” standard); Diamond X Ranch LLC v. Atl. Richfield Co., No. 13-00570, 2016 16 WL 3176577, at *4 (D. Nev. June 3, 2016). 17 5. Here, on September 28, 2023, NaphCare, Inc. notified Plaintiff and Defendant 18 Pierce County that it was clawing back Exhibit 30 pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19 26(b)(5)(B). Dkt. 61-24. Plaintiff later submitted Exhibit 30 to the Court under seal as an exhibit 20 to a motion to compel. The parties agree that Exhibit 30 is the subject of a privilege dispute and 21 should be maintained under seal. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)(B); Diamond X Ranch LLC, 2016

22 WL 3176577, at *4. 23 24 25 2 6. On November 6, 2023, counsel for NaphCare, Inc., Plaintiff, and Pierce County

3 met and conferred via a telephonic conference. Ryan Dreveskracht appeared for Plaintiff, Kristal 4 Cowger appeared for Pierce County, and Jacob Dean and Juliana Bennington appeared for 5 NaphCare, Inc. The parties agreed it is proper and appropriate that Exhibit 30 be maintain under 6 seal. The parties further agreed to move the Court to maintain the seal via a joint stipulated motion 7 and proposed order. 8 V. CONCLUSION 9 7. For the reasons above, the Court should grant the parties’ joint stipulated motion to 10 maintain under seal Exhibit 30 (Dkt. 61-30, 62-1), which was previously filed with Declaration of 11 Ryan D. Dreveskracht in Support of Plaintiff’s Discovery Motion filed on October 26, 2023. (Dkt.

12 61). 13 8. By so stipulating, neither Plaintiff nor Defendants consent to discovery above or 14 beyond those permitted by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or this Court’s Local Civil Rules. 15 16 DATED this 7th day of November, 2023. 17 18 s/ Ryan D. Dreveskracht Ryan D. Dreveskracht, WSBA #42593 19 s/ Corinne Sebren Corinne Sebren, WSBA #58777 20 8606 35th Avenue NE, Suite L1 P.O. Box 15146 21 Seattle, WA 98115 Phone: (206) 557-7509 22 Fax: (206) 299-7690 Email: ryan@galandabroadman.com 23 corinne@galandabroadman.com

24 Attorneys for Plaintiff

25 David A. Perez, WSBA No. 43959 2 Juliana Bennington, WSBA No. 60357 Jedidiah K.R. Blake, WSBA No. 59610 3 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 4 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Telephone: 206.359.8000 5 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 E-mail: Dperez@perkinscoie.com 6 E-mail: JBennington@perkinscoie.com E-mail: JBlake@perkinscoie.com 7 Jacob Dean (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) 8 Perkins Coie LLP 1888 Century Park East, Suite 1700 9 Los Angeles, CA 90067-1721 Telephone: 310.788.3365 10 Facsimile: 310.788.3365 E-mail: JacobDean@perkinscoie.com 11 Attorneys for Defendant NaphCare, Inc. 12

13 /s Kristal M. Cowger__________________ Kristal M. Cowger, WSBA # 43079 14 Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney 930 Tacoma Avenue South, Suite 946 15 Tacoma, WA 98402-2102 Telephone: 253.798.4265 16 Email: kristal.cowger@piercecountywa.gov

17 Attorney for Defendant Pierce County 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 Pursuant to the Stipulation above, the Court hereby ORDERS that Exhibit 30 (Dkt. 61-30,

3 62-1) filed with the Declaration of Ryan D. Dreveskracht in Support of Plaintiff’s Discovery 4 Motions be maintained under seal. 5 DATED this 8th day of November, 2023. 6 7 A 8 Kymberly K. Evanson United States District Judge 9 Presented By: 10 s/ Ryan D. Dreveskracht 11 Ryan D. Dreveskracht, WSBA #42593 s/ Corinne Sebren 12 Corinne Sebren, WSBA #58777 8606 35th Avenue NE, Suite L1 13 P.O. Box 15146 Seattle, WA 98115 14 Phone: (206) 557-7509 Fax: (206) 299-7690 15 Email: ryan@galandabroadman.com corinne@galandabroadman.com 16 Attorneys for Plaintiff 17

18 s/ David A. Perez__________________ David A. Perez, WSBA No. 43959 19 Juliana Bennington, WSBA No. 60357 Jedidiah K.R. Blake, WSBA No. 59610 20 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 21 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Telephone: 206.359.8000 22 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 E-mail: Dperez@perkinscoie.com 23 E-mail: JBennington@perkinscoie.com E-mail: JBlake@perkinscoie.com 24 Jacob Dean (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) 25 1888 Century Park East, Suite 1700 2 Los Angeles, CA 90067-1721 Telephone: 310.788.3365 3 Facsimile: 310.788.3365 E-mail: JacobDean@perkinscoie.com 4 Attorneys for Defendant NaphCare, Inc. 5

6 /s Kristal M. Cowger__________________ Kristal M. Cowger, WSBA # 43079 7 Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney 930 Tacoma Avenue South, Suite 946 8 Tacoma, WA 98402-2102 Telephone: 253.798.4265 9 Email: kristal.cowger@piercecountywa.gov

10 Attorney for Defendant Pierce County 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25