UnifySCC v. Cody

Opinion

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 UNIFYSCC, et al., Case No. 5:22-cv-01019-BLF

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER RE: DEFENDANTS’ 9 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO SEAL 10 SARA H. CODY, et al., [Re: ECF No. 142] 11 Defendants.

12 13 Before the Court is Defendants’ Administrative Motion to Seal. ECF No. 142. For the 14 reasons described below, the Court GRANTS the motion. 15 I. LEGAL STANDARD 16 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records 17 and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City and Cnty. of 18 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 19 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). Consequently, access to motions and their attachments that are 20 “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case” may be sealed only upon a showing of 21 “compelling reasons” for sealing. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 22 1101–02 (9th Cir. 2016). Filings that are only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed 23 upon a lesser showing of “good cause.” Id. at 1097. 24 In addition, in this district, all parties requesting sealing must comply with Civil Local 25 Rule 79-5. That rule requires, inter alia, the moving party to provide “the reasons for keeping a 26 document under seal, including an explanation of: (i) the legitimate private or public interests that 27 warrant sealing; (ii) the injury that will result if sealing is denied; and (iii) why a less restrictive 1 requires the moving party to provide “evidentiary support from declarations where necessary.” 2 Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(2). And the proposed order must be “narrowly tailored to seal only the sealable 3 material.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(3). 4 II. DISCUSSION 5 Defendant County of Santa Clara (the “County”) filed Defendants’ Administrative Motion 6 to Seal on August 8, 2024. ECF No. 142. The County seeks to seal unredacted versions of 7 Exhibits identified in the Declaration of Nathan A. Greenblatt in support of the motion, which 8 were submitted in redacted form by the County in the Defendants’ Motion for Summary 9 Judgment. ECF No. 142 at 1; see ECF No. 142-1 & ECF No. 142-3. The County writes that the 10 information should be sealed because the exhibits “reflect[] employee identifying information, 11 namely employee names and personal email addresses.” ECF No. 142 at 1. Plaintiffs did not file 12 an opposition to the motion. 13 The Court finds that compelling reasons exist to seal the relevant portions of the 14 documents. Other courts have found compelling reasons to seal personally identifying 15 information, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. See, e.g., Snapkeys, 16 Ltd. v. Google LLC, No. 19-CV-02658-LHK, 2021 WL 1951250, at *3 (N.D. Cal. May 14, 2021) 17 (collecting cases); see also Stiner v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., No. 17-CV-03962- HSG, 2022 18 WL 1180214, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2022) (sealing the names and addresses of nonparty 19 family members). The majority of what the County seeks to seal includes names, addresses, 20 phone numbers, and email addresses. The remainder of what the County seeks to seal includes 21 employee identification numbers, for which there are compelling reasons to seal because 22 employee identification numbers are personally identifying information that can be used to obtain 23 other sensitive information, such as an employee’s income, leave status, exemption status, and 24 vaccination status. See, e.g., ECF No. 151; see also Regents of Univ. of California v. LTI Flexible 25 Prod., Inc., No. 3:20-CV-08686-WHO, 2021 WL 4133869, at *11 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 10, 2021) 26 (finding compelling reasons to seal employee identification numbers). Moreover, the personally 27 identifying information is not material to the merits of the motion. Thus, the Court finds 1 The Court further finds that the request to seal is “narrowly tailored to seal only the 2 sealable material.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(3). The County seeks only to seal the personally identifying 3 information described above, and no other information in the exhibits. 4 The Court rules as follows:

5 ECF or Exhibit Document Portion(s) to Seal Ruling 6 No. Exhibit 1 to List of Class Members Highlighted portions in Granted, as containing 7 Declaration of Who Did Not Apply column 2 personally identifying Michelle Quon for Other Positions information. 8 (Employee names) 9 Exhibit M to Excerpts from Highlighted portions at Granted, as containing 10 Declaration of Deposition of Guy Ctrl_0595:18 and 21; personally identifying Bryan Nuzum Ctrl_0597:21-23; information. 11 Anderson Ctrl_0599:24-0600:5; Ctrl_0617:13-14; 12 Ctrl_0626:15; Ctrl_0627:9,12,15,18,19, 13 24; 14 Ctrl_0628:12

15 (Employee names) Exhibit T to Excerpts from Highlighted portions at Granted, as containing 16 Declaration of Deposition of Terry Ctrl_0677; personally identifying 17 Bryan Chavarria Ctrl_0698:16 information. Anderson 18 (Employee names) Exhibit U to Terry Chavarria Highlighted portion on Granted, as containing 19 Declaration of Deposition Exhibit 3 page 1 and 2 personally identifying Bryan 4/26/22 information. 20 Anderson VaxJobReview (Employee name and 21 Email personal email address) Exhibit V to Terry Chavarria Highlighted portions on Granted, as containing 22 Declaration of Deposition Exhibit 5 each page personally identifying Bryan 1/6/22 information. 23 Anderson VaxJobReview (Employee name and 24 Email personal email address) Exhibit W to Terry Chavarria Highlighted portions on Granted, as containing 25 Declaration of Deposition Exhibit 7 each page personally identifying Bryan 1/12/22 information. 26 Anderson VaxJobReview (Employee name, Email personal 27 email address, cell phone I Exhibit Y to Excerpts from Highlighted portions at | Granted, as containing Declaration of Deposition of Ctrl_0770:12 personally identifying 2 Bryan Elizabeth Baluyut information. Anderson (Personal email address) 3 Exhibit Z to Elizabeth Baluyut Highlighted portion on __| Granted, as containing 4 Declaration of |Deposition Exhibit5 | page 1 personally identifying 5 Bryan 3/21/22 Email from information. Anderson Cynthia D’Amore to __| (Personal email address) 6 Elizabeth Baluyut Exhibit BB to | Elizabeth Baluyut Highlighted portion on Granted, as containing 7 Declaration of |Deposition Exhibit {pages 1 and 2 personally identifying Bryan 2/22/22 Email from information. 8 Anderson Cynthia D’Amore to (Personal email address) 9 Sonia Menzies and Elizabeth Baluyut 10 11 I. ORDER 12 For the foregoing reasons, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants’ Administrative

13 || Motion to Seal (ECF No. 142) is GRANTED.

15 Dated: August 15, 2024 16 fapiufracnaer ETH LABSON FREEMAN United States District Judge

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28