Opinion
Case No. 1:11-cv-01273 LJO BAM
03-06-2013
GERAWAN FARMING, INC., Plaintiff, v. REHRIG PACIFIC COMPANY, Defendant.
ORDER GRANTING RENEWED REQUEST
TO SEAL DOCUMENTS
(Docs. 85 & 87)
On March 1, 2013, the Court denied Plaintiff Gerawan Farming, Inc.'s ("Plaintiff's") request to file certain documents under seal because Plaintiff did not articulate a compelling reason for doing so. See Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass'n, 605 F.3d 665, 678-79 (9th Cir. 2010) (there must be a compelling reason to seal documents filed in connection with a dispositive motion). However, the Court allowed Plaintiff to renew its request to seal if it could explain how disclosure of the information to be sealed could be used for improper purposes. See id. at 679 n.6. (a compelling reason to seal documents may exist if the documents could be used for improper purposes).
On March 5, 2013, Defendant Rehrig Pacific Company ("Defendant") filed a response to the Court's order. Defendant asserts that the documents Plaintiff sought to seal include a proprietary report created from Defendant's accounting database that includes a description of every sale of the products at issue in this case. The sales description identifies (1) the name of the customer; (2) the dates on which the customer made its purchase; (3) the number of units purchased by the customer; and (4) the sales price paid by the customer. Defendant insists that any disclosure of this information would cause it significant competitive harm because its competitors would be able to learn the identities of Defendant's customers and the prices they paid.
The Court finds that there are compelling reasons to seal this information. The "public interest in understanding the judicial process" is minimal where, as here, the information to be sealed consists entirely of financial records that play a tangential role, at best, in the resolution of this case. Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 n.6. In contrast, the potential for inflicting concrete competitive harm to Defendant is real; the information to be sealed contains sensitive financial data that could be used against Defendant by its competitors. Thus, after weighing the relevant factors, the Court concludes that the renewed request to seal certain documents should be GRANTED. The Clerk of Court is DIRECTED to file "Exhibit L to the Declaration of Shannon S. King in Support of Gerawan Farming, Inc.'s Opposition to Defendant Rehrig Pacific Company's Motion for Summary Judgment" under seal.
Plaintiff relies on this information for a very limited purpose. (See Doc. 80, Pl.'s Statement of Genuine Issues of Material Fact, ¶¶ 25, 33.)
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Lawrence J. O'Neill
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE