Gautreaux v. Exel Inc. of La.

Full title: JOHN GAUTREAUX v. EXEL INC. OF LOUISIANA, ET AL

Court: UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA LAFAYETTE DIVISION

Date published: Feb 21, 2014

CIVIL ACTION NO. 11-1445 (W.D. La. Feb. 21, 2014)

Opinion

CIVIL ACTION NO. 11-1445

02-21-2014

JOHN GAUTREAUX v. EXEL INC. OF LOUISIANA, ET AL

C. MICHAEL HILL

JUDGE HAIK

MAGISTRATE JUDGE HILL

MEMORANDUM RULING

Pending before the Court is the Motion for Protective Order [rec. doc 119] filed by Sears. The motion was heard on January 30, 2014. The parties were ordered to confer and thereafter to notify the Court of the specific portions of "The 5 Star Professional Guidelines" ("Guidelines") that Sears contended should be sealed and/or which parts the plaintiff agreed should be sealed. The parties were then ordered to furnish any parts of the document to which the parties could not agree to the Court for in camera inspection.

The Court has been informed that Sears contends the entire document should be sealed and the plaintiff contends that no part of the document should be sealed. The Court has reviewed the entire document, in camera. For those reasons set out below, the Motion to seal the document entitled "The 5 Star Professional Guidelines"is DENIED.

FRCP 26 (c) provides that the Court may, for good cause, issue an order requiring that a trade secret or other confidential research, development, or commercial information not be revealed or be revealed only in a specified way.

As the Court recognized in Premier Dealer Services, Inc. v. Duhon, 2013 WL 5720354, (E.D.La., 2013), however,

Rule 26(c) . . . contains a requirement that good cause be shown to support the issuance of a protective order, providing that "the burden is upon the movant to show the necessity of its issuance, which contemplates a particular and specific demonstration of fact as distinguished from stereotyped and conclusory statements." In re Terra Int'l, Inc., 134 F.3d 302, 306 (5th Cir.1998).

At 3.

Quite simply, Sears has failed to meet that burden here. Guidelines contains no confidential research, development or commercial information. The Guidelines are simply instructions for delivery personnel and deals with delivery instructions and instructions to personnel on customer relations.

Sears has failed to show good cause, and the Motion to Seal is therefore denied.

February 21, 2014, Lafayette, Louisiana.

__________

C. MICHAEL HILL

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE