PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc.

Background

PDV USA submitted a letter motion concerning Exhibit 5 to Interamerican's opposition to PDV USA's motion for sanctions. Exhibit 5 was a confidential internal audit memorandum summarizing an investigation by Citgo Audit Services into payments PDV USA made to Interamerican under the consulting agreement at issue.

The opposition included seven documents that PDV USA had produced in discovery and designated confidential under the case's protective order. After conferring with Interamerican, PDV USA agreed to remove the confidentiality designation from six exhibits and sought to keep only Exhibit 5 under seal. PDV USA did not object to unsealing the redacted sentence in the opposition that quoted from or referred to Exhibit 5. Interamerican opposed the request.

Court's analysis

The court considered the standards governing access to judicial documents. It noted that filing a document with the court does not automatically make it a judicial document subject to public access. The court also explained that documents used only marginally in a court's work may receive a weaker presumption of public access, while confidential business information may justify protecting material from disclosure.

The application argued that Exhibit 5 described PDV USA's internal audit processes and procedures and contained no indication of outside circulation. The court's order, as reproduced in the opinion text, states that the requirements for sealing were met only with respect to four bulleted items on the page ending in “-4759.”

Disposition

Judge Robert W. Lehrburger ordered the defendant to refile Docket No. 219, Exhibit 5, with the redactions removed as necessary to conform to the court's ruling. The order therefore preserved sealing only for the four identified bulleted items and required removal of the other redactions. The reproduced text does not use a separate “granted in part” or “denied in part” formula.