Energy Transportation Group, Inc. v. Borealis Maritime Limited
- Analisa Torres
- 1:21-cv-10969
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Energy Transportation Group v. Borealis Maritime: Judge Torres granted renewed sealing requests protecting sensitive third-party business information and ordered an unredacted order filed publicly.
Borealis Maritime Limited, Energy Transportation Group, Inc., third-party business interests described as sensitive, and members of the public seeking access to the court’s filings.
What happened
In Energy Transportation Group, Inc. v. Borealis Maritime Limited, Borealis asked to keep certain materials from the parties’ summary-judgment filings under seal. Energy Transportation Group, Inc. agreed that its response could remain partly sealed if Borealis’s request was granted.
The court found that the materials were court records but that the public-access presumption was moderate because the court had not relied on them in deciding the summary-judgment motions. It also found that the materials involved important, sensitive business interests of third parties and that the requested redactions were narrowly tailored.
Judge Analisa Torres granted Borealis’s renewed sealing request and granted the parties’ joint request to keep Energy Transportation Group’s response partly sealed for the same reasons. Because Borealis’s request did not cover material previously redacted from the summary-judgment order, the court directed that order to be refiled publicly without redactions.
The detailed version
- Energy Transportation Group, Inc. v. Borealis Maritime Limited · No. 1:21-cv-10969
- Analisa Torres
- Aug. 7, 2025
Background
The court had previously decided the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment in an order dated July 8, 2025. That order also ruled on requests to seal materials connected with the summary-judgment motions. For sealing requests that were denied, the court gave Borealis until August 1, 2025, to submit a renewed request consistent with the court’s directions.
Borealis filed a narrower renewed sealing request on August 1. Energy Transportation Group, Inc. responded on August 6 in a partly redacted letter. The parties agreed that, if Borealis’s request was granted, Energy Transportation Group’s unredacted response should remain sealed for the same reasons.
Court’s analysis
The court treated the materials as judicial documents—records filed with the court that are subject to a presumption of public access. It found that the presumption was moderate because, although Energy Transportation Group had cited and discussed the materials in its summary-judgment briefing, the court had not relied on them in deciding the motions.
The court agreed that the materials implicated important and sensitive business interests of third parties. After reviewing the proposed redactions, it found that they were narrowly tailored to protect those interests.
Ruling
Judge Analisa Torres granted Borealis’s renewed sealing request, ECF No. 259, and granted the parties’ joint request to keep Energy Transportation Group’s response partly under seal, ECF No. 265, for the same reasons. Because Borealis’s renewed request did not cover material the court had redacted in the initial filing of the summary-judgment order, the court directed that order to be refiled on the public docket without redactions. The clerk was directed to terminate the motions at ECF Nos. 259 and 265.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.