Castillo v. Albert Einstein College of Medicine Inc.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:24-cv-00984
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Castillo v. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Judge Engelmayer denied the sealing request but allowed a narrower motion to be filed.
The ruling affected plaintiff Rinaldys Castillo’s request to seal exhibits supporting class certification and permits a narrower sealing motion to be filed.
What happened
Rinaldys Castillo asked the court to allow exhibits supporting the request to certify a class to be filed under seal. The request said the exhibits contained identifying information about people affected by the lawsuit and noted that defendants had labeled some materials confidential.
The court reviewed the exhibits and found that many did not contain the identifying information described in the request. It therefore denied the motion to seal.
Judge Engelmayer allowed Castillo to file a new, more narrowly focused sealing motion. The court said that any new motion must explain specifically why sealing is needed and seek sealing only for exhibits covered by those reasons.
The detailed version
- Castillo v. Albert Einstein College of Medicine Inc. · No. 1:24-cv-00984
- Paul Engelmayer
- Dec. 1, 2025
Background
Plaintiff Rinaldys Castillo asked for permission to electronically file under seal exhibits attached to Jeremiah Frei-Pearson’s declaration supporting the motion for class certification. The request stated that the exhibits included identifying information for individuals affected by the lawsuit. It also stated that defendants had designated some of the materials as confidential, while Castillo took no position on whether those designations were proper and reserved the right to challenge them.
The filing replaced an earlier motion to seal. According to the filing, the earlier request had sought permission to file materials designated confidential by defendants under seal in their entirety, while the new request was intended to accurately describe the relief sought.
Court’s ruling
The court denied the motion to seal. After reviewing the exhibits, the court found that, contrary to Castillo’s representation, many of them did not contain identifying information for individuals affected by the lawsuit.
The court granted Castillo leave to refile a more narrowly tailored motion to seal. It directed that any new motion state with particularity the reasons for sealing, without disclosing confidential information, and seek to seal only the exhibits to which those reasons apply. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer entered the order on December 1, 2025.
Effect of the ruling
The order addressed only the request to file exhibits under seal. It did not decide the motion for class certification or the underlying claims described in the filing.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.