Nacarino v. Chobani, LLC
- Edward Chen
- 3:20-cv-07437
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Nacarino v. Chobani, LLC, Judge Tse granted and denied parts of Chobani’s request to keep discovery information from public view.
Chobani, LLC, Elena Nacarino, the parties’ discovery materials, and members of the public seeking access to those materials.
What happened
In Nacarino v. Chobani, LLC, Chobani asked the court to keep certain exhibits and excerpts from a joint discovery letter confidential. The court found that the information concerned confidential research, development, and commercial information, and that public disclosure could cause specific harm.
The court granted Chobani’s request to seal exhibits A through C and specified lines and a footnote in the January 23, 2023, letter. It denied the request to seal a line identifying one Chobani employee as a food scientist because Chobani did not show specific harm from disclosure.
Judge Alex G. Tse ordered Elena Nacarino, who filed the joint letter, to submit a revised version with the approved redactions by February 13, 2023.
The detailed version
- Nacarino v. Chobani, LLC · No. 3:20-cv-07437
- Edward Chen
- Feb. 6, 2023
Background
Chobani asked the court to seal exhibits A through C to the parties’ January 23, 2023, joint discovery-dispute letter. It also asked to seal lines 14–16 on page 2, lines 28–30 on page 3, footnote 3 on page 4, and line 36 on page 4.
Ruling
The court granted the request to seal exhibits A through C and the specified excerpts in the January 23 letter, concluding that they revealed confidential research, development, and commercial information. The court also found that Chobani had shown specific prejudice or harm that could result from public disclosure, applying Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c)(1)(G) and the standard cited from Phillips ex rel. Estates of Byrd v. General Motors Corp.
The court denied the request to seal line 36 on page 4. That line identifies one of Chobani’s employees as “a food scientist,” and the court found that Chobani had not identified specific prejudice or harm from publicly disclosing that information.
Required Filing
The court ordered Elena Nacarino, the party who filed the January 23 joint discovery-dispute letter, to file a revised redacted version by February 13, 2023.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.