Rech v. Alter Trading Corporation

Background

Under Local Rule 5.6, the parties filed a joint motion concerning continued sealing of an email string that had been temporarily sealed in connection with Alter Trading Corporation’s motion for summary judgment. The parties agreed that the document should remain sealed because it contained information about the defendant’s employees.

Court’s analysis

The court applied the qualified public right of access to judicial records. It concluded that the specific names of other employees identified in the email string did not need to be made public because the interests supporting confidentiality outweighed the public’s interest in disclosure of those names.

The court distinguished the employee names from the rest of the document. It found no showing that the remaining information was competitively sensitive business information or otherwise entitled to protection. The email string had also been used in connection with the court’s exercise of its constitutional judicial power in deciding whether the defendant was entitled to summary judgment. Because redacting only the nonparty employees’ names was practical, the court held that the public’s access interest outweighed the defendant’s broader confidentiality interest.

Disposition

The court granted the Joint Motion Regarding Continued Sealing. It directed the clerk to keep ECF No. 34 sealed, but required the email string to be refiled publicly with redactions limited to the names of nonparty employees.