Berkley Assurance Company v. Hunt Construction Group, Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:19-cv-02879
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Berkley Assurance v. Hunt Construction, Judge Furman temporarily granted Hunt’s request to seal exhibits, reserving whether sealing would continue.
Hunt Construction Group, Inc. and Berkley Assurance Company, concerning the temporary sealing of exhibits filed in their federal lawsuit.
What happened
Berkley Assurance Company v. Hunt Construction Group, Inc. concerns Hunt’s request to file certain exhibits under seal while opposing Berkley’s motion for summary judgment. The exhibits included a construction agreement, deposition transcripts, underwriting guidelines, and emails about insurance coverage.
Hunt said the materials contained confidential business, financial, contractual, underwriting, and coverage information. Some documents had been designated confidential by Hunt and others by Berkley under the parties’ confidentiality order.
Judge Jesse M. Furman temporarily granted the sealing request. He said the Court would decide whether to keep the materials sealed when deciding the underlying motion and directed Berkley to submit any letter about continued sealing by December 11, 2019.
The detailed version
- Berkley Assurance Company v. Hunt Construction Group, Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-02879
- Jesse Furman
- Dec. 6, 2019
Background
Defendant Hunt Construction Group, Inc. asked for permission to file eight exhibits under seal in support of its opposition to plaintiff Berkley Assurance Company’s motion for summary judgment. The request relied on the parties’ Joint Confidentiality Agreement and Order and the court’s rules for civil cases.
The requested materials were:
- Exhibit 17: a construction management agreement between South Florida Stadium, LLC and Hunt for the Hard Rock Stadium project. - Exhibits 18 through 20: deposition transcripts of corporate representatives for Berkley and Hunt. - Exhibit 23: Berkley’s underwriting guidelines for its PERFORM insurance policies. - Exhibits 24 through 27: emails between Berkley and Hunt concerning Berkley’s handling of Hunt’s requests for insurance coverage for claims involving an active lawsuit against Hunt.
Hunt stated that the materials had been produced or created during discovery and designated confidential under the parties’ order. Hunt described Exhibit 17 as a confidential contract containing sensitive information about a multi-million-dollar construction project. It described Exhibits 18 through 20 as containing sensitive business and financial information, and Exhibits 23 through 27 as containing Berkley’s sensitive business information and communications about insurance coverage.
Court’s action
The Court temporarily granted Hunt’s letter motion to file the materials under seal. The order did not finally decide whether the materials would remain sealed when the Court considered the underlying summary-judgment motion. The Court allowed Berkley to submit a letter addressing whether the materials should remain sealed by December 11, 2019, and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF 81.
Judge Jesse M. Furman’s order addressed only the temporary sealing request. The opinion text does not decide Berkley’s summary-judgment motion or the parties’ underlying dispute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.