de Lacour v. Colgate-Palmolive Co.
- Kimba Wood
- 1:16-cv-08364
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In de Lacour v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., Judge Wood entered an order on plaintiffs’ request to seal class-certification materials.
The plaintiffs, the defendants, and members of the public seeking access to the court filings may be affected by the request to seal materials containing alleged confidential business information.
What happened
In de Lacour v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., the plaintiffs asked to file certain materials supporting their renewed motion for class certification under seal. The request concerned portions of one exhibit, several exhibits in full, and portions of legal papers and declarations.
The plaintiffs said the materials contained proprietary business information, including confidential sales and financial data, market and consumer research, and product formulations. They also said the requested redactions had been approved in connection with an earlier class-certification motion.
The opinion text ends with Judge Kimba M. Wood’s “SO ORDERED” notation. It does not state in words whether the request was granted or denied, so the available text does not establish the precise disposition.
The detailed version
- de Lacour v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. · No. 1:16-cv-08364
- Kimba Wood
- Feb. 25, 2020
Background
The plaintiffs—Anne de Lacour, Andrea Wright, and Loree Moran—asked to file under seal materials submitted in support of their renewed motion for class certification. The request was made under Rule 5-B of Judge Wood’s individual practices.
The Sealing Request
The plaintiffs sought to seal portions of Exhibit 2 to the declaration of Sarah N. Westcot; Exhibits 3 through 10 to that declaration in their entirety; portions of the memorandum supporting the class-certification motion; and portions of declarations by Colin B. Weir and Dr. J. Michael Dennis that quoted or referred to documents designated confidential by the defendants.
The plaintiffs stated that the proposed redactions covered proprietary business information, including confidential sales and financial data, competitively sensitive market and consumer research, and product formulations. They also stated that the materials overlapped with materials filed for an earlier class-certification motion and that Judge Ronnie Abrams had previously approved the same sealing requests after narrowing their scope.
Court Action and Disposition
The text concludes with the notation “SO ORDERED” and Judge Kimba M. Wood’s signature. However, the supplied text does not include an express statement that the request was granted, denied, or granted in part and denied in part. Accordingly, the precise disposition cannot be determined from the available opinion text.
Classification
This is a procedural order because it concerns sealing court filings, an ancillary matter rather than the merits of the underlying dispute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.