Solar Junction Corporation v. Chung
- Katherine Failla
- 1:17-cv-09478
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Solar Junction v. Chung, Judge Failla granted a request to restrict public access to an unredacted arbitration award.
Solar Junction Corporation, IQE plc, the individual defendants, the court, and the public, because the unredacted arbitration award was authorized to be viewable only by the court and the parties.
What happened
Solar Junction Corporation v. Chung was one of two related cases involving Solar Junction Corporation, IQE plc, and individual defendants. The defendants planned to file a final arbitration award with motions in the related cases.
Solar Junction asked that the award be filed under seal and that a redacted version be made public. The defendants said they did not believe the information qualified for sealing but sought permission because an arbitration confidentiality agreement required them to protect information Solar Junction identified as confidential.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the application. She allowed the unredacted award to be filed so that only the court and the parties could view it, and directed that the order also apply to the related case identified as No. 17 Civ. 9478.
The detailed version
- Solar Junction Corporation v. Chung · No. 1:17-cv-09478
- Katherine Failla
- Mar. 27, 2020
Background
Solar Junction Corporation brought related actions involving IQE plc and individual defendants Seokjae Chung, Kalyan Nunna, Rodney Pelzel, Howard Williams, and Robert Yanka. The defendants' counsel told the court that IQE's motion to confirm an arbitration award and the individual defendants' motion to dismiss were due on March 27, 2020. The motions were to include the Final Award of the London Court of International Arbitration.
Sealing request
Solar Junction took the position that the Final Award should be filed under seal under a protective order and confidentiality agreement from the now-concluded arbitration between Solar Junction and IQE. Solar Junction proposed redactions for a public version. The defendants stated that they did not believe the proposed information met the court's requirements for sealing, noting that some material came from previously published articles, dissertations, and issued United States patents. They nevertheless asked for permission to file the entire unredacted award under seal because the arbitration agreement required them to avoid disclosing information Solar Junction identified as confidential.
Ruling
Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the application. The court allowed the Final Award, in unredacted form, to be filed so that it was viewable only by the court and the parties. The order also applied to No. 17 Civ. 9478 and was to be docketed in that case. The opinion does not decide the parties' underlying dispute, the motion to confirm the arbitration award, or the motion to dismiss.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.