Valelly v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:19-cv-07998
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 9
In Valelly v. Merrill Lynch, Judge Caproni granted an application to seal or redact materials supporting Sarah Valelly’s class-certification motion.
Sarah Valelly, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, non-party Bank of America, N.A., and members of the public seeking access to the class-certification materials.
What happened
Valelly v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated concerns a request about materials Sarah Valelly submitted to support her motion asking the court to certify a class. The materials included briefing, deposition excerpts, exhibits, and other documents.
Merrill Lynch and non-party Bank of America, N.A. asked to seal or redact information involving Bank of America’s interest-rate methods and financial modeling, as well as Merrill Lynch’s cash and account information. Valelly ultimately took no position on the requests.
Judge Valerie Caproni granted the application. The order does not state separately which materials were sealed and which were redacted.
The detailed version
- Valelly v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated · No. 1:19-cv-07998
- Valerie Caproni
- Mar. 14, 2022
Background
Sarah Valelly and Merrill Lynch jointly moved for permission to file under seal or in redacted form materials Valelly submitted in support of her motion for class certification. The request followed an earlier order approving procedures for handling sealing requests. The materials included Valelly’s memorandum, deposition excerpts, exhibits, a conference transcript, discovery responses, and an expert report.
Non-party Bank of America, N.A., referred to as BANA in the filing, also sought protection for information it had designated confidential or highly confidential under a protective order. Merrill Lynch and BANA identified three general categories of information: BANA’s methods and factors for setting interest rates; financial analyses concerning the effects of rate decisions; and Merrill Lynch information about cash, account balances, swept funds, and account numbers.
Parties’ Positions
Merrill Lynch and BANA argued that the information was not publicly shared, remained sensitive to their businesses, and could cause competitive harm if obtained by competitors. They said BANA’s rate-setting methods were still in use and that Merrill Lynch’s disaggregated cash and account information was used for business operations and analysis.
Valelly’s filing stated that there is a high standard for restricting access to court documents, particularly in a class action. It questioned whether some information was sufficiently current or proprietary to justify protection. After defense counsel represented that the rate-setting methods remained in use and that disclosure would harm Merrill Lynch and BANA, Valelly took no position on the requests.
Ruling
Judge Valerie Caproni granted the application. The order does not provide an item-by-item explanation of which materials were sealed or redacted, and it does not separately identify the precise treatment of each exhibit. The ruling was about access to documents filed in connection with class certification; the opinion text does not decide whether the proposed class should be certified or resolve the underlying claims.
Disposition
Application granted.
Read the full 9-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.