Skorupska v. 525 West 52 Property Owner LLC

Background

Bernadette Skorupska, who represented herself, responded to the City of New York defendants’ request to redact or seal documents that she had filed with her opposition to the defendants’ summary-judgment motions. The City sought redactions to exhibits 1, 3, 4, 8, 15, 17, 38, 48, 49, and 54. Skorupska agreed to proposed redactions for exhibits 3, 4, 17, and 32, and asked that exhibits 43 and 51 be sealed because they contained Social Security numbers, passports, and tax documents.

Skorupska opposed redactions to exhibits 1, 8, 15, 38, 48, 49, and 54. She stated that these exhibits contained her own and her son’s personal information, that the information was already available through other filings, and that she did not want it redacted. The court understood that the parties agreed to the redactions for exhibits 3, 4, 17, and 32 and to sealing exhibits 43 and 51 because those exhibits contained sensitive information belonging to third parties.

Court’s analysis

The court discussed Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, which generally limits the information that may be publicly filed about Social Security numbers, taxpayer-identification numbers, birth dates, minors, and financial-account numbers. The court also noted that a person who fails to redact or seal that person’s own protected information waives Rule 5.2’s protections for that information.

Because Skorupska insisted that she did not want her or her son’s sensitive information redacted, and because much of that information was already available in other public filings, the court allowed some of it to be filed without redaction. The court distinguished full Social Security numbers, which it said did not appear in Skorupska’s other filings and therefore could not be publicly filed in full.

Disposition

Judge Failla ordered the City to file a complete set of Skorupska’s exhibits. Exhibits 3, 4, 17, and 32 were to be filed with the redactions agreed upon by the parties. Exhibits 43 and 51 were to be filed under seal and made viewable only to the parties and the court. Exhibits 1, 8, 15, 38, 48, 49, and 54 were to be filed with all but the last four digits of Skorupska’s and her son’s Social Security numbers redacted. The City was also ordered to redact Elwira Mizgler’s address and telephone number from exhibit 8. The provided opinion text ends mid-sentence after stating that all other exhibits were to be filed, so the remainder of that instruction is unclear.