City of Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System v. Reckitt Benckiser…
City of Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System v. Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc
- P. Castel
- 1:20-cv-10041
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 20
In City of Sterling Heights v. Reckitt Benckiser, Judge Castel approved added protections for Indivior’s confidential discovery materials.
The plaintiffs and defendants in the action, non-party Indivior Inc., and people or entities who receive discovery materials covered by the protective order.
What happened
City of Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System v. Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc is a class action in which the parties jointly requested additional protections for confidential information from non-party Indivior Inc.
The supplemental order limits who may see materials labeled “Confidential” or “Highly Confidential,” requires secure handling, restricts use to this lawsuit, and provides procedures for challenging designations, filing materials under seal, and returning or destroying materials. It also addresses inadvertently disclosed privileged information and says the protections continue after the case ends.
The court entered the supplemental stipulated protective order. Judge Castel’s order does not decide the parties’ underlying claims or defenses.
The detailed version
- City of Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System v. Reckitt Benckiser… · No. 1:20-cv-10041
- P. Castel
- Sept. 16, 2022
Background
The parties in this class action asked the court to approve a supplemental third-party protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). The proposed order concerns confidential, proprietary, or private information that non-party Indivior Inc. might produce or reproduce during discovery. It supplements, and does not reduce, the protections in a June 29, 2022 protective order.
Main Protections
The order creates “Confidential” and “Highly Confidential” designations for discovery materials. Materials may include documents, deposition testimony, exhibits, interrogatory responses, and responses to requests for admission. The order permits highly confidential treatment for specified types of nonpublic information, including proprietary business information, certain communications with the Food and Drug Administration, pricing and product-development information, and undisclosed patent-application information.
People who receive protected material generally may disclose it only to specified persons and only as reasonably necessary to prosecute or defend the action. Those persons include counsel and support staff, certain party representatives and employees, vendors, mediators, witnesses, experts, consultants, insurers’ counsel, and the court. Some recipients must sign a written agreement promising to follow the order. Highly confidential material receives additional access limits, including limits for certain current or former employees and witnesses connected with Reckitt Benckiser Group, Indivior, or related entities.
The materials may be used only for this lawsuit. Recipients must protect them from unauthorized disclosure, report unauthorized disclosures, try to retrieve improperly disclosed copies, and request their return or destruction. The order also provides that an inadvertent disclosure of attorney-client privileged or attorney-work-product material does not by itself waive the applicable protection, subject to the governing federal rules.
Sealing and Challenges
A confidentiality designation does not automatically permit filing material under seal. A party must obtain a further court order addressing the specific material, and a sealing request must address the applicable standards and controlling authority. Parties and non-parties may challenge confidentiality designations, but disputed material must be treated as highly confidential while the dispute is pending unless the objection is withdrawn or the court rules otherwise.
After the action finally ends, recipients generally must make commercially reasonable efforts to return or destroy confidential and highly confidential materials and certify that they have not retained copies or derived materials. Counsel may keep archival copies of specified litigation records and work product, but those copies remain subject to the order. The court retains jurisdiction to enforce the order and impose appropriate sanctions for contempt.
Ruling and Effect
The court ordered, “IT IS SO ORDERED,” entering the supplemental stipulated protective order. Judge Kevin Castel’s ruling governs discovery-related confidentiality and privilege issues; it does not resolve the merits of the class action or decide liability.
Read the full 20-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.