Edgewood Partners Insurance Center v. PPD Development, L.P.
- Figueredo
- 1:22-cv-06957
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Edgewood Partners Insurance Center v. PPD Development, Judge Figueredo granted a motion to seal commercially sensitive business information submitted with a summary-judgment motion.
The parties and members of the public seeking access to the sealed consulting-agreement and fee-calculation information.
What happened
In Edgewood Partners Insurance Center v. PPD Development, PPD Development filed a motion for summary judgment and asked to seal or redact information and exhibits supporting that motion. The material concerned the parties’ consulting agreement and fee calculations.
The plaintiff said the material was confidential, proprietary business information and that disclosure could cause competitive harm. The court found that protecting this information outweighed the public’s interest in seeing it.
Judge Valerie Figueredo granted the motion to seal and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion at docket entry 23.
The detailed version
- Edgewood Partners Insurance Center v. PPD Development, L.P. · No. 1:22-cv-06957
- Figueredo
- Nov. 22, 2022
Background
PPD Development filed a motion for summary judgment and a related motion to seal or redact certain information and exhibits submitted in support of that motion. The information included discussions of the parties’ consulting agreement and fee-calculation information. The plaintiff asked that the information remain sealed and described it as confidential, proprietary business information whose disclosure could create a significant risk of competitive harm.
Court’s Analysis
The court noted that courts in the Southern District of New York routinely allow commercially sensitive business and financial information to be sealed or redacted to protect confidential business interests. Applying the standard established by the Second Circuit in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co., the court concluded that the plaintiff’s interest in keeping the information confidential outweighed the public’s interest in access to the sealed material.
Ruling
Judge Valerie Figueredo granted the motion to seal at ECF No. 23. The court directed the Clerk of Court to terminate that motion. The opinion did not decide the pending motion for summary judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.