In re Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. Securities Litigation

Background

Lead plaintiff the Pentwater Funds moved to redact and seal its motion for class certification and certain supporting exhibits. The defendants—Rio Tinto plc, Rio Tinto Limited, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, and Arnaud Soirat—separately moved to keep the redacted information and sealed exhibits confidential.

The court stated that judicial documents are generally presumed to be available to the public. It considered whether the materials were judicial documents, the strength of that presumption, and countervailing interests that could justify sealing. The parties did not dispute that the materials were public records subject to that presumption. The court emphasized that class certification is an important stage in a securities class action because it affects defendants and absent class members and provides guidance to the public and legal community.

Ruling

The court granted in part and denied in part the sealing motions.

The court granted the request to keep Exhibits D through K under seal. Those exhibits were emails that, at this stage, had limited value to people monitoring the federal courts and were not expected to directly affect an adjudication. They also identified apparently innocent third parties and included some commercially sensitive information and trade secrets.

The court denied the request to seal Exhibits 1 and 3—the memorandum supporting class certification and its accompanying declaration—and Exhibit L, which was an arbitration ruling. The court found that the commercial information in Exhibits 1 and 3 appeared dated, and the defendants had not explained how it remained commercially sensitive or what harm disclosure would cause. The court permitted names of individuals to be redacted from Exhibits 1 and 3, but not the quoted statements attributed to them. The court also recognized that protecting the confidentiality of arbitration can be an important countervailing interest, but concluded that this interest did not automatically require the arbitration-related information to remain sealed, particularly because the information was highly relevant to class certification.

Effect of the Order

The court stayed the order for seven days, until November 3, 2023, to allow the parties to identify any overlooked basis for continued sealing. Without a further submission, the plaintiff was directed to publicly file Exhibits 1 and 3 and Exhibit L by November 8, 2023, but not before November 6, with only the limited redactions allowed by the order. The clerk was directed to close the two sealing motions.