B.M. v. Gonzalez

Background

The plaintiff, identified in the opinion as Z.O., is a plaintiff in the current action and in an earlier related proceeding involving events at the Union Avenue IRA, described as a state-run group home for people with developmental disabilities. The current complaint alleges that staff members and supervisors failed to provide appropriate care to prevent a fatal bowel impaction and that the alleged mistreatment may have been retaliation for the plaintiff’s participation in the earlier proceeding.

Much of the discovery from the earlier proceeding was marked “Confidential.” The confidentiality order in that proceeding limited disclosure to the court, the parties, their lawyers, witnesses, experts, and support personnel directly involved in that proceeding. Because the current case includes different parties, the existing order did not permit the plaintiff to provide those materials to defendants in the current case.

Request and ruling

The plaintiff asked the court to modify the earlier confidentiality order so that confidential documents and testimony could be produced to defendants in the current action. The plaintiff requested that the materials remain marked “Confidential” and receive protection under the qualified protective order governing discovery in the current case. The opinion states that the defendants in the current case did not consent to or object to the application. It also states that L.K., the sister and legal guardian of one plaintiff from the earlier proceeding, consented to the production.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer granted the request to modify the confidentiality order. The court also granted the motion to seal limited redactions in Exhibit 2 attached to the letter-motion, pending at Docket 497. The ruling permitted the sharing of the protected materials while maintaining confidential treatment under the current case’s protective order.