PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc.
- John Koeltl
- 1:20-cv-03699
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
PDV USA v. Interamerican Consulting: Judge Lehrburger denied PDV USA’s requests to seal information and limit an exhibit’s pages.
PDV USA’s proposed redactions and Interamerican’s filing of the responses and objections were affected; the court denied both requests.
What happened
In PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc., PDV USA asked to redact information from discovery materials and related court filings. It said the information concerned a Department of Justice investigation, legal strategies, and third-party privacy interests.
The court denied the request to seal, finding that PDV USA had not shown a basis meeting Second Circuit standards. The court also denied PDV USA’s request to require Interamerican to file only selected pages of its responses and objections.
Judge Robert W. Lehrburger entered the order on May 7, 2024.
The detailed version
- PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc. · No. 1:20-cv-03699
- John Koeltl
- May 7, 2024
Background
PDV USA filed a letter motion seeking permission to redact limited information from its responses to interrogatories, excerpts of its deposition transcript, and letter motions filed by PDV USA and Interamerican. PDV USA said the proposed redactions concerned details of a Department of Justice investigation, including the substance of meetings, meeting dates, participants’ identities, and the number of meetings. It argued that disclosure could reveal confidential information, legal strategies, and third-party personal information. Interamerican opposed the request to seal.
PDV USA separately asked the court to direct Interamerican to file only pages 1, 12–14, and 19 of the responses and objections, rather than the complete document. PDV USA said only those pages were relevant to Interamerican’s motion to compel, but Interamerican declined to limit the exhibit.
Rulings
The court denied the request to seal because PDV USA had not demonstrated a basis for protection that satisfied Second Circuit standards. The court stated that the number and dates of the meetings, the identities of participants, and the general subject matter of the meetings did not reveal confidential information. The court also denied the request to limit Interamerican’s filing to the specified pages.
Judge Robert W. Lehrburger signed the order on May 7, 2024.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.