SB v. Commissioner of Social Security Administration ( 2021 )

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 SB, No. CV-20-01842-PHX-JAT 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Commissioner of Social Security Administration, 13 Defendant. 14 15 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Proceed Under 16 Pseudonym (Doc. 2). Defendant has responded and does not oppose the motion. (Doc. 12). 17 For reasons that follow, the Court will grant the motion. 18 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(a) provides that “[t]he title of the complaint must 19 name all the parties.” However, a party may proceed anonymously in judicial proceedings 20 “in special circumstances when the party’s need for anonymity outweighs prejudice to the 21 opposing party and the public’s interest in knowing the party’s identity.” Does I Thru XXIII 22 v. Advanced Textile Corp., 214 F.3d 1058, 1068 (9th Cir. 2000). Use of a pseudonym may 23 be appropriate “when anonymity is necessary to preserve privacy in a matter of sensitive 24 and highly personal nature.” Id. (internal quotation omitted). 25 Here, Plaintiff’s claim involves her history as a victim of human trafficking and 26 sexual assault, a subject matter clearly of sensitive and highly personal nature. Courts have 27 routinely recognized the importance of allowing victims of sexual assault to maintain their 28 privacy. See Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521, 1525 n.4 (9th Cir. 1993) (“In keeping with 1 the tradition of not revealing names of the victims of sexual assault, we use initials here to 2 protect the privacy of the inmates.”); Doe v. United Airlines, Inc., 2018 WL 3997258, at 3 *2 (D. Nev. 2018) (“District Courts within the Ninth Circuit uniformly allow plaintiffs 4 alleging sexual assault to proceed under pseudonyms.” (internal quotation omitted)); see 5 also Doe v. El Paso Cty. Hosp. Dist., No. EP-13-CV-00406-DCG, 2015 WL 1507840, at 6 *4 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 1, 2015) (“The Court finds instructive another line of cases in which 7 the nature of the allegations sometimes warrants anonymity—those involving the sexual 8 assault of the plaintiff.” (citing cases)); Doe No. 2 v. Kolko, 242 F.R.D. 193, 195 (E.D.N.Y. 9 2006) (“[S]exual assault victims are a paradigmatic example of those entitled to a grant of 10 anonymity.”). 11 Next, because Defendant is aware of Plaintiff’s identity and acknowledges that no 12 unfair prejudice will result from the use of a pseudonym under the circumstances of this 13 case (Doc. 12 at 2), the Court finds that Plaintiff’s need for privacy outweighs any potential 14 prejudice to Defendant. 15 Finally, the Court also finds that Plaintiff’s interest in protecting her privacy 16 outweighs the public’s interest in knowing her identity. Although the public has an interest 17 in knowing the identities of the parties to the case, see Advanced Textile, 214 F.3d at 1068, 18 the public also “generally has a strong interest in protecting the identities of sexual assault 19 victims so that other victims will not be deterred from reporting such crimes,” Doe v. 20 Penzato, No. CV10-5154 MEJ, 2011 WL 1833007, at *3 (N.D. Cal. May 13, 2011) 21 (quoting Kolko, 242 F.R.D. at 195). On balance, the Court finds that in this case, where 22 Plaintiff is suing to recover benefits from the government, the public interest favors 23 Plaintiff’s anonymity. See Doe v. Alger, 317 F.R.D. 37, 41 (W.D. Va. 2016) (“When a 24 plaintiff challenges the government or government activity, courts are more like[ly] to 25 permit plaintiffs to proceed under a pseudonym than if an individual has been accused 26 publicly of wrongdoing.”). 27 In sum, this case presents the special circumstances where proceeding under a 28 pseudonym is appropriate. 1 Accordingly, 2 IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Proceed Under Pseudonym 3|| (Doc. 2) is GRANTED. Plaintiff may continue to identify herself as “SB” on all future 4|| filings in this case consistent with the agreement of the parties. 5 Dated this 15th day of January, 2021. 6 7 ' James A. CO 9 Senior United States District Judge 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -3-