Morales v. Minev ( 2023 )

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 * * * 4 SERGIO MORALES, Case No. 2:22-cv-00387-RFB-EJY 5 Plaintiff, ORDER 6 v. 7 MICHAEL MINEV, et al., 8 Defendants. 9 10 Pending before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Leave to File Exhibit A to Defendants’ 11 Status Report Under Seal (ECF No. 32). Exhibit A contains Plaintiff’s medical records. As the 12 party seeking to seal a judicial record, Defendants must meet their burden of overcoming the strong 13 presumption in favor of access and public policies favoring disclosure. Kamakana v. City and Cnty. 14 of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-79 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding that those who seek to maintain the 15 secrecy of documents attached to dispositive motions must meet the high threshold of showing that 16 “compelling reasons” support secrecy). “Many courts have applied the compelling reasons standard 17 to … temporary restraining orders” and motions seeking preliminary injunctive relief. Ctr. for Auto 18 Safety v. Chrysler Group, LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1096 n.2 (9th Cir. 2016) (collecting cases); see also 19 Selling Source, LLC v. Red River Ventures, LLC, Case No. 2:09-cv-01491-JCM-GWF, 2011 WL 20 1630338, at *5 (finding requests for preliminary injunctive relief should be treated as dispositive 21 motions for purposes of sealing court records) (D. Nev. Apr. 29, 2011). 22 Compelling reasons for maintaining secrecy of records filed with the Court requires 23 demonstration that the publicly filed document has the potential to become a vehicle for improper 24 purposes, including use of records to gratify private spite, promote public scandal, disseminate 25 libelous statements, or circulate trade secrets. Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, 435 U.S. 589, 598 26 (1978). Importantly, medical privacy also meets the compelling reason standard. See, e.g., San 27 Ramon Regional Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Principal Life Ins. Co., 2011 WL 89931, at *n.1 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 1 || 2010); G. v. Hawaii, 2010 WL 267483, at **1-2 (D. HI. June 25, 2010); Wilkins v. Ahern, 2010 W 2 |} 3755654 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 24, 2010); Lombardi v. Tri West Healthcare Alliance Corp., 2009 W 3 || 1212170, at *1 (D. Ariz. May 4, 2009). 4 The Court considered Defendants’ Motion and the document sought to be sealed. The Cot 5 || finds Exhibit A is properly sealed as it contains private medical information about Plaintiff. 6 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion for Leave to File Exhit 7 || Ato Defendants’ Status Report Under Seal (ECF No. 32) is GRANTED. 8 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Exhibit A to Defendants’ Status Report (ECF No. 33), 9 || and shall remain sealed. 10 Dated this 21st day of March, 2023. " 0 ? □□ OMNIS al OES □□□ UNITEL TATES WAG sok TE JUDGE 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28