Opinion ID: 2646079
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: volumes filed under seal

Text: ExxonMobil, in coordination with Hershey, filed two volumes of the Appellees’ Supplemental Appendix under seal. This court issued an order noting the materials in these two volumes did not appear to meet the privacy and redaction criteria identified under 10th Cir. R. 25.5 and Fed. R. App. P. 25(a)(5). The order directed the parties to indicate “whether and why the identified materials need to be filed under seal with this 15 court, and, if so, how long the materials need to remain under seal.” (Order of May 24, 2013, at 2.) “A party seeking to file court records under seal must overcome a presumption, long supported by courts, that the public has a common-law right of access to judicial records.” Eugene S. v. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.J., 663 F.3d 1124, 1135 (10th Cir. 2011). “To do so, ‘the parties must articulate a real and substantial interest that justifies depriving the public of access to the records that inform our decision-making process.’” Id. at 1135-36 (quoting Helm v. Kansas, 656 F.3d 1277, 1292 (10th Cir. 2011)). We are “not bound by the district court’s decision to seal certain documents below” and retain our “own authority to decide whether the parties may file documents under seal in this Court.” Colony Ins. Co. v. Burke, 698 F.3d 1222, 1241 (10th Cir. 2012) (internal quotation marks omitted). According to ExxonMobil these volumes “contain specific references to and formulate opinions based on confidential commercial competitive information of third parties who are not litigants in this matter.” (ExxonMobil’s Response to the Court’s May 24, 2013, Order Regarding Documents Submitted Under Seal, at 1.) It requests these documents be kept under seal until the appeal terminates and requests the return of these materials thereafter. Hershey took no position with respect to the sealing of these records. Appellants, including the Gregg Trust and the law firms of Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson & Kitch, LLC and Kramer, Nordling & Nordling, LLC, did not object to the sealing of these volumes. 16 As ExxonMobil points out, we have “supervisory power over our own records and files” and can appropriately deny access to these materials when they might be used “as sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing.” Nixon v. Warner Comms., Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978). Here, the rationale for protecting these records is even stronger, as the records could harm the competitive interests of third parties. Moreover, given our disposition of this matter, this is not a situation where the documents in these volumes were necessary “to determine [the] litigants’ substantive legal rights.” See Colony Ins. Co., 698 F.3d at 1242. These circumstances warrant the maintenance of the seal on these volumes. However, ExxonMobil has cited no authority for its request for the return of these sealed volumes and has not indicated why the retention of these materials under seal is insufficient to protect the commercial interests involved. For these reasons, we deny its request for their return.