United States District Court, C.D. California, Western Division
GARY M. ROMANCHUK, Plaintiff,
v.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS JOINT PENSION TRUST FUND; SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNIONS AND FOOD EMPLOYERS JOINT BENEFIT FUNDS ADMINISTRATION, LLC; APPEALS COMMITTEE OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS JOINT PENSION TRUST FUND, Defendants.
Gary
M. Romanchuk, Plaintiff, represented by Bradford Frederick
Ginder, Hollister & Brace, Bruce N. Anticouni, Anticouni &
Associates APC, Joseph A. Garofolo, Garofolo Law Group PC &
Marcus S. Bird, Hollister and Brace.
Board
of Trustees of the Southern California United Food and
Commercial Workers Unions and Food Employers Joint Pension
Trust Fund, Defendant, represented by Daniel E. Curry,
Schwartz Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers LLP & Henry M.
Willis, Schwartz Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers LLP.
Southern California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions
and Food Employers Joint Benefit Funds Administration LLC,
Defendant, represented by Daniel E. Curry, Schwartz
Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers LLP & Henry M. Willis,
Schwartz Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers LLP.
Appeals Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Southern
California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Food
Employers Joint Pension Trust, Defendant, represented by
Daniel E. Curry, Schwartz Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers LLP
& Henry M. Willis, Schwartz Steinsapir Dohrmann and Sommers
LLP.
STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER COVERING DISCLOSURES NOT
IDENTIFYING PLAN PARTICIPANTS AND BENEFICIARIES (L.R.
8-3)
KAREN
L. STEVENSON, Magistrate Judge.
Pursuant
to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and
based on the parties' Stipulated Protective Order
Covering Disclosures Not Identifying Plan Participants and
Beneficiaries (L.R. 8-3) ("Stipulation") filed on
July 28, 2016, the terms of the protective order to which the
parties have agreed are adopted as a protective order of this
Court (which generally shall govern the pretrial phase of
this action) except to the extent, as set forth below, that
those terms have been modified by the Court's amendment
of paragraphs, 1, 5.1, 7.2, and 14 of the Stipulation.
AGREED
TERMS OF THE PROTECTIVE ORDER AS ADOPTED AND MODIFIED BY THE
COURT[1]
1. A.
PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS
Disclosure
and discovery activity in this action are likely to involve
production of confidential, proprietary, or private
information for which special protection from public
disclosure and from use for any purpose other than
prosecuting this litigation may be warranted. Accordingly,
the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the court to
enter the following Stipulated Protective Order.
The
parties acknowledge that this This Order does not confer
blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to
discovery and that the protection it affords from public
disclosure and use extends only to the limited information or
items described below that are entitled to confidential
treatment under applicable legal principles. The parties
further acknowledge, as As set forth in Section 12.3, below,
that this Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle them
to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rule
79-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and the
standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission
from the court to file material under seal.
B. GOOD
CAUSE STATEMENT
This
action is likely to involve sensitive information concerning
individual plan participants and beneficiaries and financial
information relating to the operation of the Southern
California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Food
Employers Joint Pension Trust Fund ("the Plan") for
which special protection from public disclosure and from use
for any purpose other than prosecution of this action is
warranted. The parties will address the handling of
information indentifying individual Plan participants and
beneficiaries, both putative class members and others, in a
separate proposed Protective Order; this Stipulated
Protective Order covers only confidential and proprietary
materials and information requested in discovery in this
action, including matters relating to the operations and
financial condition of the Plan. It is not contemplated by
the parties that personal identities (as opposed to
identifiers) or medical conditions of individual Plan
participants and beneficiaries will be disclosed by
Defendants, or any of them, under this Stipulated Protective
Order.
Such
confidential and proprietary materials and information
consist of, among other things, confidential business or
financial information, information regarding confidential
business practices, or other confidential information,
information otherwise generally unavailable to the public, or
which may be privileged or otherwise protected from
disclosure under state or federal statutes, court rules, case
decisions, or common law. Accordingly, to expedite the flow
of information, to facilitate the prompt resolution of
disputes over confidentiality of discovery materials, to
adequately protect information the parties are entitled to
keep confidential, to ensure that the parties are permitted
reasonable necessary uses of such material in preparation for
and in the conduct of trial, to address their handling at the
end of the litigation, and serve the ends of justice, a
protective order for such information is justified in this
matter. It is the intent of the parties that information will
not be designated as confidential for tactical reasons and
that nothing be so designated without a good faith belief
that it has been maintained in a confidential, non-public
manner, and there is good cause why it should not be part of
the public record of this case.
2.
DEFINITIONS
2.1
Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the
designation of information or items under this Order.
2.2
"CONFIDENTIAL" Information or Items: information
(regardless of how it is generated, stored or maintained) or
tangible things that qualify for protection under Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), other than sensitive
information relating to individual Plan participants and
beneficiaries, which is addressed by a separate Protective
Order.
2.3
Counsel: Counsel of Record, namely attorneys who have been
retained to represent or advise a party to this action and
have appeared in this action on behalf of that party or are
affiliated with a law firm which has appeared on behalf of
that party, and their support staff.
2.4
Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates
information or items that it produces in disclosures or in
responses to discovery as "CONFIDENTIAL."
2.5
Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information,
regardless of the medium or manner in which it is generated,
stored, or maintained (including, among other things,
testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are
produced or generated in disclosures or responses to
discovery in this matter.
2.6
Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in
a matter pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by
a Party or its counsel to serve as an expert witness or as a
consultant in this action.
2.7
Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation,
association, or other legal entity not named as a Party to
this action.
2.8
Party: any party to this action, including all of its
officers, directors, employees, consultants, retained
experts, and Counsel of Record (and their support staffs).
2.9
Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces
Disclosure or Discovery Material in this action.
2.10
Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide
litigation support services (e.g., photocopying, videotaping,
translating, preparing exhibits or demonstrations, and
organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or
medium) and their employees and subcontractors.
2.11
Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that
is designated as "CONFIDENTIAL."
2.12
Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or
Discovery ...