From today's decision by Magistrate Judge Jolie Russo in Cahill v. Nike, Inc. (D. Or.):
Plaintiffs … brought this action seeking class action status alleging that defendant Nike systematically discriminates against them and other similarly situated women regarding salary and promotions…. [A] group of non-party media organizations[] moved to intervene seeking access to those sealed documents…. [T]he Court granted the media organizations' motion to unredact a number of documents. However, defendant appealed the order, and the Ninth Circuit granted a temporary stay pending the appeal.
On January 25, 2024, plaintiffs' counsel notified the Court she inadvertently disclosed to an Oregonian reporter (appearing in this action as Advance Local Media LLC) confidential discovery material obtained from the defendant. Despite plaintiffs' request, Advance Local Media [the Oregonian] refused to return the material. Accordingly, plaintiffs moved this Court for the return of the documents. Given the confidential nature of the material and the Ninth Circuit's stay regarding the redactions, on January 26, 2024, the Court issued an order requiring the Oregonian to return the inadvertently disclosed confidential material, to not disseminate those materials, and destroy any copies in its possession by January 31, 2024….
This Court initially ordered the Oregonian to return the inadvertently disclosed documents pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5)(B) which requires parties, after notice of a claim of protection, to promptly return or destroy the specified information. The Oregonian asserts it is not a party in this action and has intervened only as a non-party for a limited purpose—albeit for a purpose directly related to unsealing the documents it inadvertently obtained from a party in this case.
After careful review of the record, the Court agrees the Oregonian is not a party to this action for purposes of the protective order. As noted above, the Oregonian intervened as a non-party to unseal records in this case and make them public. Intervention was granted well after the Court entered the stipulated protective order to which plaintiffs' and defendant agreed. While the Oregonian intervened in this case for the limited purpose of unsealing non-public portions of the record, it did not intervene to challenge or revise the protective order. Moreover, the parties did not seek to alter the protective order to bind the Oregonian to its parameters.
