From Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald's opinion Thursday in Caremark, L.L.C. v. N.Y. Cancer & Blood Specialists, Inc.:
Petitioners Caremark, L.L.C., … SilverScript Insurance Company, and Aetna, Inc. seek to file their petition to vacate an arbitration award under seal; or, in the alternative, partially under seal; or, in the second alternative, with some redactions….
Respondent New York Cancer & Blood Specialists ("respondent" or "NYCBS") is a community cancer center with locations in New York City and Long Island. Caremark is a Pharmacy Benefit Manager ("PBM"), which creates and manages pharmacy networks and prescription drug benefits on behalf of Medicare Part D plan sponsors…. NYCBS commenced arbitration proceedings against petitioners to recover fees that petitioners allegedly improperly imposed on NYCBS…. [T]he arbitration panel ruled in favor of NYCBS on several claims and awarded it approximately $17,000,000 in damages as well as attorneys' fees and interest…. [P]etitioners filed a petition to vacate the arbitration award….
[T]here is a "general presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents." … [T]he documents petitioners filed in support of their motion to vacate are "judicial documents" because they are undoubtedly "relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process." … [T]hese judicial documents are entitled to a strong presumption of access given that they "directly affect" the Court's adjudication of the petition to vacate…. [And] against this strong presumption of public access, petitioners have failed to "articulate a compelling countervailing rationale for filing the documents under seal."
