Garlock estimation trial documents to be unsealed; all appeals granted

By Kali Hays

New York, July 24 – Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the U.S District Court for the Western District of North Carolina has granted all appeals on orders denying access requests to sealed documents and testimony from the asbestos injury estimation trial of Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC under a Wednesday order.

All orders of the bankruptcy court sealing the evidence are reversed and any orders and motions underlying them are remanded to their respective courts “for further consideration in light of this decision.”

In order to seal any of the documents the bankruptcy court has been instructed to determine “the right of access” for each document, give public notice of any seal request allowing for challenges, consider all reasonable alternatives to sealing the document and then provide information on any decision to seal for appellate review,” according to the order.

Cogburn said that “the press and the public have compelling first amendment and common law interests” in reviewing the documents and that “designation of a document as ‘confidential’ may well be the impetus for an attorney requesting a court to seal a document, it is by no means an endpoint.”

The estimation trial had been closed to the public and the press and all documents related to the trial were sealed after claimants’ attorneys said the information to be disclosed was private and confidential.

As previously reported, during the trial the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina found fraudulent actions by asbestos claimants and/or their attorneys in all 15 of the reviewed asbestos claims cases, resulting in Garlock, other solvent companies facing asbestos related claims and Legal Newsline filing for access to the trial documents.

Cogburn said that neither the bankruptcy court nor the district court has explained the decision to close the trial and seal the documents beyond attorneys’ requests.

“The confidentiality order relied upon by the court shifted the presumption that favors open courts to a presumption favoring the closure of proceedings based on confidentiality designations by counsel, shifting the burden to the public and the press to disprove the contours of a need to seal which has not been described,” the order stated.

The bankruptcy court did grant Ford Motor Co., a co-defendant of Garlock in asbestos claims litigation, access to the sealed documents May 6, but subsequently stayed the order several times, all of which Ford appealed.

Other parties to appeal orders denying access to the documents include Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Resolute Management, Inc., AIU Insurance Co., American Home Insurance Co., Birmingham Fire Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania, Granite State Insurance Co., Lexington Insurance Co., Mt. McKinley Insurance Co., Everest Reinsurance Co. and National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh.

Cogburn’s order cited several cases in which similar action been taken saying, “As a gatekeeper, a judge must consider sealing as the exception not the rule. The public and the press have a co-extensive right to view and consider documents when brought in the ultimate public forum, a court room.”

Garlock is a subsidiary of Charlotte, N.C.-based EnPro Industries, which makes sealing products, bearings, compressors and engines. The company filed for bankruptcy on June 5, 2010 under Chapter 11 case number 10-31607.

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