Summary
This document is a proposed stipulated protective order in a federal insurance-benefits and interpleader action involving Alessandro Hickey, New York Life Insurance Company, and Yesenia Garcia. It governs the designation, use, disclosure, challenge, filing, and disposition of confidential discovery materials. The order was stipulated by counsel and signed by Magistrate Judge Michael B. Kaufman on October 16, 2025.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether good cause existed to enter a stipulated protective order governing confidential, proprietary, private, and privileged discovery materials.
- What procedures and limitations should govern designation, disclosure, challenge, filing, use, and final disposition of protected discovery materials.
Holdings
- The court entered the parties' stipulated protective order because the anticipated discovery included confidential, proprietary, private, and potentially privileged information warranting protection from public disclosure and use outside the litigation.
- Protected material may be used only to prosecute, defend, or attempt to settle the action and may be disclosed only to specified persons subject to the conditions in the protective order.
- A party or nonparty may challenge a confidentiality designation through the applicable meet-and-confer and discovery-dispute procedures, but the material must continue to receive protection pending the court's ruling unless the designation is withdrawn or waived.
- Designation of material as confidential does not itself authorize filing the material under seal; a party seeking to seal protected material must comply with the court's local rule and obtain a court order.
- The protective order's confidentiality protections generally do not extend beyond commencement of trial for court-filed information introduced at trial, while post-termination return or destruction obligations and archival-copy restrictions apply as specified in the order.
Key quotations
“The parties acknowledge that 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 that are entitled to confidential treatment under the applicable legal principles.” (at 1)
“This Order does not govern the use of Protected Material at trial.” (at 3)
“Protected Material may only be filed under seal pursuant to a court order authorizing the sealing of the specific Protected Material at issue; good cause must be shown in the request to file under seal.” (at 12)
Factual background
The action concerns disputed benefits under a life insurance policy issued by a subsidiary of New York Life. The anticipated discovery may address policy benefits, alleged material misrepresentations in the insurance application, the proper beneficiary or beneficiaries, and whether potential beneficiaries are implicated in the insured's death. The parties represented that discovery may include trade secrets, underwriting guidelines, company procedures, and private medical and financial information.
Procedural history
Alessandro Hickey filed an action against New York Life Insurance Company concerning benefits under a life insurance policy. New York Life also asserted an interpleader claim involving Hickey and Yesenia Garcia. The parties submitted a stipulated protective order on October 15, 2025, and the court ordered it entered on October 16, 2025.