In August, a group of cedents filed a petition to confirm an arbitration award (the “Final Award”) entered in their favor against their reinsurer, National Casualty Company.  National Casualty moved to dismiss the motion to confirm based upon lack of subject matter jurisdiction, arguing that the Final Award did not satisfy the amount in controversy requirement.  See American Bankers Ins. Co. of Florida, et al. v. National Casualty Co., No. 2:08-cv-13522 (E.D. Mich. 2008).

Thereafter, National Casualty moved to seal its motion to dismiss and the Final Award on the basis that public disclosure of the award would violate the arbitration panel’s confidentiality order.  National Casualty argued that because it would be filing the Final Award for the sole purpose of demonstrating that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the petitioners’ motion to confirm, the common law right of access to judicial documents did not attach.  National Casualty further argued that because the Final Award was submitted to the court to determine jurisdiction, and not the parties’ substantive rights, the Final Award did not constitute a “judicial document” that should be available to the public.  Under the law of most jurisdictions, a public right of access attaches to any document deemed a “judicial document.”

In early October, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted National Casualty’s motion to seal in part, allowing National Casualty to temporarily file its motion to dismiss and the Final Award under seal until the court renders a decision on the subject matter jurisdiction issue.

Click here to review National Casualty’s memorandum of law in support of its motion to seal and the court’s order.