Father M v. Various Tort Claimants (In re Roman Catholic Archbishop of Portland)
- Citation:
- 10-35206
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The bankruptcy court has a mandatory duty under 11 U.S.C. sec. 107(b)(2) to keep scandalous material confidential at the request of a party.
- Procedural context:
- Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, which affirmed the Bankruptcy Court's order allowing public disclosure of information about Catholic Priests who were alleged to have engaged in sexual abuse. The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part.
- Facts:
- The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, in part, to administer a large number of sexual abuse tort claims brought by victims. During discovery, information about several priests who were alleged to have committed sexual abuse was produced, under seal, pursuant to a Rule 26(c) protective order.
After settlement was reached, a number of the tort claimants moved the Court to make the confidential documents public. The debtor, and two individual priests, objected.
The bankruptcy court ordered that the documents be made public. Despite the priests' private interests in having their information redacted, the bankruptcy court determined that under Federal Rule 26(c), the public interest in disclosure outweighed the priests' privacy concerns. The district court affirmed. Neither priest argued the affect of 11 U.S.C. sec. 107 in the lower courts.
On appeal, the priests argued that 11 U.S.C. sec. 107(b)(2) required the bankruptcy court to remove "scandalous or defamatory" matter contained in a paper filed on the bankruptcy docket. The Ninth Circuit agreed, holding that section 107(b)(2) required the bankruptcy court to keep the priest's information confidential, because the allegations of sexual misconduct were "scandalous" within the ordinary meaning of the word. The Ninth Circuit considered "scandalous" to mean something that brings discredit to one's class or position; disgraceful. Under the common usage of the word, a preist's sexual abuse of a child is most assuredly scandalous. Accordingly, the bankruptcy court erred in refusing to strike the material from its docket.
The opinion provides a helpful analysis of section 107 as compared to Rule 26(c), and determines that the bankruptcy court has a mandatory duty to remove from its docket any material prohibited by section 107(b)(1) (confidential business information), (b)(2) (scandalous or defamatory matter), or (b)(3) (means of identification).
- Judge(s):
- Judge Ikuta, Kozinski, and Bea
ABI Membership is required to access the full summary. Please Sign In using your ABI Member credentials. Not a Member yet? Join ABI now - it is absolutely worth it!
