Commercial Division Blog: Current Developments in the Commercial Divisions of the New York State Courts

On April 19, 2026, in AlphaSense, LLC v. Richards, Index No. 650202/2026, Justice Andrea Masley granted in part and denied in part plaintiff’s motion to seal two exhibits. Plaintiff sought to seal a report on defendant Daloopa, Inc.’s business performance that had been generated using plaintiff’s artificial-intelligence platform, as well as a “competitive intel” Slack channel post. Plaintiff argued that both documents contained proprietary, confidential, and commercially sensitive information. The Court denied sealing as to the AI-generated report, reasoning that the report concerned defendant Daloopa’s own business rather than plaintiff’s proprietary information; that the report carried a disclaimer acknowledging it was AI-generated, might contain inaccuracies, and instructing users to verify with original sources; and that plaintiff had routinely disseminated similar reports to prospective customers without any confidentiality designation. The Court granted sealing as to the Slack post, which referenced plaintiff’s large language model technology. In denying sealing of the AI-generated report, the Court explained: Read More

On October 3, 2024, Justice Joel M. Cohen denied a motion to stay arbitration brought by an employee against his former employer, holding that the employer’s decision to seek urgent protective relief from the Court did not waive its right to arbitrate. In Jason Owen v. Array U.S. Inc., et al., Index No. 651471/2022, Jason Owen asserted claims for breach of contract in court against his employer, Array, based upon alleged wrongful termination and denial of compensation. During the briefing of a motion to dismiss in the case, Owen filed several documents on the public docket that Array moved to seal as confidential. The Court granted the sealing motion. Array then initiated a JAMS arbitration proceeding, claiming that Owen had misappropriated confidential information that had been publicly disclosed in the court filings. Owen responded by moving to permanently stay the arbitration on the ground that Array had waived its right to arbitrate. Read More

On July 11 2024, Justice Andrea Masley resolved various motions concerning the sealing or redaction of documents alleged to contain confidential business information. The case is Jaffrey v. Scaminaci, Index No. 653352/2022. Read More

In a Decision, dated September 30, 2023, in Zydus Worldwide DMCC v. Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., 654824/2019, Justice Andrea Masley granted Plaintiff Zydus Worldwide DMMC’s motion to redact portions of interrogatory responses that revealed various costs related to the pharmaceutical products at issue in the action. The Court had previously denied a motion to seal certain other information brought by Defendant Teva Pharmaceuticals. However, the Court found that Zydus had demonstrated the requisite “good cause” to support sealing. The Court explained: Read More

On January 19, 2023, Justice Joel M. Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in International Business Machines Corp. v. GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc., 2023 NY Slip Op 30203(U), holding that a party's "generalized assertions" of good cause and a confidentiality or sealing stipulation were insufficient to permit sealing of court records, explaining: Read More

On December 6, 2022, Justice Joel M. Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Metropolitan Transportation Authority v. Westfield Fulton Center, 2022 N.Y. Slip Op. 34112(U), holding that confidential documents submitted in connection with an arbitration could be filed under seal in an Article 75 proceeding, explaining: Read More

In an Opinion, dated October 24, 2022, in Bravia Capital H.K. v. HNA Group Co., 2022 NY Slip Op 51039(U), Justice Robert R. Reed denied withdrawing counsel’s motion to permanently seal the documents filed in support of withdrawal.  The Court explained:  Read More