Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n v. Hotel Rittenhouse Associates

In this case, the Bank and HRA, the developer, settled a financing dispute after a court action had been commenced. At the request of both parties, their settlement agreement was sealed by the court in February 1985.

In July 1985, some five months later, FAB III, a contractor who had furnished services to HRA, without having intervened in the Bank-HRA litigation, applied to the district court to unseal the Bank-HRA agreement. The district court denied FAB’s motion and refused to unseal the agreement holding that FAB’s claimed interest in access to the sealed information did not outweigh the…