Humana plans to file a motion by Monday to dismiss plaintiff Antionette Woodward’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act putative class action for lack of personal jurisdiction, said Woodward and Humana in a joint status report Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-00979) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Woodward alleges Humana is vicariously liable for the incessant insurance solicitation calls its third-party telemarketing vendor, Healthhubb, made on Humana’s behalf to her cellphone, though her number was listed on the national do not call registry since Sept. 25 (see 2302170038).
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria denied, without an opinion, Google’s motion to dismiss the antitrust complaint brought by DOJ and eight states to thwart Google’s alleged monopoly control over the digital advertising market, said her signed order Friday (docket 2304110059).
More than a year after the court "set in motion an action plan" to permit plaintiffs Craigville Telephone and Consolidated Telephone to contact T-Mobile subscribers who experienced fake ring tones, the plaintiffs “still have had no meaningful contact” with any of them, said the plaintiffs in a joint motion Wednesday (docket 1:19-cv-07190) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago to resolve discovery disputes involving those consumer contacts.
The seven state plaintiffs in the massive Telephone Consumer Protection Act case against multiple defendants oppose as coming too late in advance of a June trial Tuesday’s motion by defendant Scott Shapiro's attorneys to withdraw as his counsel, said their opposition Wednesday (docket 4:20-cv-02021) in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Houston. The states estimate Shapiro was responsible for nearly 40% of the 742.3 million calls made to consumers whose numbers were on the national do not call registry (see 2302220001). Burns & Levinson's Shepard Davidson and Kane Russell's David Thrasher seek to withdraw from the case.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett for Maryland in Baltimore signed a memorandum opinion Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-02456) granting defendant Global Tower’s Jan. 31 motion to dismiss with prejudice property owner Olcan III’s claims for negligent misrepresentation, negligence and public nuisance emanating from a dispute over a rooftop cell tower.
TocMail’s failure to back up with “actual evidence” its allegation that Microsoft misled the public into believing its Safe Links product offered protection from IP evasion cost TocMail billions in lost profits from its own IP evasion protection product (see 2212150030), said the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s opinion Tuesday (docket 22-10223).
Cisco and CDW seek reversal of a district court’s denial of a motion to transfer under the first-to-file rule when a party “asserts claims in a second federal court, having previously asserted the claims in a first federal court where litigation between the parties remains pending.” So said their petition for mandamus relief Tuesday (docket 23-40257) at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has scheduled oral argument for May 25 on the petition to transfer the 16 data breach class actions against T-Mobile for consolidation under a single judge (see 2304170007), there’s “a strong likelihood” the JPML will resolve the petition in less than two months, said T-Mobile. It filed a reply Monday (docket 3:23-cv-00427) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego in support of a stay, pending JPML action, in one of those class actions, Shoemaker v. T-Mobile, over the opposition of the 46 named plaintiffs in that case (see 2304180014).
The 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court docketed Cisco’s appeal Friday of the March 22 order of the Northern District of California granting summary judgment for defendants Poly and its hardware and software architect Wilson Chung against Cisco’s allegations that they misappropriated two Cisco trade secrets. Appellant Cisco’s mediation questionnaire is due Friday, said the 9th Circuit’s time schedule order (docket 23-15590). Cisco’s opening brief is due July 28, and the answering brief from appellees Poly and Chung is due a month later, said the order. Cisco’s reply brief is due 21 days after service of the appellees’ brief, it said. Cisco alleges that Chung resigned in February 2019 to go work for Poly a month later, and that he took Cisco’s trade secrets on his way out the door and shared them with Poly. Two allegedly stolen trade secrets with exotic names are at issue in the 9th Circuit, as they were in the district court. The codename Project Sunkist was for a Bluetooth wireless headset with a voice microphone, and ultimately was released as the Cisco 730 headset. Project Polaris was for a videoconferencing desktop product, and ultimately was released as the Webex Desk Pro. The March 22 order granting summary judgment for Chung and Poly, signed by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton for Northern California in Oakland, said Cisco “appears to be relying on speculation” that Chung not only shared trade secrets with Poly in the past but may also do so in the future. If trade secrets “had indeed been shared, there would be evidence on Poly’s systems,” said the order. “There being none in the record, Cisco cannot simply seek to fill in the blanks with speculation.”
Zachary Rohlfs’ Feb. 9 class action alleging Nexstar Media knowingly disclosed to Facebook data containing subscribers’ personal identifiable information (PII) and digital files of videos viewed on its WGNTV.com website (see 2302100028) “should be dismissed in its entirety with prejudice and without leave to replead,” said Nexstar’s motion to dismiss Friday (docket 1:23-cv-01050) in U.S. District Court for Central Illinois in Urbana.