Panel Closes Briefing on Motion to Consolidate Samsung Breach Cases

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation closed briefing Thursday on the Oct. 7 motion to transfer to the Northern District of California the dozen or more fraud class actions seeking relief from Samsung’s summertime data breach and consolidating them under U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco, said the clerk’s minute order (case 3055). Attorneys must notify the clerk promptly of potential “tag-along actions,” plus any development “that moots the motion or fully disposes of any action on the motion,” said the order. Lawyers in any potential tag-along action may file an “interested party” response but must do so promptly and no later than the Thursday before any hearing on the motion for transfer, it said. No hearing has been scheduled on the original Oct. 7 motion and the many filings since that support or oppose it. Plaintiffs in the multiple Samsung class actions filed in six jurisdictions are evenly split into camps that want the cases moved to the Northern California district in San Francisco or the New Jersey district in Newark. Samsung said its preference is for the cases to be consolidated and tried in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas (see 2211030006).