Cognizant, Plaintiff Jointly Move to Transfer Fraud Case to Another Judge

Plaintiff Zuania Vazquez-Padilla and defendant Cognizant Technology Solutions want U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber for Middle Florida in Tampa to transfer their case to Judge Mary Scriven, also in Middle Florida, said their joint motion Tuesday (docket 8:23-cv-02607). Scriven presides over an earlier-filed action where Vazquez-Padilla initially asserted the same claims. Proceeding under different judges “presents the probability of inefficiency and inconsistency,” said their motion. Vazquez-Padilla’s lawsuit arises out of the litigation, Aguilo et al. v. Cognizant (docket 8:21-cv-002054), currently pending before Scriven, it said. Vazquez-Padilla was one of about 150 individual plaintiffs in Aguilo, who claimed they had been employed by Cognizant as content moderators to review and remove material posted to social media platforms that violated their terms of use, it said. The plaintiffs in Aguilo alleged that Cognizant fraudulently misrepresented the nature of the content moderator job during the hiring and training process, causing each of them to suffer certain psychological harms, it said. Scriven entered a dismissal order Sept. 15, directing remaining plaintiffs who elected to proceed with their litigation to file individual lawsuits, “properly pleading their fraudulent misrepresentation claims,” and to do so no later than Nov. 14, said the motion. Fourteen plaintiffs did so, including Vazquez-Padilla (see 2311150021), it said. Four of the cases are pending before Scriven, and Cognizant is filing similar motions to transfer all the cases to her, it said.