Plaintiffs Again Fail to Adequately Plead Claims, Says HP in Defective Trackpad Action

Plaintiffs Justin Davis and Gary Davis again failed to adequately plead their claims in a fraud class action over allegedly defective laptop trackpads, said HP’s reply brief (docket 4:23-cv-02114) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland in support of its motion to dismiss the Davis’ first amended complaint (see 2307030008). The plaintiffs allege that defective trackpads in their HP Omen laptops rendered their computers completely unusable without an external mouse. Plaintiffs again didn’t allege specific facts that would “plausibly support” Article III or statutory standing “or rectify the other myriad shortcomings of their original Complaint,” the reply said. The plaintiffs added only “a handful of new allegations, none of which cure the standing, Rule 9(b), or other deficiencies of their original pleading,” said the brief. Plaintiffs only “pay lip service” to the court’s direction that their amended complaint must identify the “who, what, when, where and how of the misconduct charged,” said the brief. “Instead, they argue that Rule 9(b) effectively requires notice pleading, such that HP need only be provided the barest information necessary to 'defend against the charge that they [sic] induced consumers to believe the Products were functional laptop computers,'” it said.