The plaintiffs in three of the dozen class actions stemming from T-Mobile’s Jan. 19 disclosure that bad actors gained access to the personally identifiable information of 37 million customer accounts all support a Feb. 8 motion to transfer the 12 cases to a single venue for pretrial consolidation under a single judge (see 2302200001) but disagree what the venue should be.
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
T-Mobile removed to U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago what’s believed to be the 13th class action nationally arising from the company’s Jan. 19 disclosure that bad actors accessed the accounts of 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customers (see 2301230046). T-Mobile’s notice of removal Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-01263) of the complaint filed Jan. 24 in Cook County Circuit Court broke its nearly six weeks of silence since the first of the class actions was filed against the carrier Jan. 21.
Congress never intended to prohibit state actions “for injuries resulting from cell phone use” when it enacted the Communications Act and the Telecommunications Act, said Frank Walker's family survivors, in an opposition Tuesday (docket 2:21-cv-00923) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lake Charles. Industry filed a motion in October to dismiss their complaint on grounds that their claims are preempted by federal law (see 2210180078).
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) seeks dismissal of allegations in his Oct. 12 "superseding" criminal indictment that he accepted bribes from AT&T in return for enacting the company’s favored carrier of last resort (COLR) legislation under his watch, said his motion Tuesday (docket 1:22-cr-00115) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. With Madigan's influence, including on a vote to override a gubernatorial veto, the COLR legislation (HB-1811) cleared the House and later became law in the summer of 2017.
U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn for New Jersey in Camden signed an initial case management order Monday (docket 1:23-md-03055) appointing James Cecchi, founder and director of Carella Byrne's class-action practice in Roseland, New Jersey, as the plaintiffs’ interim lead counsel in the consolidated data breach cases against Samsung.
The Republican National Committee’s Oct. 21 complaint against Google (see 2210260080) “is about the market-dominant communications firm unlawfully preventing one of the two major national political parties from communicating its political and fundraising messaging to millions of Americans” through Gmail. So said the RNC’s opposition Monday (docket 2:22-cv-01904) in U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Sacramento to Google’s Jan. 23 motion to dismiss (see 2301240033).
Crown Castle plans to call four fact witnesses and two expert witnesses in the consolidated bench trial with Extenet and Verizon that begins June 1 against the city of Rochester (see 2212200065), said the plaintiffs’ pretrial submissions Friday in U.S. District Court for Western New York.
The Telecommunications Act “expressly preserves local zoning authority and oversight concerning requests for permission to construct or install telecommunications facilities within local municipalities,” said Oyster Bay Cove, New York, in its answer Friday (docket 2:22-cv-07807) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip. It was responding to AT&T’s Dec. 22 complaint that the village and its planning and zoning appeals boards subjected AT&T to an “unreasonably protracted” application process to approve an 85-foot-tall cell tower, in violation of the TCA.
All the parties in two 3G telematics class actions against Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA), the U.S. distributor of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Volkswagen vehicles, want court permission to consolidate their cases for pretrial efficiency, they told U.S. District Judge Esther Salas for New Jersey in Newark in a joint letter Thursday (docket 2:22-cv-05896).
Lawyers for defendant Michael Smith in the seven-state robocalling litigation in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Houston are in limbo as they await approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern Florida to be appointed special counsel to represent him, they said in a status report dated Feb. 16 and posted Wednesday (docket 4:20-cv-02021). The attorneys are helpless to defend Smith as the litigation against him proceeds toward trial until the bankruptcy court gives them its OK, they said.