U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff for Southern New York in Manhattan denied Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman's motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment order against them for their roles in the robocall campaign designed to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the run-up to the 2020 election (see 2402290047), said the judge’s signed order Tuesday (docket 1:20-cv-08668). Rakoff’s single-page order cited the reasons stated in the plaintiffs’ opposition as the rationale for his denial. The plaintiffs, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), argued in their opposition that the defendants have failed to demonstrate the extraordinary circumstances justifying the relief they seek (see 2403050054). A five-day jury trial in the damages phase of the case is scheduled to begin April 15.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein for Southern New York in Manhattan denied without prejudice Comcast’s Jan. 26 motion to dismiss or sever MaxLinear’s Dec. 1 counterclaims in their broadband gateways dispute, said his text-only order Monday (docket 1:23-cv-04436). Rule 13 allows permissive counterclaims, said the order. The goal of resolving all disputes in one proceeding “outweighs, at this time, any reason for dismissal or severance,” it said. The court will govern these proceedings “to assure swift and economical proceedings,” it said. The order and sequence of trials “can be left for a later date,” it said. The completion dates of discovery “will be regulated by the court to avoid prejudice to either plaintiff or defendant,” it said. Comcast sued MaxLinear May 26 to bar the chipmaker from breaching its contractual obligations to support millions of broadband gateways used to provide internet service to Comcast customers (see 2305300045). MaxLinear’s counterclaims for breach of contract, unfair competition and theft of trade secrets allege that Comcast scaled back its existing purchase orders of MaxLinear products and ultimately ceased the purchase of any new MaxLinear products altogether. But rather than pay MaxLinear for a proprietary technology that MaxLinear developed for Comcast to allow it to succeed in the fiber-optic age, Comcast stole the idea, claimed it as its own, and hired MaxLinear’s competitor to commercialize it, allege the counterclains.

Apple has blocked all access to the email account of plaintiff Keyvan Samini, Mobix Labs president-chief financial officer, who twice sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction last month to enjoin Apple from restoring external access to his iCloud email account, said a Monday stipulation (8:24-cv-00249) filed by both parties in U.S. District Court for Central California in Santa Ana. Suspending unauthorized access to the account, which was hacked Jan. 30 by John Doe bad actors from Uzbekistan, was “of tantamount importance” to Samini and Mobix, a components supplier for the Navy’s Tomahawk missile program, said Samini’s ex parte application last week (see 2402270049) for a TRO and preliminary injunction. Samini agreed to dismiss his action against Apple after the parties agreed to appropriate relief, said the stipulation. The company provided Samini its standard consent form, authorizing the creation of a copy of the data in his email account and its alias, and accordingly provided Samini and his counsel the information and credentials necessary to access the copy of his email account’s data, it said. Samini has within 10 days of the entry of the order to confirm to Apple that he has obtained and copied the data as required; Apple will then permanently delete the email account, it said. Within 10 days of the entry of the order, Apple will provide Samini a log of the IP addresses that have accessed the email account from Jan. 25 to Feb. 15, it said. By March 15, Samini will dismiss Apple without prejudice on completion of the events described in the stipulation, it said. If the events have not been completed, and a notice of voluntary dismissal not submitted by March 14, the parties will file a status report March 15, explaining the delay, it said. Neither Samini nor Apple will be entitled to its fees or costs, it said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen for Northern California in San Jose denied plaintiff Bradford Clements’ motion for sanctions against T-Mobile for flouting the court’s Aug. 2 discovery order (see 2401040011), said the judge’s signed order Monday (docket 5:22-cv-07512). The request for sanctions is “procedurally improper” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 and untimely under the Northern District of California Civil Local Rules, said the order. If Clements believed he was entitled to discovery responses that were more substantive, “then the appropriate next step would have been to bring a motion to compel,” it said. Such a motion would have provided the court with a timely understanding as to how and where T-Mobile’s responses were incomplete and evasive, as Clements contends, it said. Rule 37(a) “speaks to motions to compel discovery responses and the sanctions available if such a motion is granted," it said. But Clements didn’t move to compel responses and therefore can’t avail himself of Rule 37(a)’s remedies, it said. T-Mobile served written responses to Clements’ discovery requests, and Clements’ complaints about those responses should have come to the court “via a timely motion to compel,” it said. His complaint that T-Mobile refused to meet and confer following the Aug. 28 round of discovery responses “is well taken,” said the order. T-Mobile’s behavior in this regard “is in no way condoned” by the court by denial of this motion, it said.

Ten individual and group plaintiffs oppose the Feb. 28 motion for reconsideration of the March 2023 order granting summary judgment against Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman for their roles in the robocall campaign designed to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the run-up to the 2020 election (see 2402290047), said their opposition Monday (docket 1:20-cv-08668) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan. The defendants have failed to demonstrate the extraordinary circumstances justifying the relief they seek, said the plaintiffs, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). The court already “considered and rejected” issues raised in their motion when it ruled that Wohl and Burkman acted intentionally in intimidating voters with their robocall campaign by making threats of legal, economic and physical harm, said the opposition.

Plaintiff Basket Entertainment and defendant John Cannata picked retired judge Robert Dondero to mediate their employment dispute (see 2402130018), said their notice Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-01028) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Fort Myers. Dondero spent 10 years on the California Court of Appeal and 17 years as a Superior Court judge in San Francisco, per his JAMS bio. Basket, a developer of online games and mobile apps for the Roblox platform, hired Cannata as vice president and placed him on the board in July to identify acquisition targets to grow its user base. It alleges Cannata almost immediately went behind its back and acquired ownership interests in at least two online games for himself without ever presenting them as opportunities to his employer. The defendant contends that he operates one of the most successful gaming studios on the Roblox platform. He alleges Basket "fraudulently induced" him last summer to sign an "asset contribution agreement" under which he joined Basket’s board and contributed a number of his companies’ video games to Basket. He further alleges that Basket never paid him for his services.

Ligado is fighting efforts by Iridium and aviation associations to file an amicus brief supporting dismissal of Ligado litigation against the U.S. government regarding the company's planned L-band use (see 2402120009). In a U.S. Court of Federal Claims opposition Friday (docket 1:23-cv-01797), Ligado said it would be improper for Iridium to participate as an amicus for the defense since Iridium "is not a friend of this Court [but] is a friend (and business partner) of a party -- the United States Government." Ligado said Iridium "is merely another arm of the United States Government in this matter, parroting the Government’s arguments with interests that are perfectly aligned." Ligado said Iridium's disputing of FCC findings and facts alleged in the complaint is irrelevant for now, as at the current stage of the litigation the court must accept as true the allegations in Ligado's complaint. Ligado said Iridium's advancement of legal arguments infringes on DOJ's "statutorily mandated exclusive authority and responsibility to litigate on behalf of the United States."

Core Telecom Systems entered a $1.3 million purchase order with Allied Bolt Products in August 2022 for custom “pole line hardware” for use by a national telecommunications customer, but due to logistics problems on its customer’s end it refused to take delivery of the order, alleges Allied. In a breach of contract complaint filed Wednesday (docket 7:24-cv-01314) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in White Plains, Allied alleges Core acknowledged in writing that the PO "was non-cancellable." The PO was for 576,000 units of various bolts, washers and machine screws, said the complaint. That Core reneged on the PO left Allied “with a massive quantity of procured and manufactured material without a buyer,” it said. Allied “fully performed its obligations” under the PO by procuring and producing the materials requested by Core, it said. Allied is entitled to damages and incidental damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but "in no event less than $1 million," plus interest, dating to March 1, the first shipping date under the PO.

Plaintiff Legacy Equity Advisors, a venture capital firm, agreed with defendant AT&T that its case should be dismissed with prejudice, said their stipulation of dismissal Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-00979) in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas. Each party will bear its own attorneys’ fees, expenses and costs, said the stipulation. A judge granted in part and denied in part AT&T’s motion to dismiss Legacy’s complaint alleging that AT&T deprived it of bidding on DirecTV and other assets it was divesting because the equity firm is Black-owned (see 2309180027). The case then advanced no further than a first amended complaint in which Legacy alleged that a white firm with a weaker resume got a better retail deal from AT&T for 88 stores (see 2310160009).

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles for Southern Florida in Miami ordered Simple Health Plans and its CEO Steven Dorfman to pay $195 million for violating the FTC's telemarketing sales rule, said Gayles' signed Feb. 7 order (docket 0:18-cv-62593), as publicized in an FTC news release Friday. The scheme included selling "sham health care plans that did not deliver the coverage or benefits they promised and effectively left consumers uninsured and exposed to limitless medical expenses," the agency said. Also fined and banned from engaging in future telemarketing schemes were Health Benefits One, Health Center Management, Innovative Customer Care, Simple Insurance Leads and Senior Benefits One.