Plaintiff Dennis DePalma and defendant Verizon stipulate to the voluntary dismissal with prejudice “of all claims asserted or that could have been asserted in this action,” said their notice Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-22318) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark. Each party will bear its own attorneys’ fees and costs, it said. The parties ask that the court retain jurisdiction to enforce the terms of their settlement, it said. DePalma alleged he became a victim of cryptocurrency fraud when a John Doe “scammer” stole nearly $34,000 from his Coinbase account through a SIM swap at a Verizon store in Woodbury, Minnesota, that Verizon should have prevented (see 2311140003).

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer for Southern New York in Manhattan denied “in substantial part” SiriusXM’s motion to dismiss the fraud complaint of Christopher Carovillano and Steven Brandt (see 2311140038), said the judge’s signed opinion and order Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-04723). He granted the motion to dismiss only as to the complaint’s unjust enrichment claims and claims for injunctive relief, said the order. The plaintiffs allege that SiriusXM engages in a “false advertising and deceptive pricing scheme” when it markets and promotes its music plans “at lower prices than it actually charges.” The complaint “centrally alleges” that SiriusXM fails to inform subscribers who sign up for its music plans by phone of the 21.4% royalty fee before their purchase, and that SiriusXM references the fee only in obscure and inadequate terms on its website. “At this stage,” accepting the complaint’s “well-pled factual allegations as true,” the court finds that these “plausibly allege” that SiriusXM’s disclosures about the fee were misleading, in violation of sections 349 and 350 of the New York General Business Law, said the order. SiriusXM must answer the complaint by Feb. 20, it said.

Subrogee plaintiff Credendo-Short-Term Non-EU Risks, a Belgian insurer, dismissed all claims, without prejudice, asserted in its fraud claim against defendant Bruce Salzman, said its voluntary dismissal of claims notice Friday (docket 1:23-cv-24258) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami. The plaintiff’s November fraud complaint (see 2311080014) alleges defendants Telco Solutions, Telco Enterprise and Voister received VoIP minutes from Milan-based Golem under “misrepresented pretenses” and didn’t pay for them. Salzman was one of 11 individuals and companies named in the alleged scheme in which the defendants “fraudulently reinstated certain companies,” misappropriated corporate identities to enter into "fraudulent contracts for VoIP services,” incorporated “identically-named” companies to open escrow accounts to send and receive funds under the fraudulent contracts, and defrauded the plaintiff of over 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million).

Plaintiff Logan Aldridge’s data breach class action against Norton Healthcare was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers for Kentucky in Louisville after Judge Benjamin Beaton recused himself, a reassignment order Thursday said (docket 3:24-cv-00025). Aldridge alleges that the seven months Norton waited between learning of a May 9 data breach in its servers and when it notified patients Dec. 8 deprived him and class members of promptly mitigating "potential adverse consequences” resulting from that delay (see 2401160032).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle Dudek for Middle Florida in Fort Myers scheduled a preliminary pretrial videoconference for Feb. 20 at 10 a.m. in the fraud case brought by Basket Entertainment against its former vice president, John Cannata, said a text-only docket entry Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-01028). The parties’ joint case management report is due Feb. 20, it said. Basket, a developer of online games and mobile apps for the Roblox platform, hired Cannata in July and added him to its board to identify acquisition targets to grow its user base, but Basket alleges that Cannata almost immediately “engaged in an outrageous campaign of double-dealing” (see 2311140004). It contends that Cannata went behind the company’s back and acquired ownership interests in at least two online games for himself “without ever presenting them as opportunities” to his employer.

Google made no changes to Google Maps routing or notifications to users despite being told by South African authorities and the U.S. State Department about violent attacks in early 2023 along a stretch of highway dubbed “Hell Run,” alleged a negligence complaint Tuesday (docket 24-cv-430061) in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Plaintiffs Jason and Katharine Zoladz of Los Angeles County allege Google Maps gave them “no warning of the grave dangers they faced” on an Oct. 24 drive to Cape Town International Airport when the app directed them to take a left onto New Eisleben Road, which intersects with “Hell Run.” When Jason Zoladz stopped at a red light, a gang of armed assailants attacked, with one of the attackers throwing a paving brick through the driver’s side window, “smashing the glass, and Jason’s jaw, into pieces," the complaint said. The same brick then “careened into Katharine,” injuring her arm, it said. The assailants dragged the couple from the car, stole their credit cards, phones and cash “and left Jason bleeding by the side of the road,” it said. The couple continues to suffer emotional distress from the incident, it said. Three weeks after the attack on the Zoladzes, Google “finally agreed to stop Google Maps from directing users to travel these dangerous routes,” it said. Google had a duty to protect and warn the plaintiffs from “known hazards and must not expose customers to a known, serious risk of harm,” the complaint said. Gangs chose New Eisleben Road as a “prime site for these violent attacks” because it was difficult for victims to escape the area due to a high concentration of vehicles and pedestrians and because “the gangs knew that Google Maps sent unsuspecting tourists driving rental cars to the airport along these routes,” it said. It cited three similar incidents from 2023, including two that led to driver deaths. Google had “direct knowledge of dangers its users would face when directed by Google Maps via specific routes to the Cape Down airport,” the complaint said: A “simple matter of software programming” would have taken “no more than a few hours to implement, test, and roll out.” The Zoladzes assert claims of negligence and gross negligence, negligent failure to warn, negligent undertaking and negligent infliction of emotional distress on a bystander. They seek punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest and legal costs. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda emailed Thursday: "We take driver safety very seriously and are currently reviewing the lawsuit. We consider a wide range of factors to deliver routes -- like road size, directness and estimated travel time -- and continually work to improve our routing."

Appellant Ganiyu Jaiyeola’s opening brief is due March 11 in his appeal for injunctive relief to bar Apple, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon from advertising that the iPhone 15 Pro is a titanium device when it’s fashioned mostly from aluminum, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s time schedule order Wednesday (docket 24-531). The appellees’ answering brief is due April 10, and Jaiyeola’s optional reply brief is due within 21 days of service of the answering brief, said the order. Jaiyeola has a 1995 doctorate in materials science from the University of Connecticut, and he worked as a metallurgist for Apple for 18 months through Aug. 8 (see 2401080002). He contends there’s “a lot more” aluminum alloy than titanium alloy in the iPhone 15 Pro.

The U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle entered an order of default Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-01879) against five defendants for failure to answer Amazon’s Dec. 7 complaint. Amazon sued 27 individual defendants and 20 unknown John Does in a fraud complaint involving REKK, a global organization allegedly responsible for stealing millions of dollars' worth of products from Amazon’s online stores through “systematic refund abuse” (see 2312080052).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Kiel for New Jersey in Newark consolidated 15 data breach class actions against HealthEC, a data analytics company, said his signed order Monday (docket 2:24-cv-00026). All 15 cases seek to represent a class of individuals affected by the cybersecurity incident disclosed by HealthEC in December, “with substantially similar questions of fact and law,” said the order. Consolidation under Rule 42 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Local Rule 42 will serve the court, the parties “and the interests of justice by maximizing efficiency, minimizing redundancies, and eliminating the threat of inconsistent rulings,” said the order.

Whitepages designed its terms of service “in an oppressive and unscrupulous manner” to avoid liability for its “ongoing scheme” to “deceive consumers,” alleged a complaint Friday (docket 2:24-cv-00121) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle. Plaintiff Rosa Lee Klaneski, of Farmington, Connecticut, entered into a contract with Whitepages “several years” prior to the complaint, under which she paid $4.99 monthly, now $5.99 per month, for a “premium membership” that enabled ad-free searches for individuals throughout the U.S., the complaint said. As part of her “personal lookups,” Whitepages sent unsolicited emails to her inbox informing her of additional data relevant to individuals she was searching, “or who were related somehow to the individuals she was searching," it said. One email she received said a social acquaintance of hers, known to have “only the highest of morals and scruples” now had a criminal record as part of her public record, the complaint said. Enticed by the subject line, “New Criminal Record Update,” Klaneski was solicited in the email to buy a background report revealing the advertised criminal record for $19.99, plus taxes and fees. Though the information was accurate, the “'new criminal record was actually a traffic citation from 2006” for illegal display of a handicapped plate in a parked vehicle, “a non-moving vehicular violation whose criminality and newness was suspect,” the complaint said. Klaneski sued Whitepages in her local Connecticut small claims court over “what she believed to be a garden variety dispute over the merchantability of virtual goods alleging unfair trade practices but not a federal question,” she said. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss, saying what it called “new information” was new to its database. Such an answer “offends all notions of fair play,” said Klaneski, who alleged in her amended complaint in that action a violation of the Can-Spam Act. From April 20 to Nov. 23, Whitepages emailed Klaneski, “no fewer than 800 times” about new records, with only slight relevance and “suspect” connection to her, said the complaint. Whitepages sells “unmerchantable data through misleading spam emails and it avoids liability through an unconscionable terms of service that limits the redressability of grievances,” the complaint said. Klaneski 's claims include violation of the Can-Spam Act and Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, breach of contract, tortious interference with business expectancies and unjust enrichment. She seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, an order of restitution, injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees.