Enrique Munoz's class action is one of a dozen named in a motion before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to transfer the cases in In Re: Citrix Data Security Breach Litigation to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings, said a Thursday filing (docket 1:23-cv-17096) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago.
Two of three plaintiffs in a negligence lawsuit against cloud computing company Citrix have experienced identity theft as a result of the company's Oct. 10 data breach, they alleged in a class action Wednesday (docket 0:24-cv-60070) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale.
Plaintiff Ezra Elstein voluntarily dismissed without prejudice his Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action against Premium Capital Fund only five days after filing his complaint against the business loan company, said his notice Wednesday (docket 1:24-cv-00086) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan. Elstein had alleged the company waged a campaign of “illegal text messaging” to numbers listed on the national do not call registry (see 2401070001).
Plaintiff Porsche Stegall and defendant New York Tribeca Group (NYTG) agreed to dismiss with prejudice the entirety of Stegall’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against the company, said their stipulation Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-02862) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. The dismissal is “without costs to any party,” said the stipulation. Stegall had alleged in her May 5 class action that NYTG, a commercial loan company, runs “an aggressive cold-calling telemarketing campaign” that violates the TCPA because it places calls to residential numbers listed on the national do not call registry (see 2305080003).
Within the federal government’s “web of indecipherable acronyms and byzantine programs,” the national do not call registry “stands out as a model of clarity,” said plaintiff Monica Abboud’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Wednesday (docket 4:24-cv-00102) in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Houston to stop the Haus of Skin Aesthetics, a skin care company, from texting her with product solicitations. The DNC registry “means what it says,” said Abboud’s complaint. “If a person wishes to no longer receive telephone solicitations, he can add his number to the list,” it said. The Texas resident listed her cellphone number on the registry in 2020, yet the company still hounded her with text messages, said her complaint. Before filing the lawsuit, Abboud’s counsel contacted the company, which didn’t deny sending the texts, it said. Abboud and her potential class members “were harmed by the conduct that invaded their privacy,” the complaint said.
U.S. District Judge David Godbey for Northern Texas in Dallas consolidated 20 class actions against Mr. Cooper Group, a mortgage servicing company, said his signed order Tuesday (docket 3:23-CV-02453). Plaintiffs in the various cases all allege that the company has been less than transparent about the scope and gravity of the data breach it incurred and began informing customers about in early November.
Quimbee, a website tailored to law students, violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information of plaintiff Isaac Shapiro and his class members, including a record of case brief videos they watched on the website, without their consent, alleged Shapiro’s Jan. 4 class action (docket 4:24-cv-00079) against Quimbee’s parent company, Sellers International, in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland. Quimbee installed the HubSpot tracking code on its website, which tracks and records visitors’ private video consumption, said the complaint. “Behind the scenes” of the webpages that display the case briefs, and “unbeknownst” to video viewers, this code collects visitors’ video-watching history and discloses it to HubSpot, it said. HubSpot is a customer relations management platform, “which offers its users the power to automate marketing, lead generation, and sales engagement tools,” said the complaint. Shapiro’s three-count complaint seeks an award of statutory damages “to the extent available,” plus punitive damages, “as warranted, in an amount to be determined at trial.”
Two class actions involving the May data breach of Progress Software Corp. were transferred to In Re: MOVEit Customer Data Security Breach Litigation in conditional transfer order 26 (CTO-26) before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Thursday. Mendez v. Progress Software Corp. (docket 1:24-cv-00018) and Segal et al v. Corebridge Financial (docket 4:23-cv-03727) involve questions of fact that are common to the actions previously transferred to the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston and assigned to U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, said the order. Thursday, PSC said transfer of Newman v. American Multi-Cinema Inc. (docket 2:23-cv-02358) to the MDL is warranted because it shares common questions of fact with cases in the MDL and transfer will promote “the just and efficient conduct of this litigation.” PSC was responding to defendant AMC’s Dec. 21 motion to vacate CTO-20, in which the movie chain said efficiency in Newman would be best achieved outside the MDL. If Newman were transferred, it would unnecessarily delay resolution of AMC’s motion to compel arbitration, which, if granted, would allow the case to proceed in arbitration, not a court of law, it said. The panel should allow the District of Kansas time to rule on the motion to compel arbitration in Newman before transferring it to the MDL, it said. In her Dec. 21 response opposing arbitration (docket 2:23-CV-02358), plaintiff Melanie Newman said her claims arise from the MOVEit data breach “that occurred long after she terminated her employment relationship with AMC.” AMC “now seeks to avoid answering to Plaintiff’s claims arising out of the data breach by attempting to tie its failure to implement reasonable data security to Plaintiff’s role as an employee of the company.”
AT&T and TS Mobility’s “deceptive trade practices” and "failure to supervise" their employees have deceived customers in violation of New Jersey law, said a Dec. 1 negligence class action in Bergen County Superior Court, removed Wednesday to U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark (docket 2:24-cv-00174).
MarketPro Homebuyers, a real estate marketing company and leads generation business, has complied with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act “and is entitled to each defense stated in the TCPA and any and all limitations of liability,” said its answer Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-02364) in U.S. District Court for Maryland in Baltimore to the class action allegations of plaintiffs Erin Wilcox and Connie Slingbaum (see 2308300002). The plaintiffs allege that MarketPro bombards consumers whose numbers are listed on the national do not call registry with text-message solicitations seeking to buy their homes for cash “as is.” But the plaintiffs’ claims are barred because MarketPro didn’t initiate any telephone solicitations nor engage in telemarketing activity directed to them, said MarketPro’s answer. The plaintiffs also failed to take reasonable steps “to mitigate, alter, reduce, or otherwise diminish the alleged damages,” and so they’re barred “from recovering any damages that might have been prevented,” it said. MarketPro also contends that the plaintiffs aren’t the owners of the cellphone numbers identified in their complaint, and that they don’t maintain those numbers “as personal residential numbers,” it said.