U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich for Arizona in Phoenix denied loanDepot’s motion to dismiss plaintiff Lee Abrahamian’s first amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action for failure to state a claim (see 2308080041), said her signed order Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-00728). She also denied loanDepot’s motion to strike Abrahamian’s class allegations, said her order. The plaintiff seeks damages for the “illegal and unlawful” text messages and calls that loanDepot made to his cellphone number, saying the number has been listed on the national do not call registry since October 2007. But loanDepot argued the complaint "must be dismissed" because Abrahamian failed to allege he “personally listed his number” on the national DNC registry. The TCPA’s regulations require that DNC registrations “must be honored indefinitely,” or until the consumer cancels the registration or the database administrator removes the telephone number, said the judge’s order. The court reads this language to mean that as phone numbers change hands, the DNC registry may not always reflect which consumers requested to be included, it said. The court therefore finds that the language includes the term “indefinitely” to remove the “ambiguity” of which numbers should be protected, it said. At this stage of the case, the court “is permitted to draw reasonable inferences,” and look to the allegations in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, said the order. Regardless of any “textual analysis,” it remains a “reasonable inference” under these facts that Abrahamian registered his phone number with the DNC registry, it said. On loanDepot’s next assertion that Abrahamian can’t establish that the calls at issue qualify as telephone solicitations, the court agrees with him that the calls and the text he received were solicitations, it said. The plaintiff has adequately pleaded that he didn’t provide his phone number to loanDepot or make any sort of business inquiry with the company, the order said. Though the court recognizes that the first call Abrahamian received, without more, “would be insufficient to save this claim, it was immediately followed by a text message” soliciting his business, it said. The defendant then called Abrahamian a second time, it said: “This suggests a common purpose to the calls, especially when taken in conjunction with the text message.”
Plaintiff Raymond Goodrow and defendants Comcast and Citrix Systems jointly moved the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale for an order transferring Goodrow’s class action to the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia under the first-filed doctrine, said their motion Wednesday (docket 0:24-cv-60100). Goodrow’s negligence suit relates to the Citrix data breach in October in which Xfinity customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) was allegedly compromised. Goodrow also claims breach of implied contract, breach of third-party beneficiary contract, and unjust enrichment, alleging that the defendants failed to secure and safeguard his and class members’ PII. Since the first-filed class action related to the Citrix data breach was filed in Pennsylvania, 16 additional class actions have been filed and are pending in the district court in Philadelphia, the motion said. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks for Southern Florida granted two other joint motions for transfer involving the Citrix breach -- Carey v. Comcast Cable Communications (docket 0:24-cv-60008) and Metzger v. Comcast Cable Communications and Citrix Systems (docket 0:24-cv-60126) -- to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania this month.
Plaintiff Michelle Righetti moved to relate 14 class actions arising out of MGM Resorts International’s September data breach, said her motion to consolidate Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-01719) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas. All the cases involve the same defendant, set forth similar or identical proposed classes, raise virtually identical legal and factual issues, and seek the same or substantially similar relief, said the motion, saying consolidation would provide “judicial efficiency and economy of resources.” Righetti sued MGM on Dec. 14, alleging claims for negligence, violations of the California’s Privacy and Customer Records acts and its Unfair Competition Law. The motion includes the 14 class actions plus any additional related cases that may be filed or transferred to the Nevada court, it said.
Optical store chain Eyemart Express tracks users’ activity on its website without their consent and without disclosing the tracking practices, alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 3:24-cv-00621) in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas.
Nearly 800,000 class members suffered theft of their personally identifiable information (PII) and invasion of privacy in a data breach at New York-based labor union Unite Here, alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 1:24-cv-01904) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.
Dotdash Meredith, publisher of more than 40 magazines, including People, Better Homes & Gardens and Southern Living, sells subscribers’ purchase information without providing prior notice of the disclosures, as required under Utah’s Notice of Intent to Sell Nonpublic Personal Information Act (NISNPIA), alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 1:24-cv-00046) in U.S. District Court for Utah.
Sibcy Cline real estate brokerage sent James Chams a series of unsolicited text messages beginning New Year’s Day, offering to list his Mason, Ohio, house though his cellphone number was listed on the national do not call registry since October 2022 and he wasn't interested in selling his property, alleged Chams' Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Tuesday (docket 1:24-cv-00123) in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Cincinnati. Chams has never advertised his cellphone number online or used it for business purposes, said his complaint. The plaintiff also has never done business with Sibcy Cline and has never given the brokerage his consent to call or text his phone number, it said. He phoned the brokerage to inquire why it sent him multiple unsolicited text messages when he wasn’t looking to sell his property. Gayatri Chandran, a Sibcy Cline sales vice president, told him she received his contact information from a real estate lead generation company, Connekter, which indicated she should get in touch with Chams to offer her assistance in listing his property for sale, said the complaint. Chams told Chandran that he made no such inquiry to Connekter and that he wasn’t interested in listing his property for sale, it said. Chams “was very upset about this invasion of his privacy,” it said. The unauthorized solicitation text messages that Chams received from Sibcy Cline have harmed him “in the form of annoyance, nuisance, and invasion of privacy,” it said. The text messages also have occupied his phone line, and have disturbed the use and enjoyment of his phone, it said.
U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch for New Jersey ordered the consolidation of four shareholder derivative class actions against current and former Verizon officers and board members for their alleged roles in concealing Verizon's ownership of toxic lead cables from investors, said the judge’s signed order Tuesday. The parties in all four class actions had stipulated to the consolidation (see 2403060003). The derivative class actions “challenge substantially the same alleged conduct by similar Verizon directors and officers, involve substantially the same questions of law and fact, and are based on substantially the same factual allegations,” said the order. The plaintiffs agree that the Rosen Law Firm should be designated as lead counsel in the consolidated class actions, it said. The first-filed complaint by Andrew Jankowski is designated as the lead case (docket 3:23-cv-21123), said the order.
A Mayo Clinic newsletter customer received a “barrage of unwanted junk mail” after the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research rented or sold information about her subscription purchase to third parties, alleged a privacy class action Tuesday (docket 4:24-cv-00033) in U.S. District Court for Utah in Salt Lake City. The suit alleges Mayo violated Utah’s Notice of Intent to Sell Nonpublic Personal Information Act (NISNPIA).
Univision “secretly discloses” the titles and URLs of videos subscribers view on the Univision Now video streaming platform, in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 5:24-cv-01517) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.