Huerta v. T-Mobile USA Inc ( 2021 )

1 THE HONORABLE BARBARA J. ROTHSTEIN 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 8 No. 2:21-cv-01183-BJR ALEXIS HUERTA, 9 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO STAY PROCEEDINGS PENDING 10 v. JPML’S RULING ON TRANSFER 11 T-MOBILE USA, INC., 12 Defendant. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Perkins Coie LLP 1 Under Western District of Washington Local Rules 7(d)(1) and 10(g), Plaintiff Alexis 2 Huerta and Defendant T-Mobile USA, Inc. (together “the Parties”), move the Court to stay all 3 proceedings and deadlines in this action pending a ruling by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict 4 Litigation (“JPML”) on the pending motion to transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1407. See In re: T-Mobile 5 Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig., MDL No. 3019 (ECF No. 1). In support of this motion, the 6 Parties state: 7 Plaintiff filed this case on August 31, 2021 and served T-Mobile on September 9, 2021. 8 See ECF No. 1. Plaintiff alleges T-Mobile failed to adequately safeguard the personal information 9 of its customers from a criminal third-party actor. Id. ¶¶ 1–3. The plaintiffs in about 30 putative 10 class actions have made similar allegations against T-Mobile based on the data-security incident. 11 See In re T-Mobile, MDL No. 3019 (ECF Nos. 1-1, 2, 8-1, 11, 20, 48, 62). These cases are pending 12 in eight federal judicial districts. See id. 13 Good cause exists for a stay because—given the number of similar, overlapping cases—it 14 is likely the JPML will grant the pending motion to transfer and coordinate or consolidate the 15 related cases for pretrial proceedings under 28 U.S.C. § 1407. See id. (ECF No. 1). And the 16 plaintiffs who filed the JPML transfer motion subsequently noticed this case because of its related 17 nature. See id. (ECF No. 20). So to conserve judicial resources and the resources of the Parties in 18 addressing multiple, related putative class actions, the Parties agree to this stay. Under these 19 circumstances, “[c]ourts frequently grant stays pending a decision by the MDL Panel regarding 20 whether to transfer a case.” Good v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 5 F.Supp.2d 804, 809 (N.D. Cal. 21 1998); see Short v. Hyundai Motor Am. Inc., No. C19-0318JLR,, 2019 WL 3067251 (W.D. Wash. 22 July 12, 2019) (granting stay pending JPML’s ruling on Section 1407 motion); Gonzalez v. Merck 23 & Co., No. 07-cv-3034, 2007 WL 2220286, at *2 (E.D. Wash. Aug. 2, 2007) (granting defendant’s 24 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Perkins Coie LLP 1 motion to stay pending transfer decision and noting that “well settled case law . . . dictates a stay 2 should be granted to promote judicial economy”); Rivers v. Walt Disney Co., 980 F. Supp. 1358, 3 1362 (C.D. Cal. 1997) (granting stay pending JPML’s ruling because “a majority of courts have 4 concluded that it is often appropriate to stay preliminary pretrial proceedings while a motion to 5 transfer and consolidate is pending with the MDL Panel”); Bonefant v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 6 No. 07-cv-60301, 2007 WL 2409980, at *1 (S.D. Fla. July 31, 2007) (“[I]t is common practice for 7 courts to stay an action pending a transfer decision by the JPML.”). 8 And like most courts, this Court recently stayed a case pending the JPML’s ruling on a 9 motion to transfer. Shattuck v. A1A, Inc., No. 2:21-cv-00945-BJR, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 164045 10 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 30, 2021) (Rothstein, J.) (granting stay over plaintiff’s opposition). The Court 11 should do so again and grant the Parties a short stay of proceedings until the JPML rules on the 12 pending motion to transfer under Section 1407. 13 14 Dated: September 28, 2021 15 By: /s/ Steve Y. Koh Steve Y. Koh, WSBA No. 23284 16 Kathleen M. O’Sullivan, WSBA No. 27850 Lauren J. Tsuji, WSBA No. 55839 17 PERKINS COIE LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 18 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Telephone: 206.359.8000 19 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 E-mail: SKoh@perkinscoie.com 20 KOSullivan@perkinscoie.com LTsuji@perkinscoie.com 21 Kristine McAlister Brown (pro hac vice) 22 ALSTON & BIRD LLP 1201 West Peachtree Street 23 Atlanta, GA 30309 Telephone: (404) 881-7000 24 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Perkins Coie LLP 1 Facsimile: (404) 881-7777 E-Mail: kristy.brown@alston.com 2 Attorneys for Defendant T-Mobile USA, Inc. 3 By: /s/ Beth E. Terrell 4 Beth E. Terrell, WSBA No. 26759 TERRELL MARSHALL LAW GROUP PLLC 5 936 N. 34th Street, Suite 300 Seattle, Washington 98103 6 Telephone: (206) 816-6603 Facsimile: (206) 319-5450 7 E-Mail: bterrell@terrellmarshall.com 8 Laurence D. King (pro hac vice forthcoming) Matthew George (pro hac vice forthcoming) 9 KAPLAN FOX & KILSHEIMER LLP 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 1560 10 Oakland, California 94612 Telephone: (415) 772-4700 11 Facsimile: (415) 772-4707 E-mail: lking@kaplanfox.com 12 mgeorge@kaplanfox.com 13 David Silver (pro hac vice forthcoming) SILVER MILLER 14 11780 West Sample Road Coral Springs, FL 33065 15 Telephone: (954) 516-6000 Email: dsilver@silvermiller.com 16 Attorneys for Plaintiff 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Perkins Coie LLP 1 ORDER 2 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated this 29th day of September 2021. 3 4 s/Barbara J. Rothstein 5 Barbara J. Rothstein U.S. District Court Judge 6 7 8 Presented by: 9 /s/ Steve Y. Koh 10 Steve Y. Koh, WSBA No. 23284 Kathleen M. O’Sullivan, WSBA No. 27850 11 Lauren J. Tsuji, WSBA No. 55839 PERKINS COIE LLP 12 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 13 Telephone: 206.359.8000 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 14 E-mail: SKoh@perkinscoie.com KOSullivan@perkinscoie.com 15 LTsuji@perkinscoie.com 16 Kristine McAlister Brown (pro hac vice) ALSTON & BIRD LLP 17 1201 West Peachtree Street Atlanta, GA 30309 18 Telephone: (404) 881-7000 Facsimile: (404) 881-7777 19 E-Mail: kristy.brown@alston.com Attorneys for Defendant T-Mobile USA, Inc. 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Perkins Coie LLP