Brackman 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-01277-BJR MATTHEW BRACKMAN, individually and on 9 behalf of all others similarly situated, STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER Plaintiff, TO STAY PROCEEDINGS PENDING 10 JPML’S RULING ON TRANSFER v. 11 T-MOBILE USA, INC., 12 Defendant. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO Perkins Coie LLP 1 Under Western District of Washington Local Rules 7(d)(1) and 10(g), Plaintiff Matthew 2 Brackman 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- 5 Mobile Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig., MDL No. 3019 (ECF No. 1). In support of this motion, 6 the Parties state: 7 Plaintiff filed this case on September 21, 2021 and served T-Mobile on September 28, 8 2021. See ECF No. 1. Plaintiff alleges T-Mobile failed to adequately safeguard the personal 9 information of its customers from a criminal third-party actor. Id. The plaintiffs in over 30 10 putative class actions have made similar allegations against T-Mobile based on the data-security 11 incident. See In re T-Mobile, MDL No. 3019 (ECF Nos. 1-1, 2, 8-1, 11, 20, 48, 62, 65). These 12 cases are pending in over 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). This case was 16 noticed to the JPML because of its related nature. See id. (ECF No. 65). In order to conserve 17 judicial resources and the resources of the Parties in addressing multiple, related putative class 18 actions, the Parties agree to this stay. Under these circumstances, “[c]ourts frequently grant stays 19 pending a decision by the MDL Panel regarding whether to transfer a case.” Good v. Prudential 20 Ins. Co. of Am., 5 F.Supp.2d 804, 809 (N.D. Cal. 1998); see Short v. Hyundai Motor Am. Inc., No. 21 C19-0318JLR,, 2019 WL 3067251 (W.D. Wash. July 12, 2019) (granting stay pending JPML’s 22 ruling on Section 1407 motion); Gonzalez v. Merck & Co., No. 07-cv-3034, 2007 WL 2220286, 23 at *2 (E.D. Wash. Aug. 2, 2007) (granting defendant’s motion to stay pending transfer decision 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO Perkins Coie LLP 1 and noting that “well settled case law . . . dictates a stay should be granted to promote judicial 2 economy”); Rivers v. Walt Disney Co., 980 F. Supp. 1358, 1362 (C.D. Cal. 1997) (granting stay 3 pending JPML’s ruling because “a majority of courts have concluded that it is often appropriate to 4 stay preliminary pretrial proceedings while a motion to transfer and consolidate is pending with 5 the MDL Panel”); Bonefant v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., No. 07-cv-60301, 2007 WL 2409980, 6 at *1 (S.D. Fla. July 31, 2007) (“[I]t is common practice for courts to stay an action pending a 7 transfer decision by the JPML.”). 8 And like most courts, this Court recently stayed six cases pending the JPML’s ruling on a 9 motion to transfer. See Donovan v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 2:21-cv-01138-BJR (W.D. Wash. 10 filed Sept. 15, 2021) (ECF No. 12); Akins v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 2:21-cv-01179-BJR (W.D. 11 Wash. filed Sept. 15, 2021) (ECF No. 8); Hughes v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 2:21-cv-01139-BJR 12 (W.D. Wash. filed Sept. 17, 2021) (ECF No. 14); Villalon v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 2:21-cv- 13 1148-BJR (W.D. Wash. filed Sept. 17, 2021) (ECF No. 11); Espanoza v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., No. 14 2:21-cv-1119-BJR (W.D. Wash. filed Sept. 17, 2021) (ECF No. 29); Huerta v. T-Mobile USA, 15 Inc., No. 2:21-cv-01183-BJR (W.D. Wash. filed Aug. 31, 2021) (ECF No. 10). The Court should 16 do so again and grant the Parties a short stay of proceedings until the JPML rules on the pending 17 motion to transfer under Section 1407. 18 19 Dated: October 5, 2021 20 By: /s/ Steve Y. Koh Steve Y. Koh, WSBA No. 23284 21 Kathleen M. O’Sullivan, WSBA No. 27850 Lauren J. Tsuji, WSBA No. 55839 22 PERKINS COIE LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 23 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Telephone: 206.359.8000 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO Perkins Coie LLP 1 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 E-mail: SKoh@perkinscoie.com 2 KOSullivan@perkinscoie.com LTsuji@perkinscoie.com 3 Kristine McAlister Brown (pro hac vice) 4 ALSTON & BIRD LLP 1201 West Peachtree Street 5 Atlanta, GA 30309 Telephone: (404) 881-7000 6 Facsimile: (404) 881-7777 E-Mail: kristy.brown@alston.com 7 Attorneys for Defendant T-Mobile USA, Inc. 8 By: /s/ Matthew J. Ide 9 Matthew J. Ide, WSBA No. 26002 IDE LAW OFFICE 10 7900 SE 28th Street, Suite 500 Mercer Island, WA 98040 11 Telephone: (206) 625-1326 Facsimile: (206) 622-0909 12 Email: mjide@yahoo.com 13 Charles Schaffer, Esq. (pro hac vice to be filed) Nicholas J. Elia, Esq. 14 LEVIN SEDRAN & BERMAN LLP 510 Walnut Street, Suite 500 15 Philadelphia, PA 19106 dlevin@lfsblaw.com 16 nelia@lfsblaw.com 17 Jeffrey S. Goldenberg, Esq. (pro hac vice to be filed) GOLDENBERG SCHNEIDER, LPA 18 4445 Lake Forest Drive, Suite 490 Cincinnati, OH 45242 19 jgoldenberg@gs-legal.com 20 Joseph Lyon, Esq. (pro hac vice to be filed) THE LYON FIRM, LLC 21 2754 Erie Ave Cincinnati, OH 45208 22 jlyon@thelyonfirm.com 23 Attorneys for Plaintiff 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO Perkins Coie LLP 1 ORDER IT IS SO ORDERED. 2 Dated this 6th day of October 2021. 3 4 s/Barbara J. Rothstein 5 Barbara J. Rothstein U.S. District Court Judge 6 7 8 Presented by: By: /s/ Steve Y. Koh 9 Steve Y. Koh, WSBA No. 23284 Kathleen M. O’Sullivan, WSBA No. 27850 10 Lauren J. Tsuji, WSBA No. 55839 PERKINS COIE LLP 11 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 12 Telephone: 206.359.8000 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 13 E-mail: SKoh@perkinscoie.com KOSullivan@perkinscoie.com 14 LTsuji@perkinscoie.com 15 Kristine McAlister Brown (pro hac vice) ALSTON & BIRD LLP 16 1201 West Peachtree Street Atlanta, GA 30309 17 Telephone: (404) 881-7000 Facsimile: (404) 881-7777 18 E-Mail: kristy.brown@alston.com 19 Attorneys for Defendant T-Mobile USA, Inc. 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO Perkins Coie LLP