501 results for 'court:"USDC Northern District of Illinois"'.
J. Alonso grants a nutrition company’s motion to strike consumer class allegations and partially grants the company’s motion to dismiss the would-be class representative’s fraud claims. The nutrition company marketed its Think! protein bars as containing no artificial sweeteners, despite containing maltitol syrup, an artificial sweetener. The class rep consumer brought multiple fraud claims as well as nationwide class claims under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act. But the court finds the ICFA does not apply to consumers outside Illinois, and also finds that the individual fraud claims are incongruous with multiple states’ differing fraud laws. However, it allows the class representative’s unjust enrichment claims to proceed.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Alonso, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv933, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Consumer Law, Class Action
J. Kendall partially grants a putative class’ motion to impose spoliation sanctions on a telecommunications company for its failure to preserve information relevant this antitrust case over the 2017 attempted merger of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Tribune Media Company. The court, finding that the telecommunications company didn’t preserve several important documents and electronic records after it had a duty to do so, grants fee shifting sanctions against the company. The class has until Sept. 21 to file their fee petition, while the telecommunications company has until Oct. 5 to file any objections.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kendall, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv6785, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Antitrust, Sanctions, Negligence
J. Kennelly grants an auto dealer’s motion to stay this contract case, brought by a consumer who bought a car with defective parts from the dealer, and compel arbitration instead. The court finds that the consumer agreed several times to an arbitration clause when he signed his car paperwork with the dealer.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kennelly, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 123cv108, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Arbitration, Vehicle, Contract
J. Wood partially grants several European confectionary companies’ motion to dismiss race discrimination and wrongful termination claims brought by a Black former maintenance employee. The Black former employee claims his white supervisor fired him from his job in the companies’ Illinois production facility for no reason other than his race. The court finds the former employee didn’t exhaust all his non-legal options before pursuing his race discrimination Title VII claim, but allows his successor liability claim against the Italian company that bought the Illinois facility from the Swiss company to stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 29, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv7119, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Leinenweber dismisses a Medicaid benefits class action, finding the class members’ claims became moot in November 2022. The suing nursing home residents were approved to receive Medicaid benefits, but were nevertheless charged directly for their nursing care allegedly because the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services rejected a separate set of their nursing home resident-specific paperwork. Regardless of the substance of their class Medicaid claims, the court finds the named class representatives lack standing as they have had no outstanding healthcare invoices since November 2022.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Leinenweber, Filed On: August 29, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv63, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Medicaid, Negligence, Class Action
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J. Chang grants an insurance policyholder’s motion for a declaration that this insurance dispute, over whether and what amount of coverage an insurance company owes the policyholder for his property’s ice damage, is best settled via an appraisal process.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Chang, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv905, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Contract
J. Tharp denies a third party investment firm’s motion to compel arbitration in this RICO suit, finding it waited too long before making the motion. The court also finds that, as it was not a signatory to the underlying disputed loans between a lending firm and a borrower, it has not shown any nonparty enforcement doctrine under Illinois law that could compel arbitration.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Tharp, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv750, NOS: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) - Other Suits, Categories: Arbitration, Banking / Lending, Racketeering
J. Kennelly finds a nutrition company liable for violating the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act by mimicking a entrepreneur’s separate nutrition supplement trademark, and orders the company to pay the entrepreneur over $547,000.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kennelly, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 1:17cv2283, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Trademark, Damages
J. Coleman partially grants an insurance company's motion for summary judgment on insurance pleadings brought by its clients in an underlying wrongful death action. The insurance company has a duty to defend and indemnify its clients in the underlying case, but not necessarily up to a $25,000 sublimit.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Coleman, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv3816, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Wrongful Death, Indemnification
[Consolidated.] J. Jantz alternately grants and denies multiple motions enumerated across two near-identical opinions, each concerning a nursing home worker who was injured when the elevator she was on unexpectedly fell several stories. Several of the elevator corporation's indemnification and breach of contract claims against the nursing home worker's employer are dismissed, but the corporation is entitled to summary judgment on its failure to procure insurance claim against the employer.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jantz, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv6699, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Insurance, Indemnification, Premises Liability
J. Gilbert partially grants the City of Chicago's motion for a protective order on discovery in this fraud case against a food delivery service. Chicago claims the delivery service failed to abide by a city ordinance requiring it to disclose its commission charges to local restaurants, then illegally passed the increased fees on to consumers when the city placed a cap on how much commission the service could charge restaurants. Chicago is granted a protective order on discovery related to certain affirmative defenses.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Gilbert, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv5162, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Business Practices, Discovery
J. Rowland grants the Mexican parent's petition to have her child returned to her in Mexico. The child is currently living with the father in the U.S., but per the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, the father illegally kidnapped the child from Mexico and from the mother in July 2021. The father has not shown that the child would be at "grave risk" if returned to Mexico.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Rowland, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv3806, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Family Law, International Law, Guardianship
J. Kocoras denies both a meatpacking company’s motion to dismiss its employees’ labor claims against it, and the employees’ motion to certify a class. The named employees claim the company underpaid them for their work hours during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the court finds they have sufficiently alleged their charges to pursue them on an individual basis, it finds many of their proposed class members were made aware of a settlement in another, nearly identical case but declined to opt in. Including those who declined the first settlement in a new class, the court opines, would be a waste of judicial resources.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kocoras, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1937, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Class Action, Labor
J. Pallmeyer partially grants Naperville’s motion to dismiss a number of civil rights claims brought by one of its former police officers. The former cop says he was defamed and eventually fired in retaliation for questioning the legality of a Naperville police policy which required officers to make at least two traffic stops a day. Naperville says that because the former officer was still in his probationary period when he was fired, he was not due any notice or hearing beforehand. The court decides to dismiss the former cop’s supervisory liability and administrative review claims, but allows his defamation and due process claims to survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv6635, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Defamation, Employment Retaliation
J. Jenkins partially grants McDonald’s motion to dismiss four civil rights claims brought against it by a former high-ranking employee. The former employee, who is Black, worked for McDonald’s for 35 years, including 10 years as its vice president of global safety, security, and intelligence. A public backlash against McDonald’s occurred after its CEO Christopher Kempczinski made racist comments in a text message to former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot in response to a Chicago shooting in 2021, and the employee said he faced his own backlash in the company after he criticized Kempczinski for his words. He was eventually terminated after Kempczinski blamed him for an incident in which the CEO was confronted directly by labor union activists in New York. The employee alleged multiple counts in his subsequent lawsuit against McDonald’s, and the court now dismisses two of them: hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The employee’s retaliation and disparate treatment claims, however, stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv7037, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Emotional Distress, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Gettleman grants a homeowner’s motion to certify a class action against a property owners association, its management firm and its legal counsel, finding he has suitably alleged that a class of homeowners like himself were hoodwinked into paying assessments that the property owners association had no right to collect.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Gettleman, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: 1:17cv8055, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Property, Class Action
J. Seeger denies a coalition of egg producers’ motion to exclude evidence regarding egg exports in this antitrust case. The suing food companies claim the producers artificially increased the domestic price of eggs in the U.S. by exporting more eggs globally and selling them in markets abroad for lower prices than paid by U.S. consumers. The court finds any evidence regarding this claim is necessarily relevant to the case, and so denies the producers’ motion to exclude.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: 1:11cv8808, NOS: Antitrust - Other Suits, Categories: Agriculture, Antitrust, Trade
J. Bucklo partially grants Microsoft’s motion to dismiss a biometric privacy class action. A sales worker claims his employer captured his facial data via video data he uploaded to an application using Microsoft software, and brought multiple counts under four subsections of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The worker’s claim under section 15(a) claim stands, but the court dismisses his 15(b) and (d) claims without prejudice for failure to state a claim.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Bucklo, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv695, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, Privacy, Class Action
J. Jenkins partially grants a bank's motions for summary judgment on a former employee’s ADA and FMLA violation and retaliation claims against it. The former employee claims the bank failed to accommodate her time off needs following a domestic abuse episode, and used her alleged breaches of the bank’s employee ethics standards — showing semi-nude photos of herself texts to coworkers, sending lewd texts and having her fiancé visit her office for an hour with the door closed — as pretext to fire her. The court grants the bank’s motion for judgment on the former employee’s ADA failure to accommodate and FMLA interference claims, but lets her retaliation claims and ADA disparate treatment
claim survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv1652, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Jenkins partially grants a pharmacy chain’s motion to dismiss unfair labor allegations brought by a class of call center workers who say the chain compelled them to perform unpaid labor — booting up and shutting down the call center’s computer systems — before the start and after the close of every shift. The court denies the chain’s motion to compel arbitration, finding that the arbitration clause in the workers’ contracts do not extend to the claims they allege here. The court also denies dismissal on personal jurisdiction grounds, finding it is still too early in the case to determine whether the Northern District of Illinois has that jurisdiction. However, the court does dismiss the workers’ overtime law violation allegations without prejudice, finding they have failed to state a claim but could easily do so with an amended complaint.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv5780, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Arbitration, Class Action, Labor
J. Seeger denies an insurance company’s motion for summary judgment on its trade secrets, tortious interference and unfair competition claims against a financial advisory firm, and partially grants the firm’s cross-motion for summary judgment on the same claims. The insurance company alleges that the advisory firm poached its employees to gain access to its confidential information. The court finds that summary judgment is inappropriate for both parties on nearly very count, but grants judgment to the advisory firm on the company’s tortious interference claims as they relate to three California-based former employees of the company. It also finds that the insurance company cannot recover any damages for misappropriation related to financial products.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 1:17cv5826, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Trade Secrets, Tort, Unfair Competition
J. Gottschall denies a banking services company’s motion to dismiss a construction company’s breach of contract claims against it, but grants its motion to transfer the case to the District of Southern Texas. The court finds that is a more appropriate venue for this contract dispute, as that is where the construction company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case is pending.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Gottschall, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1449, NOS: Negotiable Instrument - Contract, Categories: Bankruptcy, Construction, Contract
J. Leinenweber denies a vacation property management service’s motion for summary judgment on Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation claims brought by a class of consumers, and grants that class’s motion for certification. The class representative in the suit claims he received telemarketing calls from the service despite being on the national do-not-call registry, and the court finds he has sufficiently alleged his claims to survive summary judgment and establish class certification.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Leinenweber, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv2504, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Business Practices, Class Action
J. Seeger grants a pair of law firms’ motions to dismiss legal malpractice claims brought against them by the father of a woman who died in a motorcycle crash. The father was unsatisfied with the law firms’ handling of his daughter’s estate, believing they should have sued the driver of the car his daughter collided with rather than settling with the driver’s insurance company. The court finds the firms owed no duty to the father, however, as he was never the court-appointed independent administrator for his daughter’s estate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv5517, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Wrongful Death, Legal Malpractice
J. Leinenweber denies a Mexican airline’s motion for summary judgment on consolidated negligence, personal injury and emotional distress claims brought by survivors of a plane crash. The airline’s aircraft crashed in Durango, Mexico shortly after takeoff while Illinois residents ultimately bound for Chicago were aboard. The court finds that factual disputes still remain regarding the exact causes of the survivors’ injuries, making summary judgment inappropriate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Leinenweber, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv6303, NOS: Airplane - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Negligence, Emotional Distress, Experts