510 results for 'court:"USDC Northern District of Illinois"'.
J. Blakey partially grants a Navy equipment manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment on a Navy veteran’s asbestos claims. The veteran contracted mesothelioma after years of exposure to asbestos while serving in the Navy, with the manufacturer’s gaskets being a prime source. The court finds for the manufacturer on the veteran’s willful and wanton conduct claim, but allows the veteran’s negligence and strict liability claims to go forward.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Blakey, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv4316, NOS: Asbestos Personal Injury Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Veterans, Product Liability, Asbestos
J. Seeger denies the Cook County Sheriff’s Office’s motion to dismiss a former correction officer’s First Amendment and retaliatory termination claims. The former CO claims the office fired him because its leadership did not appreciate his wearing a “Sons of Anarchy” TV show patch to court, along with his badge, while attending the trial of the men who fatally shot his close friend, another Cook County sheriff. The office also did not appreciate that he got into a conflict with the State’s Attorney’s Office over a potential plea deal for the men, or that he publicly accused the actual Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart, of committing domestic abuse. The sheriff’s office claims the CO violated its rules of conduct for employees, but the former CO claims the termination was retaliatory and violated his First Amendment rights. The court finds that factual disputes, and the sheriff office’s lack of sufficient argument against the former CO’s claims, make dismissal inappropriate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1406, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Retaliation, First Amendment, Police Misconduct
J. Pallmeyer mostly denies the sued construction materials company’s motion to dismiss an insurance company’s negligence, breach of contract and breach of implied warranties claims. The insurance company in this suit is acting as a subrogee for an agricultural products manufacturer, which bought calcium sulphate from the construction materials company and in turn sold it to a pet food manufacturer as a pet food additive. The court finds the insurance company’s negligence claim against the construction materials company is barred under Illinois’ Economic Loss Doctrine, but the remaining claims survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1988, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability, Warranty
J. Wood denies a Chinese e-commerce platform Wanfan’s motion to dismiss an underlying trademark suit brought against it by an Australian toy company. The Australian company claims in the underlying suit that the Chinese platform sold multicolored cubes, infringing the Australian company’s own trademarked, multicolored cube toys. Wanfan calls the suit “frivolous” and seeks dismissal based on lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue and insufficient service of process. The court disagrees on all fronts, finding Wanfan was properly served, that it has no basis to argue over venue, and that the Australian company “has had sufficient contacts with the United States to support personal jurisdiction over [the Chinese platform’s] federal claims.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Wood, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2330, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: International Law, Trademark, Business Practices
J. Hunt partially grants the defendant daycare operator’s motion for summary judgment on multiple contract breach, fraud and misrepresentation claims brought by an Iranian investor. The investor hoped to use his investments into the defendants’ prospective childcare franchises to become a permanent U.S. resident, and sued for multiple counts after the franchises fell apart. The court denies the operator’s motion for summary judgment on the investor’s breach of contract and and partially denies the motion as to his fraudulent misrepresentation claims, but grants the motion as to the investor’s negligent misrepresentation claims, his Franchise Disclosure Act claims, and his requests for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Hunt, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 1:19cv3402, NOS: Franchise - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Business Practices, Contract
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J. Alonso partially grants a physical therapy provider’s motion to dismiss RICO claims brought by two former patients. The patients claim the provider charged them the “full, rack-rate cost of services, instead of the insurance-negotiated rates they are contractually obligated to charge.” The court finds the patients have not sufficiently alleged racketeering claims or Illinois law fraud claims. One of the patient’s additional claims under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act stands, as do both patients unjust enrichment claims.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Alonso, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1181, NOS: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Health Care, Racketeering
J. Hunt grants a university board of trustees’ motion for summary judgment on a former university police officer’s Fair Medical Leave Act claims. The former officer claims he was fired for taking FMLA leave in the summer of 2021, but the court finds the trustee board provided sufficient evidence to show the officer was fired because of repeated attendance violations, among other offenses.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Hunt, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv6667, NOS: Family and Medical Leave Act - Labor, Categories: Education, Employment Retaliation, Police Misconduct
J. Pallmeyer grants a real estate services company’s motion for judgment on the amount of money its former real estate broker owes it. The broker took a job with the company in 2018; his compensation agreement included a $1,375,000 loan that he wouldn’t have to repay so long as he didn’t quit before the end of 2024 without “good reason.” He quit anyway in 2020 after the company restructured how it awards commissions to its brokers. The company won summary judgment in the resulting lawsuit it brought against him, and now the court finds the broker owes the company over $1,894,000, which includes the loan, interest and taxes.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv3540, NOS: Negotiable Instrument - Contract, Categories: Employment, Damages, Contract
[Consolidated.] J. Pallmeyer declines to dismiss multiple TikTok users’ privacy claims against the social media company on the basis of a prior $92 million class settlement in this multidistrict case. The users claim TikTok’s in-app browser illegally and clandestinely harvested their personal and biometric data, and the court finds their claims are similar, but not identical, to claims raised in the initial multidistrict litigation. The court will thus, for now, allow the users’ claims to go forward “on behalf of former settlement class members that arise from conduct related to the in-app browser predating the settlement’s effective date.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv4699, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Privacy, Business Practices, Class Action
J. Jenkins mostly denies a wedding center’s motion to for summary judgment on a former employee’s ADA, wrongful termination and retaliation claims. The former employee claims the wedding center fired her in retaliation for a week she spent hospitalized for a mental health crisis, after her superiors sent her insulting texts over her absence. The court finds she has sufficiently alleged her claims, but tosses her request for damages stemming from retaliation under the ADA.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv2925, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
[Consolidated.] J. Pallmeyer partially grants the Cook County Sheriff’s Office’s motion to dismiss three related suits which claim the office did not do enough to protect jail workers from county detainees’ sexual harassment. Female workers brought two of the cases while a group of male workers brought a third; collectively, over 300 workers said they faced detainees’ threats of sexual violence, unwanted advances and public masturbation. The court dismisses three individual female plaintiffs from the case but otherwise allows all three suits to stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1390, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Equal Protection
J. Jensen grants a mother’s motion to compel documents from an Illinois city’s public school district. Her son suffered permanent brain injuries when, as a high school freshman, school officials slammed him to the ground. The court finds the school district has not provided sufficient reasons as to why it should deny the mom’s request for eyewitness statements and investigative reports.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jensen, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv50354, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Discovery
J. Jenkins partially grants an auto supply company’s motion for summary judgment on its former employee’s age discrimination and retaliation claims. The former employee, 73, claims he was demoted from his Regional Sales Manager position in the company, and eventually fired, to make way for younger replacements. He also maintains he was fired from his next sales job due to the company’s interference. The court finds the employee has sufficiently alleged his age discrimination claim, but not his retaliation claims.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv5063, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Employment, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Bucklo partially grants a former tobacco shop cashier’s motion for expedited jurisdictional discovery. The cashier’s supervisor fired him and a coworker on the suspicion that they stole from the shop’s register, in response to which the cashier filed this lawsuit alleging retaliation, slander, wage law violations and Fair Labor Standards Act violations against the tobacco shop’s owner. The court grants the motion for expedited discovery as it relates to the police reports the shop’s owner has filed in the last three years, job applicant records and other documents, but it denies his motion as it relates to the shop owner’s record of property ownership, phone records and credit card sales.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Bucklo, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv7805, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Employment, Jurisdiction, Discovery
J. Ellis partially grants Chicago’s motion for summary judgment on disability discrimination claims, brought by a repeat applicant to the Chicago Fire Department. The applicant claims she was passed over to join the CFD academy as a paramedic in 2019 because she takes medication to help her control a mood disorder and insomnia. The court finds she has not provided sufficient evidence to back up her failure to accommodate claims, but factual disputes over her ADA and Illinois Human Rights Act violation claims means those allegations can proceed to trial.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Ellis, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 1:19cv8135, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Municipal Law, Employment Discrimination
J. Rowland grants a medical billing agency’s motion for summary judgment on a debtor’s claims it issued statements that did not comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The court finds, contrary to the debtor’s claims, that the agency isn’t an FDCPA-regulated debt collector in relation to the debtor's accounts, and therefore it has no obligation to comply with FDCPA disclosures.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Rowland, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv1509, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Health Care
J. Ellis partially grants Chicago’s motion for summary judgment on sex discrimination claims brought by women who wanted to be city paramedics. The cadets were injured while performing trials in the Chicago Fire Department’s physical aptitude test, trials that even internal experts claimed really weren’t of much use in evaluating firefighters’ and paramedics’ job readiness. Multiple lawsuits followed. The city settled some of those suits and moved for summary judgment in this one. The court now denies Chicago summary judgment on the paramedics’ internal discrimination claim, and splits judgment on the paramedics’ Monell claim. It grants the claim “to the extent plaintiffs rely on a widespread policy or practice,” but denies it “as to plaintiffs’ claim that they suffered a constitutional injury at the hands of a final policymaker.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Ellis, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 1:16cv10156, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Municipal Law, Employment Discrimination
J. Aspen partially grants the sued medical imaging equipment companies’ motions to reconsider the court’s earlier rulings in this trade secrets case. In those prior rulings, the court largely sided with the suing medical equipment companies by issuing a permanent injunction and civil contempt sanctions against the defendants, and ordering the latter to pay plaintiffs $2.4 million in attorney fees. Upon reconsideration, the court keeps the civil contempt sanctions in place and denies the motion to vacate the injunction, and also grants the plaintiffs’ motion for an additional $1.9 million in attorney fees.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Aspen, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 1:19cv2648, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Health Care, Trade Secrets, Attorney Fees
J. Valderrama partially grants a labor union’s motion for summary judgment on one of its former business agents’ race discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims. The union fired the business agent on the basis that it discovered he had a disqualifying felony record, but the agent himself argued this was pretextual and that the actual reason he was fired was because he is Black and complained about his coworkers’ racist attitudes. The court finds there is insufficient evidence to support the agent’s race discrimination and retaliation claims, but allows his racial harassment claim to go forward.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Valderrama, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 119cv3351, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation, Labor / Unions
J. Seeger partially grants an Illinois county’s motion to dismiss a civil rights suit brought by a former county pretrial detainee. The county sheriffs assigned the detainee to a top bunk in a jail cell, despite a nurse’s order that he should be given a lower bunk due to his high blood pressure, and insulted the detainee when he protested. In his high bunk, the detainee suffered a grand mal seizure and had to be taken to the hospital. The court dismisses the state law claims the detainee subsequently brought against the county and its sheriffs, with leave to amend, but allows his ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims to move forward
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3442, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Tort
J. Alonso alternatingly grants and denies multiple parties’ motions for summary judgment in this dispute over the plaintiff trucking company’s trade secrets. The company uses the password-protected “Sylectus” software program to make bookings and maintain customer relations. The company claims several of its employees, led by a former manager, used confidential data in the Sylectus system to jump start their own competing freight company and pull in almost $3.5 million in ill-gotten revenue. The company brought multiple trade secret misappropriation, fraud, breach of loyalty and conspiracy charges against the former employees and the new competitor, but the court found that only the breach of loyalty count against the former manager has been sufficiently alleged. The court dismisses all other defendants from the suit, while also granting the manager’s motion to bar certain expert testimony, denying the company’s motion to seal certain documents, and placing sanctions on the manager for deleting certain Dropbox files that can no longer be used as evidence in the company’s case.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Alonso, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv2903, NOS: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - Property Rights, Categories: Employment, Sanctions, Trade Secrets
J. Rowland partially grants an Illinois city’s motion to dismiss a local bar’s due process and equal protection claims. The city temporarily suspended the bar’s liquor license after a “criminal incident” took place outside it in 2021, but the parties reached a settlement that allowed the bar to stay open. A second incident resulted in another suspension in 2022, but after that incident the bar’s Black owners called into questions the city’s racial biases, given that other non-Black owned bars in town had faced less stringent settlement agreements to address criminal activity. The bar’s owners subsequently brought due process and equal protection claims at the state and federal level. The court now dismisses the due process claims, but allows the equal protection claims to stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Rowland, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv728, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Equal Protection, Business Practices
J. Daniel partially grants a nonprofit health care services organization’s motion to dismiss negligence, breach of contract and fraud claims brought by two of the nonprofit’s former patients. The patients brought the claims in response to a 2022 data breach of the nonprofit’s patient database that exposed their personal info to unknown individuals. Of all the claims, the court finds that only the patients’ negligence claim is sufficiently alleged to survive dismissal.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Daniel, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1108, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Negligence, Privacy
J. Cole partially grants the plaintiff financial services company’s motion to compel the defendant credit union to produce five categories of documents. This case concerns the financial services company’s “M1” logo and whether the credit union’s “M1st” logo is in breach of trademark. The services company wants access to the credit union’s merit marketing materials, brand guidelines, third-party mark use agreements, 2003 charter amendments and materials from prior litigation. The court orders the credit union to produce specific documents from these categories, but also orders the financial services company to clarify its demands regarding other documents.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Cole, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1162, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Trademark, Business Practices, Discovery
J. Cole grants the suing property investor’s motion to compel production of documents from the sued fast food franchise operators. This case is a dispute over the finances and transactions needed to establish a a Hardee’s restaurant in Oswego, Illinois, over which the investor has accused the franchisers of racketeering in an effort to skip out on rent payments. The court finds that, given the RICO accusations, it’s important to uncover any evidence which could establish a record of communications between the individual operators.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Cole, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv2697, NOS: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) - Other Suits, Categories: Property, Real Estate, Racketeering
J. Hunt denies a school board’s motion to dismiss intentional infliction of emotional distress and failure to protect claims, brought by the parent of a bullied child. Over the course of several years, the child suffered repeated acts of physical and sexual assault by other students, including being stabbed with pencils, being kicked and punched, and having his genitals groped. The parent says teachers and staff knew of these incidents and were indifferent to them, and the court finds the parent alleged these claims sufficiently to survive dismissal motions.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Hunt, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv4745, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Negligence, Emotional Distress, Assault