29 results for 'judge:"Seeger"'.
J. Seeger partially grants a lending agency’s motion to dismiss claims by a borrower that it disguised its consumer loans as business loans. The borrower brought three claims over this alleged financial deception; one for violations of the Illinois Interest Act, another for Electronic Funds Transfer Act breaches, and the third for violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. The court dismisses portions of the borrower’s Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act claim, but allows the rest of the complaint to move forward.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv15452, NOS: Truth in Lending - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Business Practices, Banking / Lending
J. Seeger partially grants Cook County’s motion to dismiss constitutional and state law violations claims brought by a former photographer for the county medical examiner’s office. The ex-photographer claims he was fired in retaliation for complaining about his working conditions and how the office spent its budget; he says the office used his positive drug test result for cannabis as pretext to fire him. He brought First and Fourth Amendment violations claims as well as a number of state law claims. The court allows the Fourth Amendment claim to stand, and the First Amendment claim stands only regarding his formal complaint to OSHA about his working conditions. His retaliation claim under state law also survives dismissal, but the court tosses his state wage law violation claim and his claim for due process violations.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv5571, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Employment, Employment Retaliation
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J. Seeger grants a nursing home operator’s motion to dismiss whistleblowing claims brought by an Illinois pharmacy owner, who said the nursing home operator provided patients with medication without prescriptions so it could cash in on Medicare payments. The court finds the government and pharmacy owner have not sufficiently alleged their claim under the False Claim Act, and concludes that their claim under the Controlled Substances Act is not actionable.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv1169, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Medicare, Elder Abuse, False Claims
J. Seeger grants Netflix and the defendant documentarians’ motion to dismiss nearly two dozen tort, defamation, conspiracy, unjust enrichment and privacy claims brought by a woman who briefly appeared in a 2003 Kanye West music video, asking him for spare change. The woman claimed that when she appeared in the video she was at her lowest; in her complaint’s words, “broke, impoverished, disheveled, and desperate.” Clips of her from that time were included in the 2022 Netflix documentary series “Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,"” and she resented how she was represented in the series. However, the court finds that despite the unflattering representation, it was not materially false and thus not defamation, and further opines that she has not sufficiently alleged the rest of her claims.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2392, NOS: Assault, Libel, & Slander - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Defamation, Emotional Distress, Privacy
J. Seeger partially grants an Illinois school district’s motion to dismiss a slew of civil rights and ADA claims brought by the parent of a disabled child who faced intense bullying at school. As a result of the bullying, which the court notes the school district and its staff did little to stop, and in several instances made worse, the child suffered physical injuries and mental trauma including post-traumatic stress disorder. The court dismisses the ADA claims against two school administrators individually, but allows the claims against the district itself to stand. The court also dismisses the parent’s claim for procedural due process violations entirely and dismisses the substantive due process claims, again, only against the two individual administrators. The parent’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress stands.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 122cv4512, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities - Other - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Emotional Distress, Due Process
J. Seeger denies a dental business management firm’s motion for summary judgment on RICO and state law fraud claims against a bank, and partially grants the bank’s motion for summary judgment on the same claims. The firm hired felons convicted of financial crimes to oversee its business operations, and blames bank employees for conspiring with the pair after they began embezzling the firm’s funds. The court finds there is insufficient evidence to back up these conspiracy and racketeering claims, and finds the state law allegations of fraud that occurred before Dec. 20, 2012, are time-barred. The state law claim stemming from alleged incidents after that date survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 1:17cv9161, NOS: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Banking / Lending, Racketeering
J. Seeger grants a credit reporting company’s motion to dismiss two debtors’ injury and emotional distress claims. The credit company mistakenly reported the debtors had several thousand dollars in outstanding debt when in reality those debts had been written off in bankruptcy. Despite this, the company also reported that the debtors were making timely payments on the debts, reflecting positively in their credit reports. Because the court finds the debtors failed to show any tangible injury from the mistakes, it dismisses the claims for lack of standing.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv617, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Bankruptcy, Debt Collection, Emotional Distress
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. 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. Seeger denies a formerly pro-se debt case litigant’s motion to remand her class action to state court. The litigant, while defending herself against a debt collection agency in state court, used an online service known as SoloSuit to file an answer to the debt collector’s complaint. However, SoloSuit never filed the answer it generated for her, leaving her scrambling to find a lawyer who could file the answer themselves. She then filed a class action against the makers of SoloSuit, who had it removed to federal court. The litigant attempted to have it moved back to state court, arguing her case doesn’t satisfy the federal court’s amount-in-controversy requirement, but the court disagrees. It finds her class action “plausibly alleges a potential recovery of more than $5 million.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2365, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Debt Collection, Jurisdiction, Class Action
J. Seeger grants a dozen families' motion to remand their liability case against gun manufacturers to state court. The families sued the gun manufacturers over their culpability for the July 4, 2022 mass shooting in Chicago suburb Highland Park, when a young man used their products to kill seven people and injure members of the plaintiff families. The court agrees with the families that their cases do not raise a federal issue, and so remands the case to the Lake County circuit court.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv6169, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Product Liability, Jurisdiction, Firearms
J. Seeger grants a rehab clinic’s motion to dismiss fraud claims brought by two of its former executive employees, which allege that the clinic provided patients with unnecessary therapy in order to milk them for Medicare payouts. The court finds the former employees have not provided sufficient evidence to substantiate their claims, but grants them two weeks to amend their complaint.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv6063, NOS: False Claims Act - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Fraud, Medicare, False Claims
J. Seeger mostly denies a group of food companies’ motion to exclude grocers’ testimony from an antitrust trial over egg producers’ alleged scheme to artificially inflate the price of eggs in the U.S. The producers claim that they had fewer eggs to sell domestically in part due to installing larger enclosures for egg-laying hens as part of an animal welfare reform effort, and that grocers themselves urged the producers to install the larger enclosures in response to consumer demand for more humane treatment of farm animals. The food companies claim grocers’ testimony to that effect would be irrelevant and prejudicial, and while the court disagrees generally, it will also rule on the admissibility of any particular deposition on a “line-by-line basis as necessary.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: 1:11cv8808, NOS: Antitrust - Other Suits, Categories: Agriculture, Antitrust, Animal Cruelty
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. 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. 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. Seeger denies the defendant insurance company’s motion to stay this contract dispute with the plaintiff Medicare payment recovery firm. A sister firm to the plaintiff in this case still owes the insurance company attorneys’ fees and costs for a nearly-identical, aborted case in Florida, and the company wants this case’s plaintiff to pay up for its sibling’s bill before this case advances. But the court denies the motion on the grounds that, even if this plaintiff firm and the Florida firm are part of the same corporate family, they are legally separate entities.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv5054, NOS: Recovery of Overpayment & Enforcement of Judgment - Contract, Categories: Civil Procedure, Insurance, Contract
J. Seeger grants a group of egg suppliers’ motion to bifurcate their upcoming antitrust suit into a liability phase and a damages phase. A number of food companies sued the egg producers years ago, alleging the producers had conspired to artificially restrict the supply of eggs in the U.S., jacking up prices for eggs and egg products. The case has bounced around multiple districts up to this point, with prior court findings supporting the notion that a jury in this trial would find for the egg producers. As such, this court finds bifurcating liability and damages would promote judicial economy.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 1:11cv8808, NOS: Antitrust - Other Suits, Categories: Agriculture, Antitrust, Civil Procedure
J. Seeger partially grants a pair of former executives' motion to dismiss fraud, conversion and conspiracy charges brought by the packaging company they once led. The company filed the charges against the former executives, both of whom it previously let go, after discovering they had set up a digital back door into its confidential files. This back door, in the form of a bogus employee email account, allowed the executives to access company information long after they had been let go. The company has plausibly alleged its fraud claims, but its conversion and civil conspiracy claims are both blocked by the Moorman doctrine.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: July 26, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv6858 , NOS: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - Property Rights, Categories: Fraud, Trade Secrets, Conversion
J. Seeger partially declines an insurance company's motion to dismiss a suit brought by a woman whose roof was damaged in a storm. The insurance company decided the damage to the woman's roof didn't rise above her deductible under her policy, but the woman alleges the insurance company is trying to cheat her out of the coverage she is owed. The insured has sufficiently alleged her breach of contract and Illinois insurance code violation claims, but not her fraud claim.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv3744, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Insurance, Contract
J. Seeger partially grants several citizens’ motion for attorney fees in an underlying police misconduct suit, in which they prevailed at a bench trial. The citizens successfully alleged several Harvey city police of searching their home without a warrant, and the court now grants them $394,643 in attorney fees.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: July 13, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv4237, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Attorney Fees, Police Misconduct
J. Seeger finds that the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois has diversity jurisdiction over this product liability class action filed against a cold and flu medicine manufacturer. The class claims that the manufacturer’s “non-drowsy” cold medicine actually did make them drowsy. The lead plaintiff in the class is a New York citizen, the manufacturer is registered in Delaware but does business mainly in Illinois, and the contested damages exceed $5 million. The court finds these facts together are sufficient to justify diversity jurisdiction.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv747, NOS: Contract Product Liability - Contract, Categories: Product Liability, Jurisdiction, Class Action