18 results for 'judge:"Pallmeyer"'.
J. Pallmeyer denies an insurance agency association’s motion for summary judgment, but grants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s cross-motion for summary judgment, in this decade-old suit over whether insurers can be sued under the Fair Housing Act for making policy decisions based on risk that disparately impact people of color and other marginalized groups. A decade ago, the Housing Department decided insurers should face that legal liability, a decision insurers called “capricious” and the court found warranted further analysis. The Housing Department made the same decision last year, but this time it sufficiently backed up its conclusion to address the court’s concerns.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 1:13cv8564, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, Insurance, Equal Protection
J. Pallmeyer partially grants the defendant U.S. Veterans Affairs Department’s motion for summary judgment on a former employee’s race discrimination and Title VII retaliation claims. The former employee, a Black man, claims the VA fired him in retaliation for a heated argument he had with a white coworker that almost boiled over into a fight. However, the court found the VA also had reasonable cause to fire the employee due to lapses in attendance and work protocol. The court grants judgment to the VA on the former employee’s race discrimination claims, but withholds judgment on his Title VII retaliation claim pending a de novo review.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 1:17cv9259, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Veterans, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Pallmeyer grants Cook County’s motion for summary judgment on claims that its statute barring assault weapon trade and ownership violate the Second Amendment. Two Cook County residents, backed by gun rights advocacy groups, challenged the county statute as unconstitutional in 2021. Given contrary determinations from the Seventh Circuit, which supported the county law, and nearly identical city-level assault weapon bans, the residents moved to have this case decided in the county’s favor so they could challenge factual underpinnings of the Seventh Circuit rulings on remand from an appeal. The county rejected that motion and instead committed to overcoming the legal challenge on its merits. Yet more support for assault weapon bans has emerged from the Seventh Circuit since 2021, and the court defers to the appellate judges’ determinations in granting the county summary judgment.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv4595, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Firearms
J. Pallmeyer denies a doctor’s motion to vacate a jury finding that he is liable for 158 false Medicare claims. The court finds that given the evidence which emerged at trial, and a similar finding against the doctor’s wife, the jury made a fair ruling in his case.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 1:17cv4011, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Jury, Medicare, False Claims
J. Pallmeyer partially grants several mental health center workers’ motion to reconsider an earlier ruling, which partially denied their motion for summary judgment on a former patient’s failure to intervene claim. That former patient was sexually abused by another center worker, who has since pleaded guilty to criminal charges. The patient then brought damages and failure to intervene claims against other workers, with subsequent summary judgement rulings tossing all but the failure to intervene claims against five individuals. On reconsideration, the court now tosses the claims against one more worker, while they stand for the remaining four.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 1:17cv7909, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Health Care, Damages, Negligence
Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for Free
J. Pallmeyer grants an Illinois city’s motion for summary judgment on a property development company’s claim that the city illegally denied its permit to build a cell tower on public land, but denies both the city’s and the company’s competing motions for summary judgment on the company’s claims under the Telecommunications Act. The court finds there was sufficient reason for the city to legally deny the development company’s permit to build the cell tower, but also concludes factual disputes make summary judgment on the remaining claims inappropriate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv4151, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Municipal Law, Property
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. 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
[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. Pallmeyer partially allows the parent of a child who developed fatal necrotizing enterocolitis from drinking tainted baby formula to refile a complaint against the company that developed the formula. The parent is among dozens whose children suffered necrotizing enterocolitis and died from drinking the formula, but willingly dismissed many of her earlier charges when the company moved for dismissal. She now seeks to refile for damages, the Illinois Wrongful Death Act and the Illinois Survival Act. The court denies her Survival Act claim but allows the others to go forward.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv2222, NOS: Personal Injury - Health Care/Pharmaceutical Personal Injury/Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Consumer Law, Product Liability, Wrongful Death
J. Pallmeyer denies the defendant tech startup’s motion to dismiss fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment and breach of settlement claims brought by a group of investors. The investors invested over $600,000 in the startup’s plan for a platform to verify NFTs, only for the plan to fall through. Though the startup offered to recoup the investors’ losses, it never followed through on that either. The court finds the startup has offered no compelling arguments for dismissal, but nonetheless urges the parties to seek a settlement.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: October 2, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv6852, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Conversion, Contract
J. Pallmeyer partially grants an Illinois town’s partial motion to dismiss Telecommunications Act claims brought by a telecom company and its construction contractor. The town blocked the company from building a cell tower on a parcel of its land, and the company now seeks to use the court to override the town. The court dismisses the company’s claim that the town took too long to resolve its construction application, seeing as the town did eventually and unequivocally deny the application. However, the court also allows the company’s substantive challenge to the town’s construction regulations to stand, pending resolution of several other claims in the suit.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: September 30, 2023, Case #: 122cv4151, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Construction, Municipal Law
J. Pallmeyer denies the plaintiff group of mental health patients' motions for summary judgment, and partially grants the defendant staff of a mental health facility's cross-motions for summary judgment. The patients make multiple negligence and liability claims, arguing the staff should have protected them from a social worker who was sexually abusing them. But the court finds the patients have not sufficiently alleged their supervisory liability and due process claims. The court also tosses the patients' failure-to-intervene claim against one staff member, but the same claim against a separate staff member survives.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: 1:17cv7909 , NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Health Care, Negligence
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. Pallmeyer addresses a nutrition company’s motion to dismiss a product liability complaint brought by the parents of a child who developed necrotizing enterocolitis from drinking the company’s tainted baby formula. This consolidated case comprises dozens of individual necrotizing enterocolitis complaints filed in multiple districts, and this motion in particular concerns whether the venue for a specific complaint should be the District of Kansas, as the nutrition company argues, or the District of Western Missouri, as the parents argue. The court has decided Kansas is the proper venue as that is where the majority of the case's action took place, so it dismisses the individual complaint from Missouri with the inclination to allow the parents to file an amended complaint in the proper venue.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv2011, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Product Liability, Jurisdiction, Venue
J. Pallmeyer grants a real estate company’s motion for summary judgment on its contract claims against its former employee, and denies the former employee’s cross-motion for judgment on the same claims. The company gave the employee a $1 million loan — later increased to $1.375 million — in 2018 as incentive to join its Denver office, with the stipulation that it was forgivable if the employee left the company “for good reason.” The former employee left the company over a year later, but the company claimed it was not for good reason and demanded he pay back the remainder of the loan which had not yet returned. After considering both parties’ arguments, the court agrees with the company that the employee’s departure was not for good reason.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv3540, NOS: Negotiable Instrument - Contract, Categories: Employment, Banking / Lending, Contract