280 results for 'court:"USDC Minnesota"'.
J. Menendez grants summary judgment to the defendant ladder maker in its competitor's suit alleging patent infringement. No reasonable jury could conclude that the defendant's ladders infringe a limitation in the plaintiff's patent requiring that "a substantial amount of the first bracket is disposed within a cavity defined by the first component" of the ladder. The defendant ladder maker's motion to exclude expert testimony is also granted in part, since the expert failed to apply the court's claim construction in his opinions regarding the cavity limitation.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Menendez, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 0:20cv2497, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Experts
J. Menendez partially grants the medical technology company's motion to dismiss the shareholders' suit alleging that it misrepresented a product's progress toward FDA approval to investors. The shareholders have not alleged facts showing that any of the company's backward-looking statements about the product were false statements of material fact or actionable omissions. Other statements the shareholders point to are inactionable opinions, and their complaint does not include any statements by the company or its officers guaranteeing or assuring that the product would be approved by the FDA, at all or on a particular timeline.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Menendez, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv2197, NOS: Securities/Commodities/Exchange - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Class Action
J. Menendez partially grants the healthcare provider's motion to dismiss the patient's proposed class action alleging that it improperly used the technology company Meta's tracking software to collect and transmit patients' data when they accessed its website. A claim under Minnesota's consumer fraud is dismissed, because the patient has failed to allege a misrepresentation connected to merchandise, and an invasion of privacy claim fails because, as alleged, any interception of the patient's data was Meta's, not the health care provider's. The patient has plausibly alleged claims under state and federal wiretap statutes, Minnesota deceptive trade practices and health records statutes, and for common law invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Menendez, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv440, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Privacy, Class Action, Technology
J. Menendez partially grants the milking machine makers' motion to dismiss the dairy farmers' suit against them alleging misrepresentation of the machine's capabilities and a number of defects. Claims against two foreign entities and one domestic entity involved in the milking machine business are dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, since the farmers have not adequately proved their alter-ego, agency or conspiracy theories of personal jurisdiction. A third foreign entity's motion to dismiss is denied, since disputes persist as to whether it has sufficient contacts with Minnesota to warrant personal jurisdiction. The companies' motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim are denied.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Menendez, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv1924, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Corporations, Jurisdiction, Contract
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J. Davis denies the government's motion for summary judgment in the deceased Vietnam veteran's wife's medical-malpractice suit on her husband's behalf, and denies the wife's motion for leave to file a motion to strike the government's expert physicians' surrebuttal declarations. The wife has exhausted her administrative remedies, since the Veteran's Administration took nearly two years to issue a decision on her claim, and did so after this litigation began. Additionally, questions of fact remain as to whether the wife can establish that the Veterans Administration's failure to dialyze the veteran led to his cardiac arrest. Finally, a prior order in this case did not bar admission of the expert surrebuttals.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Davis, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 0:21cv1431, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Experts, Medical Malpractice
J. Tostrud grants the former employee's motion for default judgment in suit against his former employer alleging retaliatory discharge under the False Claims Act and breach of contract. Taken as true, the employee's allegations satisfy all the elements of both claims, and the employer's failure to prosecute its counterclaims warrants dismissal of those counterclaims. Judgment is awarded in the amount of $1,821,620.68.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tostrud, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv2145, NOS: False Claims Act - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, False Claims
J. Tunheim partially grants the healthcare provider's motion to dismiss the patient's putative class action alleging that it improperly shared personal information with the technology company Meta through its website. The patient's claims for violations of the Minnesota Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Minnesota Consumer Fraud Act and for unjust enrichment survive, since the patient has plausibly alleged that the healthcare provider deceived patients as to the extent of its use of patients' data and a failure to comply with HIPAA, that his proposed class action would serve a public benefit, and that the healthcare provider receives benefits from the use of his personal information. His intrusion on seclusion claim fails because he voluntarily provided his data to the healthcare provider, and he has not provided sufficiently specific examples of his use of the website to support a Minnesota Health Records Act claim. He has also not pleaded an unlawful interception of data under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv482, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Privacy, Class Action, Technology
J. Davis grants the insurer's motion for summary judgment in the disability benefits seeker's suit challenging the insurer's denial of long-term disability benefits on the basis that the benefits seeker's gunshot wounds and subsequent disability resulted from his commission of an assault, for which charges were later dismissed. The policy at issue's exclusion for disability resulting from the insured's criminal acts applies to the benefit seeker's injuries, which stemmed from an altercation in which he drove his truck into a group of people in a driveway and was shot by one of them.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Davis, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv1918, NOS: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - Labor, Categories: Erisa, Contract
J. Frank grants the knee implant makers' motions to exclude expert testimony and for summary judgment in the implant recipient's suit alleging that her knee replacement loosened after implantation. The expert's opinion that the particular implant used is especially prone to debonding exhibits "several red flags" regarding her methodology, and at the time of implantation, no knee devices were on the market with the features the expert cites as necessary to prevent debonding. Since the implant recipient's claims regarding the device rely on the now-excluded expert testimony, those claims cannot survive summary judgment.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Frank, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv331, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Product Liability, Experts
J. Tunheim grants the video game maker's owner's motion for summary judgment in the game reseller's suit against him and his company alleging breach of contract and fraud. An email the owner forwarded with a delivery schedule, which proved to be false, is not sufficient to support a fraud claim.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 0:19cv3114, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Contract
J. Tostrud grants the debt collector's motion to dismiss the purported debtor's action against it alleging that it sought to collect a debt that it did not own and that documents it submitted in state court or sent to her were misleading or inaccurate. The debtor lacks standing to bring two claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a claim that the collector attempted to collect a debt it did not own is collaterally estopped by a state-court judgment, and additional FDCPA claims stemming from alleged defects in a state-court summons fail because the summons was not fatally defective.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tostrud, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 0:21cv2614, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Consumer Law
J. Frank partially grants the minority shareholders' motion for a temporary restraining order. The majority shareholders are restrained from terminating one minority shareholder's executive employment agreement, expanding their company's board of directors, appointing a friendly consultant to the board or assigning responsibility for financial, corporate and legal decisions to one of the minority shareholders. The minority shareholders are likely to succeed in proving that the majority shareholders have breached a Stock Transfer Agreement and on their declaratory judgment claim. Public interest and balance-of-equities factors also favor granting the temporary restraining order.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Frank, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 0:24cv524, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Corporations, Restraining Order, Contract
J. Valle partially grants the airline's motion to compel in the flight attendant's case alleging that she was fired for taking medical leave. The flight attendant must serve amended responses to two of three disputed interrogatories. One, seeking medical records, is not precluded by physician-patient or psychotherapist-patient privilege; nor is another, seeking identification of health care practitioners. A document request for executed HIPAA releases for each health care practitioner is denied, since no controlling authority allows courts to compel parties to execute HIPAA releases.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Valle, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv61651, NOS: Family and Medical Leave Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Discovery
J. Schiltz grants summary judgment to the insurer in the insureds' suit seeking coverage for the personal property of the named insured's two sons, destroyed in a fire at the insured's home, where the sons and the named insured's ex-wife, but not the named insured, were residing. The sons were not part of the same "household" as the named insured under his policy, and the named insured did not reside at the damaged home during the policy's period. The policy's requirement that the named insured reside at the insured home also does not conflict with Minnesota's standard fire insurance policy.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Schiltz, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv1502, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Blackwell grants the nurses' motions for partial summary judgment and class certification in their suit alleging that they were misclassified as ineligible for overtime pay. The nurses, hired as "utilization reviewers" to determine whether medical treatments are necessary, are not exempt under either the administrative or learned professional overtime exemptions, and their proposed class is sufficiently numerous, their claims sufficiently common and typical, and their proposed representative plaintiff adequate.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Blackwell, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 0:21cv2283, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Class Action
J. Schiltz partially grants the employer and its benefits committees' motion to dismiss the employees' putative class action alleging mismanagement of a 401(k) plan. A claim for breach of the duty of prudence with respect to managed-account-service fees and a derivative claim for breach of the duty to monitor are dismissed, since the employees have not made sufficient allegations about the plans they seek to compare the employer's plan to. The motion to dismiss is otherwise denied, since the employees have adequately pleaded that the employer and its committees breached the duty of prudence by incurring excessive recordkeeping and administrative fees.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Schiltz, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv26, NOS: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - Labor, Categories: Erisa, Fiduciary Duty
J. Blackwell grants judgment on the administrative record to the employee in her suit alleging that her long-term disability benefits for suspected post-COVID-19 symptoms were improperly terminated. The employee remained disabled under her disability-benefits policy until she returned to full-time work, and she is entitled to benefits for that period totaling $71,649.90, plus prejudgment interest to be calculated.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Blackwell, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv1736, NOS: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - Labor, Categories: Erisa, Covid-19
J. Schiltz partially dismisses the postal service and its chief's motion for summary judgment in the Black former employee's suit against them alleging race discrimination connected to a fellow employee's lengthy and often bizarre campaign of harassment against him and his wife, also employed by the postal service. A jury could find in the employee's favor on his hostile-environment claim, since the harassment was persistent, involving several incidents, and could be characterized as severe, and that the employer did not adequately respond to the employee's complaints. The employee has not, however, shown that he was terminated for behavior that other similarly situated employees engaged in without consequence.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Schiltz, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 0:21cv1134, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Schiltz largely grants the city and its law enforcement officials' motion to dismiss the Black motorists and residents' suit alleging that police improperly took their white neighbors' side in an ongoing campaign of racial harassment, particularly in an incident wherein one of the neighbors cut the Black motorist off in traffic, sounded his horn and repeatedly called him by racial slurs and threatened him with violence while following him around town, then fled police when they arrived only for the police to arrest the Black motorist. Claims against the arresting officer survive, since the motorist has adequately identified a similarly situated comparator of a different race, namely the neighbor. They have not, however, adequately alleged that the city and its officials had sufficient roles in the neighbors' harassment campaign to establish continuing violations and therefore extend the limitations period for the individual incidents they allege. A claim against the neighbor also survives.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Schiltz, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv1758, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. Tunheim largely denies the employer's motion for summary judgment in its employee's suit alleging that it invested employees' 401(k) savings in underperforming funds for over a decade. The employer did not breach any enforceable portion of its Investment Policy Statement, so a count alleging breach of that policy is dismissed, and the employer's Board of Directors are dismissed as defendants because they were not functional fiduciaries and had no duty to monitor the fund. Genuine disputes remain as to the employee's other claims, and they survive "because a reasonable trier of fact could easily find" that the employee caught the employer "with its hand in the cookie jar."
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 0:21cv1049, NOS: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - Labor, Categories: Erisa, Fiduciary Duty, Class Action
J. Foster denies the civil detainee's motion to compel the Minnesota Sex Offender Program's official's counsel to add their contact information to a privileged call list, and partially grants her motion to compel discovery. The detainee has been able to meet and confer with defense counsel without a privileged phone line, and defense counsel has an affirmative obligation to disclose to the Sex Offender Program, its client, any material communications with the detainee, negating the purpose of a privileged line. The official has also properly objected or responded to the majority of the detainee's discovery requests, many of which were overbroad or provided insufficient detail, but the detainee's requests for records identifying any other program resident who sought permission to possess similar property to that for which the detainee was denied permission, along with records of other employees who processed her request and other documents the official had cited that are not already disclosed, are granted.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Foster, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv2260, NOS: Civil Detainee: Conditions of Confinement - Prisoner Petitions, Categories: Discovery, Prisoners' Rights
J. Ericksen grants the Christmas tree patent claimant's motion for pre- and post-judgment interest but declines to enhance the jury's royalty damages award. The claimant has not definitively shown that its competitor's infringement on its patent was egregious, and a 10% statutory interest rate is appropriate to apply for pre-judgment interest, while the post-judgment interest rate will be the average 1-year Treasury yield for the week preceding entry of judgment.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Ericksen, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 0:15cv3443, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Patent
J. Frank grants the city and police officers' motion for summary judgment in the mother's wrongful death suit stemming from the locally high-profile police killing of her autistic son, Kobe Dimock-Heisler. The police officers are entitled to qualified immunity, since they had probable cause to believe that the son, carrying a knife, posed an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to others when they shot him.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Frank, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv2124, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity, Police Misconduct
J. Frank partially grants the former employees' and their new employer's motion to dismiss the former employer's suit alleging breach of confidentiality, invention and non-compete agreements, breach of the duty of loyalty and unfair competition, and partially grants the former employer's motion for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order requiring compliance with the agreements. The employees have failed to establish that the former employer's claims are worth less than $75,000, so the court has subject-matter jurisdiction over the complaint, but the former employer has not shown that the new employer is closely related to the disputes or that it has sufficient contacts with Minnesota for the court to exercise personal jurisdiction over it. A claim against it is dismissed. The employees are prohibited, however, from working with seven dealers they worked with under the former employer and are ordered to abide by non-compete agreements, and one employee is required to certify that he has permanently deleted a spreadsheet or spreadsheets he sent to his personal email.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Frank, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv3873, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Employment, Contract
J. Tunheim partially grants summary judgment to the credit reporting agency in the consumer's suit alleging that it failed to remove information about an alleged debt from her credit report after a state court found that the creditor could not establish that it owned the debt. The consumer has not met her prima facie burden to show that the creditor was an unreliable source of credit information, nor that any violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Material fact questions persist as to whether the credit reporting agency's information was accurate, whether it reasonably reinvestigated the consumer's disputes and whether the consumer suffered actual damages.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv86, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Evidence, Consumer Law
J. Tostrud denies the medical device maker's motion for a preliminary injunction in its suit against its former U.K. distributor. The device maker has not demonstrated that its agreement with the distributor prohibits the distributor from selling its remaining inventory, nor has it shown that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm if the distributor is not prevented from selling that inventory.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tostrud, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: 0:23cv3709, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Contract, Injunction
J. Tunheim grants the immigrant's motion for summary judgment and vacates the immigration officials' denial of his application for adjustment of status. The immigrant did not render himself inadmissible by by joining an organization, after leaving Liberia, which fundraised for the United Liberation Movement for Democracy, a group which opposed Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia. The immigration officials have not alleged that he engaged in a "terrorist activity" in doing so. The immigration officials' determination that the group was a Tier III terrorist organization was also arbitrary and capricious, and must be set aside. Finally, the immigrant has demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that he neither knew or should have known that the group was a terrorist organization.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 0:18cv3163, NOS: Other Immigration Actions - Immigration, Categories: Immigration, Terrorism
J. Tunheim denies both the university and the cell phone companies' motions to exclude expert testimony in the university's suit alleging infringement on its patents for cellular data transmission technology. The companies' damages expert's report is not so speculative as to warrant exclusion, and her purported use of a report with undisclosed methodology as a single data point for her own evaluation is a factual dispute better suited as a subject for trial testimony. The university's damages expert's report, similarly, is not excludable because of his use of the companies' entire LTE and 5G wireless subscriber base to calculate a reasonable royalty, although the expert's failure to properly apportion the royalty base is "highly concerning." Questions about whether the expert should have accounted for the age of the patents in suit should be decided by the jury, and his choice of one of 200 licensing agreements as a comparison in his negotiation analysis, while also concerning, is adequately explained to avoid exclusion.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 0:14cv4672, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Experts