36 results for 'judge:"Gorton"'.
J. Gorton allows a corporation’s motion to dismiss a former employee's claims of violation of his right to due process and equal protection, as well as his civil rights. The corporation allowed employees to be unvaccinated, but required unvaccinated employees to test themselves weekly for Covid-19, and they fired the employee when he refused to follow the testing requirement.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv12206, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Employment, Health Care, Covid-19
J. Gorton allows the majority of claims against public school district officials, teachers and a town to be dismissed. One teacher repeatedly physically and emotionally abused her very young, disabled students, and two of her students demonstrated the severity and long-lasting impact of the abuse enough to prevent the dismissal of their claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Other suing students did not show the severity necessary to support their intentional infliction of emotional distress claims. Additionally, the other teachers, officials and the town are not shown to have been responsible for the abuse.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv11170, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Emotional Distress, Assault
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J. Gorton. grants summary judgment in favor of a university being sued by some of its students for not reimbursing them for the remote learning experience it offered during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was allegedly of lower quality than its typical in-person educational experience. The retroactive application of a statute protecting the university from liability for damages of equitable monetary relief, as long as the damages are not caused by an act or admission in bad faith, does not violate the students’ constitutional rights.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv11021, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Constitution, Education, Covid-19
J. Gorton grants partial summary judgment in favor of a university that was sued by some of its students for charging full tuition and fees for the remote learning experience it offered during the Covid-19 pandemic. The retroactive application of a statute protecting the university from liability for damages of equitable monetary relief, as long as the damages are not caused by an act or admission in bad faith, does not violate the students’ due process rights.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv11662, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Education, Due Process, Covid-19
J. Gorton denies an artificial intelligence company and two former employees of an actuarial and consulting firm’s motion to file an amended answer and counterclaims after the actuarial and consulting firm sued them for misappropriation of trade secrets and patent infringement. The deadline for amendments is not going to be extended based on information found during discovery because the AI company and the former employees deferred discovery.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: December 22, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv10865, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Trade Secrets, Discovery
J. Gorton grants, in part, a night club's motion for summary judgment against models suing it for allegedly altering and using photos of them in its promotional materials without their consent. The 3-year statute of limitations bars certain claims, as the most recent date the photos were published was in November of 2015, which is the latest date when the models' complaints could have started accruing.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv11075, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Property, Privacy, False Advertising
J. Gorton grants a machine vision manufacturer’s motion to dismiss counterclaims brought against it by an industrial distributor, and denies the manufacturer’s motion to strike the industrial distributor’s jury demand as moot. The distributor did not have a franchise relationship with the manufacturer and has not made or been required to make in the future a payment to the manufacturer. While the distributor purchased demonstration equipment, it fails to prove that this was necessary.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10051, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Commerce, Trade, Contract
J. Gorton partially allows a company’s motion to dismiss claims of securities fraud and tortious interference with a contract brought against it via class action by an asset management firm. It is unclear at this time if the firm’s claim of tortious interference with a contract is untimely. The firm’s securities fraud claims are untimely. The firm’s amended complaint cannot be dismissed for failure to state a claim because it plausibly argues that the company acted without justification by deliberately avoiding following the rights agreement they were obligated to follow.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv11315, NOS: Securities/Commodities/Exchange - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Contract
J. Gorton partially denies an e-commerce company’s motion to dismiss claims brought against it for patent infringement by a tech company. The e-commerce company argues that searching and manipulating a database, monitoring web system usage and tailoring advertising to website users are abstract ideas ineligible for patenting, and this is mostly true, but one of the patents contains an inventive concept that may be patent-eligible.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv11351, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Patent, Technology
J. Gorton partially allows the call center agents' motion for conditional certification of the putative collective in a suit against their employer for failure to pay them properly. The class can't be all of the call center agents who worked under the employer in question during a certain interval of time; it has to be narrowed to "All current and former hourly call center agents who worked for Liberty Mutual Group, Inc. and were assigned to its New Castle, Pennsylvania office at any time during the past three years."
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv11687, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Class Action
J. Gorton denies a pharmaceutical company’s motion for summary judgment and grants the federal government’s motion for partial summary judgment in a case against the pharmaceutical firm for allegedly paying kickbacks for false Medicare claims through illegal copay subsidies on Copaxone, a drug for multiple sclerosis. There are emails from the drug maker’s employees that show its employees believe that the company would have lost Copaxone sales if it didn’t offer the subsidies. Anti-kickback statute violations that result in federal health care payments are automatically considered false claims under the False Claims Act.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv11548, NOS: False Claims Act - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Medicare, False Claims
J. Gorton allows a manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment and denies a widow’s application for summary judgment in a case where the widow is suing the manufacturer for exposing her late husband to asbestos, resulting in his mesothelioma. While his former coworker confirmed that the decedent worked on ships where Buffalo pumps — a product known to have sometimes contained asbestos — were located, he cannot recall if the decedent worked on those pumps specifically.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: July 10, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv10282, NOS: Asbestos Personal Injury Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Product Liability, Wrongful Death, Asbestos
J. Gorton denies a mortgagee’s motion to dismiss a homeowner’s allegations of wrongful foreclosure and attempt to prevent foreclosure. The mortgagee’s motion is based on there being actions currently pending, to avoid inconsistencies, but because the pending actions are with the same court, potential inconsistencies between two courts is not a risk.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10547, NOS: Foreclosure - Real Property, Categories: Real Estate, Due Process, Foreclosure
J. Gorton dismisses one claim brought by a scam victim against the bank where his funds were wired after someone stole the money through an email hacking scheme. Portions of the bank’s motions to dismiss depend on it not being aware of the likelihood that the wire transfer of funds was a scam; this is not accurate because the bank locked down the account and the transaction triggered its fraud alerts. However, the bank did not aid and abet the perpetrator of the scam because it does not owe a fiduciary duty to the scam victim, who hasn’t provided substantial evidence to show that the bank’s inaction was intended to help facilitate a fraudulent transaction.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10628, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Banking / Lending