20 results for 'judge:"Stearns"'.
J. Stearns partially denies a company and its CEO’s motion for summary judgment against their former national sales and business manager who is suing them for allegedly retaliating against her and violating the Massachusetts Wage Act. The manager engaged in protected conduct in Massachusetts and performed work she allegedly wasn’t paid for commissions earned in Massachusetts, so even though the company and its CEO are in Illinois and the manager is not a Massachusetts resident, she can bring a claim under the Massachusetts Wage Act.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv10750, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Employment, Jurisdiction, Employment Retaliation
J. Stearns denies a former employee’s motion for partial summary judgment against her former employer, who she claims violated wage laws, discriminated against her for being white and retaliated against her after the employer significantly changed her job responsibilities, investigated her based on problematic communications between her and her coworkers, then fired her. It’s unclear if the employer could have known that the employee was under-reporting her hours worked, so the employer was not clearly knowingly failing to pay the employee properly for her overtime hours worked. There is a significant amount of ambiguity on her other claims, preventing summary judgment in favor of either party on those claims.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv10436, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Stearns grants in part a moving subcontractor’s motion to dismiss claims brought against it by a couple, after the subcontractor refused to return items it picked up from the couple’s house or pickup additional items because it hadn’t been paid properly. The claims which allege the subcontractor damaged the couple’s belongings are preempted by the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: February 13, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv10767, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Commerce, Property, Contract
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J. Stearns denies current and former employees’ motion for preliminary injunctive relief against their employer for denying them religious exemptions to Covid-19 vaccination. For their work, the employees closely interacted in-person with a wide range of people, including children, immunocompromised individuals and the elderly, and approving religious exemptions from the vaccine would put their customers at risk, and the denial of the exemptions did not involve simultaneously permitting secular exemptions that posed a similar risk. The granting of medical exemptions furthers the same goal of safety as rejecting the religious ones.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10242, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Employment, Covid-19, Employment Discrimination
J. Stearns denies a business manufacturing company's motion to stay this lawsuit, brought against it by an aluminum supplier, until there is an outcome to the business manufacturer's lawsuit against the aluminum supplier in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The two lawsuits differ enough that they can both occur simultaneously.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv11431, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Business Practices, Warranty, Contract
J. Stearns partially grants a pharmacy's motion to dismiss a class action brought against it by customers relating to an alleged data breach that exposed their personally identifiable information, including their social security numbers and credit card information. The customers make a plausible negligence claim but fail to adequately substantiate that the pharmacy had a contractual obligation to more securely protect their data. Their unjust enrichment claim is also unsupported because they shouldn't expect that part of the cost of their pharmaceutical services was data security.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: September 12, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10797, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Health Care, Negligence, Privacy
J. Stearns grants a town and its police officers’ motion for summary judgment against an individual who claimed his Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights were violated when a town’s police officers used excessive force in arresting him. The individual failed to provide evidence that the excessive force was intended by the town or part of a pattern in its police officers’ behavior.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10157, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Due Process, Police Misconduct
J. Stearns orders the claim terms that will be interpreted for the jury at trial of a suit by a Boston-based global pharmaceutical company accusing a pharmaceutical research in India of infringing on its U.S. patents for methods of administering a medication to treat osteoporosis or to stimulate bone growth. The ruling finds the claim constructions of the Boston firm, which focuses on bone health, are more consistent with the “intrinsic” record of the case.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: August 4, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv11546, NOS: Patent - Property Rights, Categories: Evidence, Jury, Patent
J. Stearns denies a couple's motion for summary judgment on their claims against a residential architect and his counterclaims. There are questions of fact regarding their breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, along with the architect's own contract claim they owe him more than $1.3 million.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv10527, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Housing, Contract
J. Stearns finds for an agent, literary agency and publishing house on their contract claim against a romance novelist. Under the plain language of the parties' literary agency and representation agreement, the writer breached the forum selection clause by pursuing litigation in Iowa, rather than arbitrating her claims and pursing litigation in Massachusetts only if the parties could not agree on an arbitrator.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: May 31, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv10171, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Contract
J. Stearns denies, in part, four officers' motion to dismiss an individual's claims arising from her arrest and conviction for arson and the resulting death of her parents in a house fire. She sufficiently alleges bad faith to support her claim regarding the destruction of exculpatory evidence, and she sufficiently pleads her civil conspiracy claim.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: May 24, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv10340, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Evidence, Malicious Prosecution
J. Stearns refuses to dismiss a city's contract action against a school services company for its alleged failure to adequately staff buses for two school years. The city sufficiently pleads its claims for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligent
misrepresentation and violations of the Massachusetts Fair Business Practices Act.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Stearns, Filed On: May 19, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv10460, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Education, Transportation, Contract