Hoskinson-Short v. Capital One Financial Corporation

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: September 6, 2019
• Docket: 2:19-cv-01218
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 9 MICHAEL HOSKINSON-SHORT, 10 KASSANDRA MCKOWN, PATRICK Case No. C19-1218 RSM SOTO, MICHAEL J. HAUSER, 11 DOROTHY E. HAUSER, JULIO VERA, STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO BRENDY WOLFRAM, ERNESTO DE STAY 12 LA FE, TIMOTHY M. HAYDEN, NECROTIZING FASCIITIS 13 FOUNDATION, LINDSAY WELCH, and JUAN HERNANDEZ, individually and on 14 behalf of those similarly situated,

15 Plaintiffs,

16 vs.

17 CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION, CAPITAL ONE, N.A., 18 CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), N.A., AMAZON.COM, INC., and AMAZON 19 WEB SERVICES, INC.,

20 Defendants.

21 STIPULATION 22 Pursuant to LCR 7(d)(1) and LCR 10(g), the parties hereby request that the Court stay all 23 proceedings and deadlines in this action pending resolution of the motions for transfer and 24 consolidation under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 that are currently pending before the Judicial Panel on 25 Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”). The JPML will hear oral argument on the Section 1407 motions 26 1 on September 26, 2019, and Defendants Capital One Financial Corporation, Capital One, N.A., 2 and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. (collectively, “Capital One”) and Defendants Amazon.com, 3 Inc. and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (collectively, “Amazon”) anticipate an order regarding 4 transfer and consolidation of this case and other related cases to be issued shortly thereafter. 5 Plaintiffs agree to the requested stay. 6 This case is one of over 50 putative class actions filed in connection with the cyber incident 7 that Capital One announced on July 29, 2019. On July 31, 2019, plaintiffs in a related case pending 8 in this District, Fadullon v. Capital One Financial Corporation, et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-01189 9 (W.D. Wash., filed July 30, 2019), filed a motion for consolidation and transfer under 28 U.S.C. 10 § 1407 with the JPML in In re Capital One Consumer Data Breach Litigation, MDL No. 2915 11 (J.P.M.L. July 31, 2019) (“In re Capital One”). See In re Capital One, Dkt. No. 1. That motion 12 seeks to have related actions arising out of the Capital One cyber incident consolidated with the 13 Fadullon case and transferred to this District for pretrial proceedings. Subsequently, numerous 14 plaintiffs in other related cases have filed briefs in the In re Capital One matter supporting transfer 15 and consolidation, but seeking other transferee courts, including the Eastern District of Virginia, 16 the District for the District of Columbia, and the Northern District of California. Numerous notices 17 of related actions have also been filed in In re Capital One, and additional related cases continue 18 to be filed and are in the process of being noticed to the JPML as potential tag-along actions. 19 Given that over 50 putative class actions have been filed, all related to the same underlying 20 event and asserting the same or substantially similar factual allegations, the JPML is highly likely 21 to grant the motions for transfer and consolidation. If it does, to conserve the parties’ resources 22 and promote judicial economy, this case will be consolidated with the other putative class actions 23 for centralized pretrial proceedings in a single transferee court. Under these circumstances, 24 “[c]ourts frequently grant stays pending a decision by the MDL Panel regarding whether to transfer 25 a case.” Good v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 5 F.Supp.2d 804, 809 (N.D. Cal. 1998); see Short v. 26 Hyundai Motor Am. Inc., No. C19-0318JLR, 2019 WL 3067251 (W.D. Wash. July 12, 2019) 1 (granting stay pending JPML’s resolution of Section 1407 motion); Gonzalez v. Merck & Co., No. 2 CV-07-3034-LRS, 2007 WL 2220286, at *2 (E.D. Wash. Aug. 2, 2007) (granting defendant’s 3 motion to stay pending transfer decision and noting that “well settled case law . . . dictates a stay 4 should be granted to promote judicial economy”); Rivers v. Walt Disney Co., 980 F. Supp. 1358, 5 1362 (C.D. Cal. 1997) (granting stay pending JPML’s ruling because “a majority of courts have 6 concluded that it is often appropriate to stay preliminary pretrial proceedings while a motion to 7 transfer and consolidate is pending with the MDL Panel”); Bonefant v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 8 No. 07-60301-CIV, 2007 WL 2409980, at * 1 (S.D. Fla. July 31, 2007) (“[I]t is common practice 9 for courts to stay an action pending a transfer decision by the JPML.”). In fact, Capital One has 10 already successfully moved to stay over 30 cases related to the cyber incident. See, e.g., Ouellette 11 v. Capital One Fin. Corp., 2:19-cv-01203-MAT, Dkt. No. 32 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 29, 2019) (order 12 staying related case pending decision from the JPML); Desoer v. Capital One Fin. Corp., 2:19- 13 cv-01223-MLP, Dkt. No. 19 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 29, 2019) (same); Hilker v. Capital One Fin. 14 Corp., No. 1:19-cv-995-RDA-JFA, Dkt. No. 15 (E.D. Va. Aug. 16, 2019) (same); Francis v. 15 Capital One Fin. Corp., No. 8:19-cv-1898 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 21, 2019), Dkt. No. 11 (same); Berger 16 v. Capital One Fin. Corp., No. 1:19-cv-2298 (D.D.C. Aug. 22, 2019) (same); Heath v. Capital 17 One Fin. Corp., 3:19-cv-555-JAG, Dkt. No. 14 (E.D. Va. Aug. 16, 2019) (order staying nine 18 related cases pending decision from the JPML). Motions to stay are currently pending in other 19 cases, and Capital One—along with AWS in the cases where it is named as a defendant—will 20 continue to seek stays in additional related cases. 21 Here, too, a short stay of proceedings until the JPML resolves the pending Section 1407 22 motions will promote judicial economy and sound judicial administration, avoid duplicative 23 pretrial proceedings and potentially inconsistent pretrial rulings, and prevent prejudice to all 24 parties. 25 IT IS SO STIPULATED.

26 DATED this 5th day of September, 2019. 1 Respectfully submitted, 2 s/Steven A. Miller Steven A. Miller, WSBA No. 30388 3 s/Daniel J. Oates Daniel J. Oates, WSBA No. 39334 4 s/Kellen A. Hade Kellen A. Hade, WSBA No. 44535 5 MILLER NASH GRAHAM & DUNN LLP Pier 70, 2801 Alaskan Way, Suite 300 6 Seattle, WA 98121-1128 Tel: (206) 624-8300 7 Fax: (206) 340-9599 Email: steve.miller@millernash.com 8 dan.oates@millernash.com kellen.hade@millernash.com 9 Attorneys for Capital One Financial 10 Corporation, Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. 11 Stipulation agreed to by: 12

s/ Jeffrey A. Ware 13 Jeffrey A. Ware, WSBA No. 43779

14 FENWICK & WEST LLP 1191 Second Avenue, 10th Floor 15 Seattle, WA 98101 Tel: (206) 389-4510 16 Fax: (206) 389-4511 Email: jware@fenwick.com 17 Attorneys for Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon Web 18 Services, Inc. 19 /s Roger M. Townsend 20 Roger M. Townsend, WSBA #25525 Breskin Johnson & Townsend PLLC 21 1000 Second Avenue, Suite 3670 Seattle, WA 98104 22 Tel: (206) 652-8660 23 Fax: (206) 652-8290 rtownsend@bjtlegal.com 24 Joshua H. Grabar 25 Grabar Law Office 1735 Market Street, Suite 3750 26 Philadelphia, PA 19103 1 Tel.: 267-507-6085 Fax.: 267-507-6048 2 Email: jgrabar@grabarlaw.com 3 Marc H. Edelson 4 Edelson & Associates, LLC 3 Terry Drive, Suite 205 5 Newtown, PA 18940 Tel: (215) 867-2399 6 Fax: (267) 685-0676 7 Email: medelson@edelson-law.com

8 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 ORDER 2 IT IS ORDERED this 6th day of September 2019. 3 A 4 RICARDO S. MARTINEZ 5 CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26