In re Apple Inc.

386 F. Supp. 3d 1155
District Court, N.D. California·Decided April 22, 2019·No. Case No. 18-md-02827-EJD·Published·Cited by 26 cases

Opinion

EDWARD J. DAVILA, United States District Judge

This putative class action against Apple Inc. ("Apple") is brought by Plaintiffs from across the U.S. as well as multiple foreign countries. Presently before the Court are several pending motions.

*1162In its order granting in part and denying in part Apple's motion to dismiss the Consolidated Amended Complaint (CAC), the Court denied Apple's motion with respect to the non-U.S. Plaintiffs. Apple now asks the Court to reconsider its ruling on that issue. Dkt. No. 236-1. The Court will GRANT Apple's motion for reconsideration.

Apple moves to dismiss claims in the Second Amended Complaint ("SAC"). Dkt. No. 272 ("MTD"). The Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Apple's motion to dismiss.

Along with their Opposition to Apple's motion to dismiss, Plaintiffs separately filed "Objections" to Apple's motion. Dkt. No. 282. Plaintiffs "request[ed] leave to file these objections as a separate document" because of "the seriousness of Plaintiffs' objections and the large number of irregularities in the MTD." Id. at 1. Plaintiffs' request is procedurally inappropriate. See Civ. L.R. 7-3(a) ("Any evidentiary and procedural objections to the motion must be contained within the brief or memorandum."). Plaintiffs' offer no compelling explanation for their attempt to circumvent the page limits that this Court set for briefing on the motion to dismiss. Accordingly, Plaintiffs' request is DENIED, and the Court will not consider this document. Plaintiffs shall not submit any billing requests related to production of this extraneous document.

In addition, Plaintiffs' Opposition is accompanied by the Declaration of Joseph Cotchett, which includes as exhibits additional documents produced by Apple in discovery or allegedly downloaded from the Internet Archives as copies of Apple's own webpages. Dkt. No. 280-1. These documents are not properly before the Court as part of the motion to dismiss, so the Court does consider them. See Branch v. Tunnell , 14 F.3d 449, 453 (9th Cir. 1994) ("Generally, a district court may not consider any material beyond the pleadings in a ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion." (citation omitted)) overruled on other grounds by Galbraith v. Cty. of Santa Clara , 307 F.3d 1119, 1123 (9th Cir. 2002).

The parties' requests for judicial notice are before the Court. Dkt. Nos. 177, 281. The Court GRANTS Apple's request to take judicial notice of the hardware warranty. Dkt. No. 177. The Court DENIES Plaintiffs' request to take judicial notice of documents produced during discovery. Dkt. No. 281.

Finally, the parties have each filed administrative motions for leave to file statements of recent decision. Dkt. Nos. 307, 308. These administrative motions are improper under Civil Local Rules 7-3(d)(2) and 7-11. The Court DENIES these administrative motions.

I. BACKGROUND

In its order granting in part and denying in part the motion to dismiss, the Court discussed the background facts in detail. Dkt. No. 219. The Court will not repeat that discussion here and assumes familiarity with it. At a high level, this case involves allegations that Apple attempted to conceal iPhone battery defects and that Apple failed to adequately disclose that certain software updates would affect device performance.

On July 2, 2018, Plaintiffs filed the CAC, asserting 76 causes of action under one federal statute, all 50 states' statutes, and the common law, on behalf of a class including consumers from the 50 states and other territories of the United States as well as multiple foreign countries. Dkt. No. 145. After considering the parties' proposals for proceeding with a motion to dismiss a limited set of claims, the Court ordered that Apple's motion to dismiss the CAC

*1163would be limited to counts one through six of the CAC and the threshold issues of whether Plaintiffs could assert claims on behalf of non-U.S. residents and whether Plaintiffs' claims extended to certain iPad devices. See Dkt. No. 163 at 1. On August 9, 2018, Apple filed its motion to dismiss the CAC. Dkt. No. 176. On October 1, 2018, the Court granted in part and denied in part Apple's motion to dismiss the CAC. Dkt. No. 219 ("Order").

With respect to the Foreign plaintiffs, the Court noted that "[m]any of the [practical and constitutional] concerns that Apple raises are substantial and potentially well-founded;" however, the Court explained that "[t]he issues identified by Apple are better addressed at a later stage of the proceedings, such as class certification." Dkt. No. 219 at 8. Except with respect to claims under the California False Advertising Law, the Court concluded that non-U.S. Plaintiffs could invoke California law. Id. at 13. The Court also determined that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applied extraterritorially, and denied Apple's request to dismiss the U.K. Plaintiffs' claims under the doctrine of international comity or forum non conveniens. Id. at 15, 17.

On November 15, 2018, Apple filed a motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of the Court's Order and motion for reconsideration. Dkt. No. 236 ("Mot. for Reconsideration"). Apple's motion is limited to the Court's choice-of-law conclusion that foreign Plaintiffs may invoke California law. On December 4, 2018, the Court granted Apple's motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration. Dkt. No. 246. The Court deemed filed the attached motion for reconsideration and invited responsive briefing. Id. at 2. Plaintiffs filed an opposition, Dkt. No. 266 ("Opp. re Reconsideration"), and Apple filed a Reply to MTD, Dkt. No. 269 ("Reply re Reconsideration").

Apple filed the instant motion to dismiss on January 24, 2019. Dkt. 272. Plaintiffs opposed the motion to dismiss, requested the court take judicial notice of various documents, and sought leave to file additional objections to the motion to dismiss. Dkt. Nos. 280 ("Opp. To MTD"), 281, 282. Apple filed a reply. Dkt. No. 286. The Court heard oral argument from the parties on March 7, 2019. Dkt. No. 302.

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

Motions for reconsideration are disfavored and "should not be granted, absent highly unusual circumstances, unless the district court is presented with newly discovered evidence, committed clear error , or if there is an intervening change in the controlling law." McDowell v. Calderon , 197 F.3d 1253, 1255 (9th Cir. 1999) (per curiam) (internal quotation and citation omitted). Furthermore, "[a] motion for reconsideration 'may not be used to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when they could reasonably have been raised earlier in the litigation.' " Marlyn Nutraceuticals, Inc. v. Mucos Pharma GmbH & Co.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

In re Apple Inc., 386 F. Supp. 3d 1155 (N.D. Cal. 2019).

386 F. Supp. 3d 1155 (In re Apple Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Untitled Case
D. Montana, 2026
Untitled Case
N.D. California, 2026
Smith v. Intel Corporation
N.D. California, 2025
Rittenhouse v. BlendJet, Inc.
E.D. California, 2025
Griffin v. Calderon
M.D. Florida, 2025
Christian v. Betak
N.D. California, 2024
Jenkins v. FCA US LLC
N.D. California, 2024
IN RE PLUM BABY FOOD LITIGATION
N.D. California, 2024
Bui-Ford v. Tesla, Inc.
N.D. California, 2024
De Ford v. Koutoulas
M.D. Florida, 2023
Crittenden v. Apple, Inc.
N.D. California, 2022
Lindland v. TuSimple, Inc.
S.D. California, 2022
Gurminder Singh v. Google LLC
N.D. California, 2022
Shuman v. SquareTrade Inc.
N.D. California, 2021