Nextdoor, Inc. v. Abhyanker

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 NEXTDOOR, INC., Case No. 12-cv-05667-EMC

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S 9 v. MOTION TO ENFORCE SETTLEMENT 10 RAJ ABHYANKER, Docket Nos. 501, 524 11 Defendant.

12 13 14 Previously, the Court granted Nextdoor’s motion for immediate interim relief. See Docket 15 No. 561 (order). In the same order, the Court noted that Nextdoor’s motion to enforce the 16 Settlement Agreement should also be granted but deferred issuing that order because of Mr. 17 Abhyanker’s pending appeal. Mr. Abhyanker has now voluntarily dismissed his appeal. See 18 Docket No. 569 (Ninth Circuit order). The Court therefore now GRANTS Nextdoor’s motion to 19 enforce the Settlement Agreement. 20 Mr. Abhyanker has suggested that this order is unnecessary because he has complied with 21 the Settlement Agreement and/or the Court’s order on interim relief. However, “[i]t is well settled 22 that ‘a defendant’s voluntary cessation of a challenged practice does not deprive a federal court of 23 its power to determine the legality of the practice,’” as “‘[i]f it did, the courts would be compelled 24 to leave “the defendant . . . free to return to his old ways.”’” Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw 25 Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 189 (2000). Mr. Abhyanker has not his met “‘heavy 26 burden of persuading’ [this] [C]ourt that the challenged conduct cannot reasonably be expected to 27 start up again’”; given the history of this litigation, it is not “‘absolutely clear that [his] behavior 1 Because the appeal has now been resolved, the Court also addresses Mr. Abhyanker’s 2 motion to stay. See Docket No. 501. The motion is DENIED as moot. 3 This order disposes of Docket Nos. 501 and 524. 4 5 IT IS SO ORDERED. 6 7 Dated: June 7, 2021 8 9 ______________________________________ EDWARD M. CHEN 10 United States District Judge 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27