Tech Data Corp. v. Hitachi, Ltd.

27 F. Supp. 3d 1015, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35392
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 13, 2014
DocketN.V., No. 13-cv-02776; Case No. C 07-5944 SC MDL No. 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 27 F. Supp. 3d 1015 (Tech Data Corp. v. Hitachi, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tech Data Corp. v. Hitachi, Ltd., 27 F. Supp. 3d 1015, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35392 (N.D. Cal. 2014).

Opinion

[1018]*1018 ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ JOINT MOTION TO DISMISS

Samuel Conti, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

Now before the Court is the Defendants’ joint motion to dismiss claims asserted in the above-captioned cases1 by Tech Data and Sharp.2 The matter is fully briefed3 and appropriate for decision without oral argument, per Civil Local Rule T — 1(b). As explained below, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part the motion.

II. BACKGROUND

The parties are familiar with this case’s facts. Accordingly, the Court will only summarize some of the facts that are relevant to the instant motion, which only concerns whether any of Sharp or Tech Data’s claims are barred by an applicable statute of limitations, and whether any relevant tolling doctrines apply to avoid that bar.

The underlying antitrust conspiracy in this MDL — to fix prices of cathode ray tubes (“CRTs”) and products containing CRTs — is alleged to have lasted between March 1, 1995 and December 2007 (the “Relevant Period”). The plaintiffs in all of the MDL’s cases contend that Defendants kept the conspiracy secret, to avoid putting the plaintiffs (and anyone else) on notice. But on November 8, 2007, the European Commission (“EC”) issued a press release stating that its officials had raided several unnamed CRT manufacturers. Shortly thereafter, other countries’ law enforcement agencies conducted similar raids, and within a few weeks, Defendants Panasonic, Samsung SDI, and Philips all acknowledged that they were under investigation.

A major point of contention as to this motion is whether Sharp or Tech Data were parts of any of the earlier-filed class actions: the direct purchaser plaintiff (“DPPs”) class, the indirect purchaser plaintiff (“IPP”) class, or any of the state classes that were later subsumed by the DPP or IPP actions. Sharp filed an indi-, vidual complaint on March 15, 2013, opting out of the putative DPP class. It filed another separate complaint against the Philips Defendants on June 17, 2013. Both of Sharp’s complaints assert claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. et seq.; the California Cartwright [1019]*1019Act, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 16700 et seq.; the' California UCL, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.; New York’s Donnelly Act, N.Y. Gen. Bus. L. § 340 et seq.; the New York UCL, N.Y. Gen. Bus. L. § 349 et seq.; the New Jersey Antitrust Act, N.J. Stat. § 56:9-1 et seq.; and the Tennessee Antitrust Act, Tenn.Code Ann. § 47-25-101 et seq.

Tech Data filed its first complaint on December 11, 2012. Tech Data asserts claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act (“FDUTPA”), Fla. Stat. § 501.201 et seq., the Cartwright: Act, and the California UCL.

All of Tech Data and Sharp’s claims are subject to four-year statutes of limitations, except the New York UCL and the Tennessee Antitrust Act, which haVe three: year statutes of limitations. Defendants now jointly move to dismiss Sharp and Tech Data’s claims, arguing that under no theory — fraudulent concealment, cross-jurisdictional tolling, American Pipe tolling,4' equitable tolling, or government tolling— can Sharp or Tech Data avoid their claims’ being barred, since they bring their claims so many years after the. alleged conspiracy had been revealed. Sharp’s claims against the Philips Defendants before April 29, 2009'are time-barred under those parties’ tolling agreement. Defendants’ arguments address only Sharp and Tech Data’s state law claims, not their federal claims.

III. LEGAL STANDARD

A motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) “tests the legal sufficiency of a claim.” Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir.2001). “Dismissal can be bqsed on the lack of a cogni-’ zable legal theory or the absence of sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory.” Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep’t, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir.1988). “When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court should assume their veracity and then determine whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 664, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). However, “the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Id. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). The allegations made in a complaint must be both “sufficiently detailed to give fair notice to the opposing party of the nature of the claim so that the party may effectively defend against it” and “sufficiently plausible” such that “it is not unfair to require the opposing party to be subjected to the expense of discovery.” Starr v. Baca, 652 F.3d 1202, 1216 (9th Cir.2011).

Claims sounding in fraud are subject to the heightened pleading requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), which requires that a plaintiff alleging fraud “must state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud.” See Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 567 F.3d 1120, 1124 (9th Cir.2009). “To satisfy Rule 9(b), a pleading must identify the who, what, when, where, and how of the misconduct charged, as well as what is false or misleading about [the purportedly fraudulent] statement, and why it is false.” United States ex rel Cafasso v. Gen. Dynamics C4 Sys., Inc., 637 F.3d 1047, 1055 (9th Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

[1020]*1020IV. DISCUSSION

A. Fraudulent Concealment

The doctrine of fraudulent concealment focuses on actions that a defendant took to prevent a plaintiff from learning of grounds for filing a suit. See Lukovsky v. City & Cnty. of S.F., 535 F.3d 1044, 1051 (9th Cir.2008). To invoke the doctrine, plaintiffs must allege facts demonstrating that they could not have discovered the alleged violations by exercising reasonable diligence. Rosenfeld v. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., 732 F.Supp.2d 952, 964 (N.D.Cal.2010); see also Hubbard v. Fid. Fed.

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Bluebook (online)
27 F. Supp. 3d 1015, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tech-data-corp-v-hitachi-ltd-cand-2014.