Ouellette v. Capital One Financial Corporation

[7] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE [9] NATHAN OUELLETTE, JESI AN E. 10 RODRIGUEZ, GREGG STAPPAS, AND Case No. 2:19-cv-01203 CB HOME, INC., individually and on 11 behalf of all those similarly situated, STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO STAY [12] Plaintiffs, [13] vs. [14] CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL 15 CORPORATION, CAPITAL ONE, N.A., CAPITAL ONE BANK (USA), N.A., 16 AMAZON.COM, INC., and AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC., [17] Defendants. [18] 19 STIPULATION 20 Pursuant to LCR 7(d)(1) and LCR 10(g), the parties hereby request that the Court stay all 21 proceedings and deadlines in this action pending resolution of the motions for transfer and 22 consolidation under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 that are currently pending before the Judicial Panel on 23 Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”). The JPML will hear oral argument on the Section 1407 24 motions on September 26, 2019, and Defendants Capital One Financial Corporation, Capital 25 One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. (collectively, “Capital One”) anticipate an order 26 regarding transfer and consolidation of this case and other related cases to be issued shortly 27 thereafter. All the other parties in this action, including Plaintiffs and Defendants Amazon.com, 1 Inc. and Amazon Web Services, Inc., agree to the requested stay. 2 This case is one of over 45 putative class actions filed in connection with the cyber 3 incident that Capital One announced on July 29, 2019. Plaintiffs filed the Complaint in this case 4 on August 1, 2019; Capital One was served on August 5, 2019; and Capital One’s deadline to 5 answer or respond to the Complaint is currently August 26, 2019. 6 On July 31, 2019, plaintiffs in a related case pending in this District, Fadullon v. Capital 7 One Financial Corporation, et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-01189 (W.D. Wash., filed July 30, 2019), 8 filed a motion for consolidation and transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 with the JPML in In re 9 Capital One Consumer Data Breach Litigation, MDL No. 2915 (J.P.M.L. July 31, 2019) (“In re 10 Capital One”). See In re Capital One, Dkt. No. 1. That motion seeks to have related actions 11 arising out of the Capital One cyber incident, including this case, consolidated with the Fadullon 12 case and transferred to this District for pretrial proceedings. Subsequently, plaintiffs in other 13 related cases have filed briefs in the In re Capital One matter that support transfer and 14 consolidation, but seek other transferee courts, including the Eastern District of Virginia, 15 Alexandria Division (id. at Dkt. Nos. 5 and 7) and the District of the District of Columbia (id. at 16 Dkt. No. 8). Numerous notices of related actions have also been filed in In re Capital One, and 17 additional related cases continue to be filed and are in the process of being noticed to the JPML 18 as potential tag-along actions. 19 Given that over 45 putative class actions have been filed, all related to the same 20 underlying event and asserting the same or substantially similar factual allegations, the JPML is 21 highly likely to grant the motions for transfer and consolidation. If it does, to conserve the 22 parties’ resources and promote judicial economy, this case will be consolidated with the other 23 putative class actions for centralized pretrial proceedings in a single transferee court. Under these 24 circumstances, “[c]ourts frequently grant stays pending a decision by the MDL Panel regarding 25 whether to transfer a case.” Good v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 5 F.Supp.2d 804, 809 (N.D. Cal. 26 1998); see Short v. Hyundai Motor Am. Inc., No. C19-0318JLR, 2019 WL 3067251 (W.D. Wash. 27 July 12, 2019) (granting stay pending JPML’s resolution of Section 1407 motion); Gonzalez v. 1 Merck & Co., No. CV-07-3034-LRS, 2007 WL 2220286 , at *2 (E.D. Wash. Aug. 2, 2007) 2 (granting defendant’s motion to stay pending transfer decision and noting that “well settled case 3 law . . . dictates a stay should be granted to promote judicial economy”); Rivers v. Walt Disney 4 Co., 980 F. Supp. 1358, 1362 (C.D. Cal. 1997) (granting stay pending JPML’s ruling because “a 5 majority of courts have concluded that it is often appropriate to stay preliminary pretrial 6 proceedings while a motion to transfer and consolidate is pending with the MDL Panel”); 7 Bonefant v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., No. 07-60301-CIV, 2007 WL 2409980 , at * 1 (S.D. Fla. 8 July 31, 2007) (“[I]t is common practice for courts to stay an action pending a transfer decision 9 by the JPML.”). In fact, Capital One has already successfully moved to stay numerous cases 10 related to the cyber incident, and to date no court has denied a request to stay a case related case. 11 See, e.g., Heath, et al. v. Capital One Financial Corp., et al., 3:19-cv-555-JAG, Dkt. No. 14 12 (E.D. Va. Aug. 16, 2019) (order staying nine related cases pending decision from the JPML); 13 Hilker v. Capital One Financial Corp., et al., No. 1:19-cv-995-RDA-JFA Dkt. No. 15 (E.D. Va. 14 Aug. 16, 2019) (order staying related case pending decision from the JPML). 15 Here, too, a short stay of proceedings until the JPML resolves the pending Section 1407 16 motions will promote judicial economy and sound judicial administration, avoid duplicative 17 pretrial proceedings and potentially inconsistent pretrial rulings, and prevent prejudice to all 18 parties. 19 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 20 DATED this 21st day of August, 2019. 21 Respectfully submitted, 22 s/Steven A. Miller Steven A. Miller, WSBA No. 30388 23 s/Daniel J. Oates Daniel J. Oates, WSBA No. 39334 24 s/Kellen A. Hade Kellen A. Hade, WSBA No. 44535 25 MILLER NASH GRAHAM & DUNN LLP Pier 70, 2801 Alaskan Way, Suite 300 26 Seattle, WA 98121-1128 [27] 1 Tel: (206) 624-8300 Fax: (206) 340-9599 2 Email: steve.miller@millernash.com dan.oates@millernash.com 3 kellen.hade@millernash.com 4 Attorneys for Capitol One Defendants 5 Stipulation agreed to by: [6] s/ Jeffrey A. Ware Jeffrey A. Ware, WSBA No. 43779 [7] FENWICK & WEST LLP 8 1191 Second Avenue, 10th Floor Seattle, WA 98101 [9] Tel: (206) 389-4510 Fax: (206) 389-4511 [10] Email: jware@fenwick.com [11] Attorneys for Amazon, Inc., and Amazon Web Services, Inc. [12] 13 TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS PLLC 14 By: s/ Kim D. Stephens Kim D. Stephens, WSBA #11984 [15] By: s/Jason T. Dennett 16 Jason T. Dennett, WSBA #30686 17 By: s/ Kaleigh N.B. Powell Kaleigh N.B. Powell, WSBA #52684 [18] 1700 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2200 19 Seattle, Washington 98101 Tel.: 206.682.5600/Fax.: 206.682-2992 20 Email: kstephens@tousley.com jdennett@tousley.com 21 kpowell@tousley.com [2] James J. Pizzirusso, admitted pro hac vice 3 Swathi Bojedla, admitted pro hac vice Theodore F. DiSalvo, admitted pro hac vice 4 HAUSFELD LLP 1700 K Street NW, Suite 650 5 Washington, D.C. 20006 Tel.: 202.540.7200 6 jpizzirusso@hausfeld.com sbojedla@hausfeld.com 7 tdisalvo@hausfeld.com 8 Adam J. Levitt, admitted pro hac vice Amy E. Keller, admitted pro hac vice 9 DICELLO LEVITT GUTZLER LLC Ten North Dearborn Street 10 Eleventh Floor Chicago, Illinois 60602 11 Tel.: 312.214.7900 alevitt@dicellolevit.com 12 akeller@dicellolevitt.com 13 Andrew N. Friedman, admitted pro hac vice COHEN MILSTEIN SELLERS & TOLL PLLC 14 1100 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20005 15 Tel.: 202.408.4600 afriedman@cohenmilstein.com 16 dmcnamara@cohenmilstein.com ekafka@cohenmilstein.com 17 kputtieva@cohenmilstein.com 18 E. Michelle Drake, admitted pro hac vice BERGER MONTAGUE, PC 19 43 SE Main Street, Suite 505 Minneapolis, MN 55414 20 Tel.: 612.594.5933 emdrake@bm.net [21] Daniel L. Warshaw, admitted pro hac vice 22 Matthew A. Pearson, admitted pro hac vice PEARSON, SIMON & WARSHAW, LLP 23 15165 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 400 Sherman Oaks, California 91403 24 Tel.: 818.788.8300 dwarshaw@pswlaw.com 25 mapearson@pswlaw.com 26 Counsel for Plaintiffs and the Classes 1 ORDER 2 IT IS ORDERED. [3] Dated this 29th day of August , 2019. [4] A [6] Mary Alice Theiler 7 United States Magistrate Judge