Plaintiffs Want 9 Samsung Class Actions Consolidated in San Francisco

Plaintiffs in the nine class actions filed so far accusing Samsung of negligence in the summer’s data breaches asked the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation to transfer and consolidate the cases in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and assign them to District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, said their Oct. 7 motion (case no. 3005).

The San Francisco court is the “appropriate transferee district because it presents a geographically convenient and accessible venue for this nationwide litigation,” said the motion. An alternative transfer court is the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where Samsung is headquartered and five of the class actions are pending, it said. The plaintiffs want District Judge William Martini in Newark to preside if the cases are transferred there, it said.

Transfer and “centralization” of the cases to either location is appropriate, “given the number of current and likely tag-along actions related to these data breaches,” said the motion. “Because the allegations in all the cases are substantially similar and derive from the same common event, the parties face duplicative discovery if the cases are not transferred and consolidated,” it said.

All plaintiffs “will be seeking the same documentation from Samsung and will likely request to depose the same witnesses,” said the motion. “Samsung will raise the same defenses, argue the same class certification and discovery objections, seek the same protective orders, and assert the same privileges in each case.” Consolidating the cases “will permit the parties to coordinate their efforts in a single proceeding, thereby promoting efficiency and preserving parties’ and judicial resources.” it said.

The consequences of Samsung’s data breaches are “severe,” said the motion. They allowed hackers to access the personal identifiable information (PII) of Samsung account holders, including first and last names, postal addresses, precise geolocation data, email addresses and phone numbers, it said.

The PII “has since been publicly leaked online, which has allowed for digital and potential physical attacks” against all the plaintiffs and members of the potential class, said the motion. “Now that the PII has been leaked, it is available for other parties to sell or trade and will continue to be at risk for the indefinite future.” Samsung has been unresponsive to numerous requests for comment since the first of the class actions was filed in mid-September.