Stieve v. Campus

Background

Five plaintiffs—Jamie Stieve, Walter Hall, Tiffany Clark, Virginia Carver, and Cassie Helgeson—brought separate proposed class actions against Infinite Campus, Inc. The cases concern an alleged data breach involving Infinite Campus’s servers that occurred on or around March 18, 2026. The plaintiffs asserted substantially similar claims based on that event and sought to represent the same group of individuals. Infinite Campus did not oppose the motions, but expressly reserved its rights, defenses, objections, and arguments concerning the allegations, dismissal, and class certification.

Consolidation

The court applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42, which permits consolidation when cases share common legal or factual questions and consolidation would avoid unnecessary cost or delay. The court found that the five cases arose from the same alleged data breach, involved overlapping causes of action, and sought to represent the same class of individuals. It therefore granted the motions to consolidate.

The court consolidated Hall, Clark, Carver, and Helgeson with the first-filed Stieve case, No. 26-cv-2042, which became the lead case. All future pleadings, motions, and other documents must be filed in the Stieve case. The plaintiffs must file a consolidated amended complaint within 21 days of the order. After that complaint is filed, the other four cases will be administratively closed. The order also applies to later-filed proposed class actions involving similar factual allegations and similar causes of action related to the alleged data breach.

Interim Co-Lead Counsel

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(g)(3), a court may appoint interim counsel for a proposed class before deciding whether to certify the case as a class action. The court granted the motions to appoint Bryan L. Bleichner of Chestnut Cambronne PA and David A. Goodwin of Gustafson Gluek PLLC as interim co-lead class counsel. The court relied on the alleged size of the affected group—more than one million individuals—along with the lawyers’ stated commitment to work cooperatively, their experience with nationwide consumer class actions and data-breach cases, and their firms’ resources.

The interim co-lead counsel were assigned responsibility for coordinating plaintiffs’ lawyers and litigation activities, managing filings and communications, appearing at hearings and conferences, negotiating with Infinite Campus’s counsel, selecting experts as needed, preparing status reports, and developing procedures concerning fees and expenses subject to court approval. Settlement discussions must be conducted by interim co-lead counsel or their designees.

Disposition

The court granted the motions to consolidate actions and granted the motions to appoint interim co-lead counsel. The order addressed case organization and representation during the litigation; it did not decide the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims or whether a class would ultimately be certified.