Hubbard v. Google LLC
- Susan Van Keulen
- 5:19-cv-07016
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Hubbard v. Google, Judge Freeman linked and consolidated the case with Ridenti v. Google for all purposes.
Nichole Hubbard and the other plaintiffs in Hubbard’s action, Paula Ridenti, Google LLC, the other defendants, and the court’s handling of the two cases.
What happened
In Hubbard v. Google, the court granted an unopposed motion to link Paula Ridenti’s newly transferred case to Nichole Hubbard’s case involving Google.
The court consolidated the two actions for all purposes, including trial and motions seeking a final decision. It ordered that Hubbard’s case number and caption serve as the master case and required any consolidated complaint to be filed by May 14, 2021.
Judge Beth Labson Freeman issued the order on April 20, 2021.
The detailed version
- Hubbard v. Google LLC · No. 5:19-cv-07016
- Susan Van Keulen
- Apr. 20, 2021
Background
The court considered an unopposed motion to relate Paula Ridenti’s action, No. 4:21-cv-02313-HSG, which had recently been transferred from the District of Massachusetts, to the action brought by Nichole Hubbard and others, No. 19-cv-07016-BLF.
Ruling
The court GRANTED the motion and further CONSOLIDATED the actions. It explained that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a) permits consolidation when cases involve common questions of law or fact, and that district courts have broad discretion to consolidate cases pending in the same district.
The consolidation applies for all purposes, including trial and dispositive motions. The Clerk was ordered to relate and administratively consolidate the two case numbers. The master docket and file are No. 19-cv-07016-BLF, and the consolidated action uses the caption Hubbard et al. v. Google et al. Documents filed in the master file are generally treated as filed in each individual case to the extent applicable.
The court also directed the parties to advise whether the pending motion to dismiss should be terminated in anticipation of an amended consolidated complaint. Any consolidated complaint had to be filed by May 14, 2021. Judge Beth Labson Freeman signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.