Richardson v. Tesla, Inc.
- Lorenz
- 3:24-cv-00209
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Richardson v. Tesla, Judge Lorenz transferred the unopposed consumer class action to the Northern District of California.
Joel Richardson, Tesla, Inc. doing business as Tesla Motors, Inc., the other defendants, and the putative class action are affected because the case was transferred to the Northern District of California.
What happened
In Richardson v. Tesla, Inc., Tesla and the other defendants asked to move the putative consumer class action from the Southern District of California to the Northern District of California. They said a related putative class action had been pending there since September 14, 2022.
Richardson was represented by counsel but did not oppose the motion. The court noted that the deadline to respond had passed and that Tesla served the motion and a notice of non-opposition by mail because it was unclear whether Richardson’s counsel was registered to receive electronic filings.
The court granted the motion as unopposed and transferred the case to the Northern District of California. Judge James Lorenz also ordered the clerk to serve the order by first-class mail.
The detailed version
- Richardson v. Tesla, Inc. · No. 3:24-cv-00209
- Lorenz
- Jan. 8, 2024
Background
Joel Richardson brought a putative consumer class action against Tesla, Inc., doing business as Tesla Motors, Inc., and other defendants. The defendants moved under 28 U.S.C. § 1401(a) to transfer the case from the Southern District of California to the Northern District of California. The defendants identified a parallel putative consumer class action that had been pending in the Northern District of California since September 14, 2022.
Richardson was represented by counsel and did not file an opposition. The deadline to oppose had passed. The court noted that it was unclear whether Richardson’s counsel was a registered user of the court’s electronic filing system, so the defendants served the motion and a later notice of non-opposition by first-class mail on December 21, 2023.
Ruling
The court granted the defendants’ motion to transfer venue as unopposed, citing the district’s local rules and Ninth Circuit precedent. It ordered that the action be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. It also ordered the clerk to serve the order by first-class mail because of the uncertainty about counsel’s electronic-filing registration.
Effect of the Order
The order changed the federal district where the case would proceed. The opinion does not decide the underlying consumer claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.