City of Hope National Medical Center had a responsibility to protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of some 820,000 patients but failed to do so during an Oct. 13 data breach, alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-02890) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Riverside.

A week before Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were to stand trial before a jury on damages for their roles in the robocall campaign to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the run-up to the 2020 election (see 2312040022), they and the 10 plaintiffs in the case against them, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), proposed a consent decree Monday (docket 1:20-cv-08668) that would avert that trial.

Coppe Healthcare Solutions failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, said defendant Brightsky, parent company to Simplifi, in its answer (docket 2:24-cv-00088) and affirmative defenses to Coppe’s negligence complaint Monday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

HP’s claim that it’s entitled to dismissal of an 80-count antitrust and consumer fraud class action depends on "applying pleading standards that have no basis in the law of this circuit," said the response Monday (docket 1:24-cv-00164) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago from the 11 plaintiffs in opposition to HP's motion to dismiss.

The federal antitrust laws strictly limit who may bring damages claims to only those injured directly by anticompetitive behavior, said T-Mobile’s petition for interlocutory review Monday (docket 24-8013) in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Audero granted plaintiff Damien Sabella’s ex parte application for expedited discovery in his fraud case against 10 John Does in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles, said her Monday order (docket 2:23-cv-09907).

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Cain King of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, provided his name, Social Security number and other personally identifiable information (PII) to SouthState Bank, which failed to keep it confidential and to protect it from unauthorized access and disclosure, alleged a class action Friday (docket 8:24-cv-00849) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.

Notices of appearance in In Re: Apple Inc. Smartphone Antitrust Litigation are due on or before April 17, said a text-only revised briefing schedule Friday at the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. In their briefs, parties should address what steps they have taken to pursue alternatives to centralization including engaging in informal coordination of discovery and scheduling, said the order.

The FCC's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040) is an "unlawful exercise" of the commission's statutory authority "and may damage American students' health and diminish their educational achievement," said Michigan State University law professor Adam Candeub in a 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Friday (docket 23-60641).