Samsung Class Actions Transferred to N.J. District Court in Camden

The 17 Samsung data breach class actions pending in various jurisdictions were transferred Wednesday to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden and consolidated under U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn, said a transfer order signed by Karen Caldwell, chair of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Chief Judge Renee Bumb in Camden signed an order consenting to the transfer and consolidation of the cases under the judge who, though praised by the panel as “a skilled jurist,” has no previous MDL experience.

Most of the Samsung plaintiffs asked the panel to transfer the cases to New Jersey as their first preference or as an alternative to the Northern District of California. Defendant Samsung was alone in telling the panel its first choice was the District of Nevada, with the Southern District of New York as its fallback.

“On the basis of the papers filed,” and oral argument Jan. 26, “we find that these actions involve common questions of fact, and that centralization in the District of New Jersey will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” said the panel. The 17 putative class actions “present common factual questions concerning an alleged data security breach of Samsung’s U.S. systems in or around July 2022 that allegedly compromised the personal information of millions of consumers using Samsung products and services,” it said.

Centralization of the cases “will eliminate duplicative discovery,” and will prevent “inconsistent pretrial rulings, including with respect to class certification,” said the panel. It also will “conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel, and the judiciary,” it said.

The District of New Jersey “is an appropriate transferee district,” said the panel. Samsung has its headquarters in New Jersey, “where common witnesses and other evidence likely will be found,” it said. “Six related actions are pending there, and all responding plaintiffs support this district as their first or second choice for the transferee venue.” Samsung’s U.S. headquarters are in Ridgefield Park, about 100 miles northeast of the Camden courthouse.

Virtually all the plaintiffs urged the panel to transfer and consolidate the class actions under a district judge well steeped in MDL experience. Many singled out Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco or William Martini in Newark (see 2210140042). In the end, the panel assigned the cases to O’Hearn, with no previous MDL experience, as the presiding judge.

The panel praised O’Hearn as “a skilled jurist with the willingness and ability to manage this litigation, who has not yet had the opportunity to preside over an MDL.” Panel members are “confident she will steer this matter on a prudent course,” said Wednesday’s order. O'Hearn was nominated by President Joe Biden and assumed office in October 2021.

O’Hearn currently presides over multiple separate cases in which the plaintiffs allege the major consumer reporting agencies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. She also has current experience with Samsung. State Farm sued the manufacturer May 24 (docket 1:22-cv-03062), seeking the recovery of $645,000 in claims it paid out for a residential fire caused, the insurer alleges, by the “catastrophic malfunction” of a Samsung refrigerator.