Scher v. Cohen Fashion Optical, LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York grants an unopposed motion to consolidate five related data-breach class actions involving Cohen Fashion Optical, LLC. The court designates Scher v. Cohen Fashion Optical, LLC as the lead case, establishes the consolidated action under the title In re: Cohen Fashion Optical Data Incident Litigation, and appoints Gary Klinger and Adam M. Harris as interim co-lead class counsel.

Holdings

1. The five actions should be consolidated because they involve overlapping factual and legal issues arising from the same alleged data breach, and consolidation will promote judicial economy, coordinate discovery, and reduce the risk of inconsistent rulings without creating unfairness or prejudice.
2. Gary M. Klinger of Milberg, PLLC and Adam M. Harris of Israel David LLC should be appointed interim co-lead class counsel because appointment is necessary in the consolidated, overlapping litigation and the proposed counsel satisfy the applicable Rule 23(g) qualifications and adequacy factors.
3. The applications for consolidation and appointment of interim class counsel constituted nondispositive relief, so the magistrate judge could resolve them by memorandum and order rather than report and recommendation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the five related data-breach actions should be consolidated under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a).
2. Whether Gary Klinger and Adam M. Harris should be appointed interim co-lead class counsel under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(g)(3).
3. Whether the applications for consolidation and interim counsel constituted nondispositive matters that could be resolved by memorandum and order rather than report and recommendation.

Disposition

other