Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital, Inc. v. Yelp! Inc.

Filing 16

EX PARTE APPLICATION to Reassign Case No. 2:10-cv-01578 to the Hon. Valerie Baker Fairbank, EX PARTE APPLICATION to Consolidate Cases, as to No. 2:10-cv-01578,, EX PARTE APPLICATION for Appointment of Counsel for the Classes filed by plaintiff Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Proposed Order on Plaintiffs' ex parte motion, # 2 Declaration of Gregory S. Weston, # 3 Exhibit A-E to Declaration of Gregory S. Weston, # 4 Declaration of Jack Fitzgerald, # 5 Declaration of Jared H. Beck, # 6 Declaration of Elizabeth Lee Beck)(Weston, Gregory)

1 THE WESTON FIRM GREGORY S. WESTON (239944) 2 JACK FITZGERALD (257370) 3 888 Turquoise Street San Diego, CA 92109 4 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] [e-mail] 6 [e-mail] 7 8 Counsel for Plaintiff and the Proposed Class 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

BECK & LEE BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS JARED H. BECK (233743) ELIZABETH LEE BECK (233742) Courthouse Plaza Building 28 West Flagler Street, Suite 555 Miami, FL 33130 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] [e-mail] [e-mail]

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA CATS AND DOGS ANIMAL HOSPITAL, INC.; ASTRO APPLIANCE SERVICE; BLEEDING HEART, LLC d/b/a BLEEDING HEART BAKERY; CALIFORNIA FURNISHINGS, INC. d/b/a SOFA OUTLET; CELIBRÉ, INC.; J.L. FERRI ENTERTAINMENT, INC. d/b/a ADULT SOCIALS; LE PETITE RETREAT DAY SPA, LLC; SAN FRANCISCO BAY BOAT CRUISES, LLC d/b/a MERMAIDS CRUISE; WAG MY TAIL, INC.; and ZODIAC RESTAURANT GROUP, INC. d/b/a SCION RESTAURANT, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Case No.: 2:10-cv-01340 VBF SS Pleading Type: Class Action DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM LEAD COUNSEL Judge: The Hon. Valerie Baker Fairbank

23 YELP! INC., 24 25 26
DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL

Defendant.

1 2

I, Gregory S. Weston, declare: 1. I am a member in good standing of the state bars of California and

3 Florida, and the United States District Court for the Central, Southern and 4 Northern Districts of California. 5 2. I was appointed sole Class Counsel by the Hon. Margaret M. Morrow 6 to represent purchasers of approximately 145 condominiums in Adachi et al v. 7 Carlyle/Galaxy San Pedro L.P. et al., No. 09-793, which settled in 2009 on a class8 wide all-cash basis for approximately $1.35 million. 9 3. I am attorney of record for the indirect purchaser class in In re: 10 Korean Airlines Co. Ltd. Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1891, a class action 11 pending in the Central District of California. 12 4. I am a graduate of Ohio State University and Harvard Law School and 13 have devoted substantially all of my practice to representing plaintiffs in class 14 actions. Before founding The Weston Firm, I represented plaintiffs in the following 15 class actions: 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 · The Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal) · Bruce v. Crompton Corp. (Los Angeles Co. Sup. Ct.) · In re Carbon Black Antitrust Litigation (D. Mass.) · In re Digital Music Antitrust Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) · In re Graphics Processing Units Antitrust Litigation (N.D.Cal.) · In re International Air Transportation Surcharge Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.) · In re Medical Waste Services Antitrust Litigation (D. Utah) · Ross et al. v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (W.D. Pa.) · Williams v. Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club (San Diego Co. Sup. Ct.)
1 DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL

1

5.

On January 12, 2010, Dr. Gregory Perrault, the owner of Cats and

2 Dogs Animal Hospital, contacted me and informed me that he felt the sales 3 employees of website Yelp.com were attempting to extort him into purchasing and 4 advertising package that would require him to spend $3600 a year. 5 6. Dr. Perrault knew of me because he was a member of the class 6 described in ¶3. Together with my co-counsel Beck & Lee Business Trial lawyers, 7 I spent the next six weeks investigating Dr. Perrault's claims and preparing the 8 complaint, which was filed on February 23, 2010 and served on Defendant Yelp! 9 Inc. the next day ("First Complaint"). 10 7. Subsequently, more than 150 other small business owners contacted 11 me and my co-counsel with stories similar to the experience of Dr. Perrault, and 12 our firms continue to receive numerous inquiries each day. 13 8. I, along with my co-counsel, spent substantial further time 14 interviewing these small business owners, and preparing the First Amended Class 15 Action Complaint ("Amended Complaint"), which was filed on March 16, 2010. 16 The Amended Complaint added a great amount of detail concerning Yelp's 17 unlawful business practices, included several more claims for relief, and named 18 nine additional small businesses representative plaintiffs. The Amended Complaint 19 is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 c. 9. Since February when the complaint was filed, my co-counsel and I a. b. Filed a detailed 39-page Amended Complaint; Conferred with defendant's counsel and stipulated to extend defendant's time to respond; Conferred with defendant's counsel, including in person in San Francisco on March 18, 2010, on case management issues;
2 DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL

21 have also:

1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 10. 11. 12.

d. e. f.

Scheduled our action's 26(f) discovery conference for April 8, 2010; Conferred with defendant's counsel on class certification, proposed injunctive relief, and electronic discovery; Begun drafting Rule 26 disclosures.

Attached hereto as Exhibit B is the Complaint originally filed in this Attached hereto as Exhibit C is the LaPausky Complaint, which Before filing this motion, Plaintiffs conferred with and gave notice to

7 action on February 23, 2010. 9 copies nearly ver batim the February 23 Cats and Dogs Complaint. 11 counsel for both Yelp and LaPausky on March 22, and again on March 23, but 12 despite these efforts were unable to obtain a stipulation to the relief proposed 13 herein. An email from Gregory S. Weston to Ron Marron, counsel for Christine 14 LaPausky, is attached hereto as Exhibit D. 15 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
3 DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL

13.

Attached hereto as Exhibit E is a Notice of Unavailability of Counsel

16 served by Mr. Marron on March 22, 2010. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California 18 and the United States that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed in San Diego, California on March 24, 2010.

/s/ Gregory S. Weston Gregory S. Weston

1 DATED: March 24, 2010 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Respectfully submitted, s/Gregory S. Weston THE WESTON FIRM Gregory S. Weston 888 Turquoise Street San Diego, CA 92109 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: 480 247 4553 BECK & LEE BUSINESS TRIAL LAWYERS Jared H. Beck Elizabeth Lee Beck 28 West Flagler Street, Suite 555 Miami, FL 33130 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: 786 664 3334 Counsel for Plaintiffs

4 DECLARATION OF GREGORY S. WESTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' EX PARTE MOTION FOR REASSIGNMENT, CONSOLIDATION, DESIGNATION OF LEAD CASE, AND APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL