PORTLAND, Ore. (Legal Newsline) – Two consumers have requested a stay with the U.S. District Court District of Oregon, Portland Division as they continue their case against a Minnesota company.
The stay was requested Aug. 29.
Jill Brunelle and Heather Dewitt were a part of a research group that filed a complaint against My Pillow Inc. Both sides requested a 180-day stay as the case is pending a motion for a final settlement as well as “all related cases filed against” the company that would go before the Superior Court of California in San Bernardino County. The 180 days were said to be enough time to let the California go through any approvals, hearings and a settlement.
Once the settlement is granted, the plaintiffs plan to petition for the court to dismiss the 180-day stay as well as all claims with prejudice, the motion stated.
Brunelle and Dewitt did research and accused My Pillow of hiking up prices to make it look like customers received a sale price when they purchased special items under a buy one get one deal. The plaintiffs teamed up with Minnesota’s Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP to file a class action lawsuit. They filed the suit in Minnesota considering My Pillow is a corporation registered with the state.
Still, the plaintiffs also found that the company was facing another class action lawsuit in San Bernardino “over statements that its pillow had improved health benefits,” the motion states.
They allege they discovered that under the Amiri v. My Pillow case the settlement was in the preliminary approval phase and that while the objection deadline had passed, the hearing for the final approval had not occurred yet.
The plaintiffs stated that the concerns in the Amiri case “was broad enough” to expand over their lawsuit as well. They subsequently filed a motion to the Amiri court “for leave to file a belated objection,” and later filed an objection, the motion states. The court ended up dismissing the final approval.
As Amiri and My Pillow attempted to add the BOGO case in its settlement, another BOGO case was submitted in Montana. Those plaintiffs then tagged on to the class action lawsuit with Brunelle. The plaintiffs then requested “to appoint lead counsel in Minnesota” as a reaction to the motions to dismiss that occurred in all three jurisdictions. The Minnesota district court also dismissed My Pillow’s request to stay.
The settlement had not yet been agreed upon as all sides continued to negotiate. They went to a formal mediation on Aug. 18 with the Honorable Peter Lichtman of Los Angeles who facilitated the ongoing negotiations. It was decided that the Amiri court was the best place for the lawsuit.