Anderson Design Group, Inc. v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A, No. 25-cv-11640, (N.D. Ill. Apr. 24, 2026) (Rowland, J.).
Judge Rowland held in abeyance the Group A Defendants’ motion to dismiss for misjoinder under Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2) and granted plaintiff Anderson Design Group 60 days of limited expedited discovery to probe relationships among the remaining Schedule A defendants in this copyright infringement Schedule A case.
The Group A Defendants, the only remaining defendants, moved to dismiss for improper joinder, arguing they are unrelated and unaffiliated. While acknowledging that joint representation alone does not automatically imply coordination, the Court found the scale difficult to ignore. By the Court’s count, counsel for the Group A Defendants represents roughly 290 Schedule A defendants across this case and ten other Northern District cases. Nearly identical misjoinder motions had been filed in at least eight of those cases.
The Court also pointed to counsel’s admission in a related case before Judge Durkin that he communicates with a “single representative” for all Schedule A defendants in that matter. Though no such admission was made in this case, when considered alongside the lockstep conduct across cases, the Court found those circumstances suggested central coordination inconsistent with defendants’ claim that they are unaffiliated.
The Court granted 60 days of limited expedited discovery and required the parties to submit a joint status report by May 1, 2026 with agreed-upon dates and discovery parameters.