UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

SHANA DOTY, individually and on behalf of all others 

similarly situated,

Plaintiff,

vs. CASE NO. 20-60972-CIV-SINGHAL

ADT LLC d/b/a ADT SECURITY SERVICES, and

TELESFORO AVILES,

Defendants.

___________________________________________/

RANDY DOTY, individually and on behalf of all others 

similarly situated,

Plaintiff,

vs. CASE NO. 21-80645-CIV-SINGHAL

ADT LLC d/b/a ADT SECURITY SERVICES, and

TELESFORO AVILES,

Defendants.

____________________________________________/

ORDER CONSOLIDATING CASES

 

THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon the Plaintiff’s Unopposed Motion to 

Consolidate Related Cases and Designate the Additional Action as a Related Case 

(DE [168]). Shana Doty moves to consolidate this action with a separate claim brought 

by her husband, Randy Doty, in Randy Doty v. ADT, LLC, Case No. 21-80645-CIV-AHS. 

Plaintiff also moves to designate a third case, Bryant v. ADT, LLC, Case No. 21-82359-

CIV-DMM, as a related case. Defendant ADT, LLC does not oppose the motion.

Case 0:20-cv-60972-AHS Document 170 Entered on FLSD Docket 12/29/2021 Page 1 of 3
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a) authorizes the district court to consolidate 

cases when the cases involve common questions of law or fact. “This rule is a codification 

of a trial court's inherent managerial power ‘to control the disposition of the causes on its 

docket with the economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel and for litigants.’” Hendrix 

v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 776 F.2d 1492, 1495 (11th Cir. 1985) (citations omitted). 

“In exercising its considerable discretion, the trial court is obliged to consider whether the 

specific risks of prejudice and possible confusion are overborne by the risk of inconsistent 

adjudications of common factual and legal issues, the burden on parties, witnesses and 

available judicial resources posed by multiple lawsuits, the length of time required to 

conclude multiple suits as against a single one, and the relative expense to all concerned 

of the single-trial, multiple-trial alternatives.” Eghnayem v. Bos. Sci. Corp., 873 F.3d 

1304, 1313–14 (11th Cir. 2017) (citations omitted). “District court judges in this circuit 

have been urged to make good use of Rule 42(a) in order to expedite the trial and 

eliminate unnecessary repetition and confusion.” Id. (quoting Young v. City of Augusta, 

59 F.3d 1160, 1169 (11th Cir. 1995)).

The actions brought by Shana Doty and Randy Doty arise from the same set of 

facts and should be tried together. Accordingly, it is hereby

ORDERED AND ADJDUGED as follows:

1. Case Number 20-60972-CIV-SINGHAL is CONSOLIDATED with Case 

Number 21-80645-CIV-SINGHAL. 

2. Henceforth, all pleadings and papers shall be filed only in Case No. 20-60972-

CIV-SINGHAL and shall bear the new consolidated caption set forth by the 

Court on page 1 of this Order. However, Plaintiff’s response and Defendant’s 

Case 0:20-cv-60972-AHS Document 170 Entered on FLSD Docket 12/29/2021 Page 2 of 3
reply memorandum to ADT, LLC’s Motion for Summary Judgment filed in Case 

No. 21-80645-CIV-SINGHAL shall be filed in that case. But all other motions 

and notices shall only be filed in Case No. 20-60972-CIV-SINGHAL.

3. Case No. 21-80645-CIV-SINGHAL shall be ADMINISTRATIVELY CLOSED. 

Any documents filed in the administratively closed case in the future (except 

Plaintiff’s response and Defendant’s reply memorandum to ADT, LLC’s Motion 

for Summary Judgment) shall be automatically stricken.

4. The Clerk shall place a copy of this Order in both Case No. 20-60972-CIVSINGHAL and Case No. 21-80645-CIV-SINGHAL.

5. The Court designates the third case, Bryant v. ADT, LLC, Case No. 21-82359-

CIV-DMM, as a related case, and notifies Judge Middlebrooks that the Court 

will accept transfer of that case pursuant to Internal Operating Procedure

2.15.00.

DONE AND ORDERED in Chambers, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this 29th day of 

December 2021.

Copies furnished counsel via CM/ECF

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