March 28, 2012 – The Southern District of California Court refused defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff Select Retrieval’s [NPE] action for misjoinder.  Select Retrieval filed suit against 33 defendants in September of 2011.  However, the judge refused the defendants’ motion, alleviating the plaintiff’s burden of litigating against 33 separate defendants by stating, “Even if the court were to sever the claims at this point, the severed cases would likely be assigned to the same judge under the District’s low-number rule.  All such related cases would likely be consolidated for purposes of claims construction.  Therefore, the Court finds severance inappropriate at this time.”  The low-number rule referenced implies that anytime two related cases are assigned to different judges, the cases should be reassigned to the judge handling the case with the lower docket number.