Van Wagner v. Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 GREGORY VAN WAGNER, et al., Case No. 22-cv-05001-EMC

8 Plaintiffs,

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND

9 v. DENYING IN PART INDIVIDUAL

DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

10 COURT OF MASTER SOMMELIERS, AND STRIKE; AND DENYING AMERICAS, et al., NARITO’S MOTION TO DISMISS 11 Defendants. Docket Nos. 56, 57 12 13 14 Plaintiffs Gregory Van Wagner, Daniel Pilkey, and Peter Bothwell have filed suit against 15 (1) a nonprofit organization known as the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas (“CMS”), and 16 (2) fifteen individuals who were formerly members of the CMS Board of Directors.1 In 2018, 17 Plaintiffs passed an examination administered by CMS. As a result, they were certified as “Master 18 Sommeliers” and became members in the organization. Subsequently, CMS learned that there 19 was a cheating incident related to the examination. According to Plaintiffs, they were not 20 involved in the cheating incident. CMS, however, determined that all test results for the 2018 21 …