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Mealey's Class Actions

February 23, 2024
Pension Fund Says Sporting Goods Retailer Misled Investors About Post-COVID Sales

PITTSBURGH — Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. and certain of its executives misled investors about the company’s ability to maintain high sales of certain products such as outdoor goods, which surged in sales during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a pension fund says in a putative class complaint filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, claiming that the company issued misleading statements about the slowing of sales.
February 22, 2024
$20M Settlement Proposed In ERISA Case Involving Change In Control Benefits

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A proposed $20 million class settlement would give estimated payments of $4,000 to $365,759 to 332 individuals in a case where some allege that they are owed early retirement pension benefits and pension supplements due to a change in control (CIC), the plaintiffs told a Pennsylvania federal court on Feb. 21.
February 22, 2024
3rd Circuit To Decide Asbestos-Talc Securities Class Certification Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 21 agreed to hear a case challenging class certification of a securities fraud lawsuit after Johnson & Johnson and related parties told the court that certifying a price-drop suit based on media reports of already public information about potential asbestos contamination of talc products could lead to “extortionate litigation.”
February 22, 2024
Fracking Operator: Plaintiffs ‘Identified No Theory’ For Remanding Royalty Dispute

DENVER — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a brief in Colorado federal court arguing that it should deny a motion to remand to state court a royalty dispute because the plaintiffs have “identified no theory” under which the federal court could remand the lawsuit.
February 22, 2024
$169M Deal To Resolve Part Of ACA Reinsurance Row Gets Preliminary OK

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge on Feb. 21 granted preliminary approval of a class settlement under which the amount the government has to pay to resolve part of a case over the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) would drop from $185,230,024.42 to $169,022,397.28.
February 22, 2024
RESPA Claims Concerning QWR Letters Dismissed From Class Suit Over Unpaid Taxes

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland ruling on a partial motion to dismiss a putative class complaint by homeowners who accuse their mortgage servicer of failing to properly handle the payment of their property taxes granted the motion as to two Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) claims concerning failure to respond to the homeowners’ qualified written request (QWR) letters but left in place the homeowners’ RESPA claim for failure to pay taxes from the plaintiffs’ escrow accounts.
February 21, 2024
4 More Suits Consolidated In Fortra File Transfer Data Breach MDL

MIAMI — One week after consolidating 46 putative class actions related to more than 100 data breaches attributed to hackers’ exploitation of vulnerabilities in file-transfer software, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) consolidated four more related suits with the others in the multidistrict litigation in Florida federal court.
February 21, 2024
Government Would Get Discount Under Class Deal In ACA Reinsurance Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The amount the government has to pay to resolve part of a case over the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) would drop from $185,230,024.42 to $169,022,397.28 under a class settlement proposed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
February 20, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Delivery Drivers And FAA’s Exemption

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 heard arguments on the reach of the carveout in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) for workers engaged in interstate commerce and whether it applies to independent distributors bringing wage-and-hour putative collective and class claims against a baked goods company and its subsidiaries.
February 20, 2024
Google Says UCL, Other Claims In AI Training Lawsuit Fail

SAN FRANCISCO — Vague allegations and hypothetical damages involving the scraping of websites and other sources for data used in the training of artificial intelligence cannot form the basis of California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims because the potential usage was adequately disclosed and individuals lack a privacy interest in information they themselves publicly disclosed, Google LLC tells a federal judge in California in seeking dismissal.
February 20, 2024
High Court Won’t Hear Meta’s Appeal Over Standing In Biased Housing Ads Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Feb. 20 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) in a putative class action in which it has been accused of participating in housing discrimination, leaving unanswered the social network operator’s question over the proper standard for determining whether a plaintiff has standing to sue under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
February 20, 2024
2nd Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Against Class In ERISA Proprietary Funds Row

NEW YORK — Agreeing with a lower court’s ruling in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over proprietary mutual funds, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld a decision for defendants The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and related entities in a summary order.
February 20, 2024
Petition By Wrestlers’ Attorney Challenging Sanctions Denied By U.S. High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an attorney and his firm who represent allegedly injured wrestlers in a class tort complaint and a mass action against World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and Vincent K. McMahon (together, WWE) and asking the justices to consider the appropriateness of attorney fees and costs as sanctions that they have been ordered to pay.
February 20, 2024
Expert Cannot Opine On Legal Conclusions In Overtime Spat In Ariz. Federal Court

PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Feb. 16 ruled that testimony from an expert witness that “attempts to substitute [the expert’s] own judgment for that of the jury’s” is barred, granting a motion to exclude filed by an operator of a fleet of chauffeured transportation services facing allegations of wage violations from a class of drivers.
February 20, 2024
Home Depot Customer Sues Over Use Of Google AI To Access, Record Phone Calls

LOS ANGELES — In a putative class action filed in California federal court, a Los Angeles man alleges that The Home Depot Inc. violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) by using an artificial intelligence product from Google Inc. to listen to, analyze and record customers’ phone calls without their knowledge or consent.
February 16, 2024
7th Circuit: Minors Not Bound By Arbitration Clause In Ancestry.Com Privacy Suit

CHICAGO — Affirming a trial court’s denial of a motion by Ancestry.com DNA LLC to compel arbitration of a putative genetic privacy class action against it, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 15 found that because the minor plaintiffs were not signatories to the terms and conditions on Ancestry’s website, they were not bound by the arbitration provision to which their guardians agreed.
February 16, 2024
Judge Won’t Reconsider Summary Judgment Ruling For Borrowers In ‘Pay-To-Pay’ Case

HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas denied a mortgage servicer and subservicer’s motion to reconsider his ruling adopting a magistrate judge’s recommendation to grant summary judgment to two classes of mortgagers with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans who sued over “pay-to-pay fees,” stating, “Reconsideration isn’t for do-overs.”
February 16, 2024
Federal Judge Preliminarily OKs Settlement Of Investors’ Case Against Drugmaker

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California issued an order granting preliminary approval of a settlement in a class complaint brought by investors who said a biopharmaceutical company misled investors through a series of material misrepresentations regarding a clinical trial for a new anemia treatment drug.
February 16, 2024
Class Certification Affirmed In Dispute Over Insurer’s Square Footage Calculation

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling that granted an insured’s motion for class certification in a lawsuit alleging that a homeowners insurer improperly calculated the square footage of California homes, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in redefining the certified class.
February 15, 2024
1st Circuit Reverses Insurer’s Dismissal In ERISA Case Over LTC Premium Hikes

BOSTON — Saying in part that it “cannot resolve the meaning of the ‘subject to’ clause on the current record,” a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 14 reversed dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over long-term care (LTC) insurance premium increases as to one of two defendants and remanded for further proceedings.
February 15, 2024
RICO Claim Tossed From Suit Alleging App Captures Data With Cyberpirated Marks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied arbitration and dismissed a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act claim from a putative class complaint accusing a software company of collecting and selling personal data from a budgeting application for smartphones and of using cyberpirated trademarks and other information to entice users to enter their banking information but permitted the app user’s remaining claims under Utah and California law to proceed.
February 14, 2024
Piecemeal Transfer Of Truck Engines Class Case Denied; Dismissal Ruling Deferred

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal judge in Kansas denied truck purchasers’ motion to transfer some of their putative class claims over allegedly faulty engines to the federal court where the engine maker is based and deferred ruling on the engine maker’s motion to dismiss to allow the purchasers to consider whether they would like to seek dismissal of the suit to refile in Washington.
February 14, 2024
11th Circuit Agrees Nissan Isn’t Mechanics’ Joint Employer, Upholds Class Denial

ATLANTA — Nissan North America Inc. is not a joint employer of its dealerships’ mechanics, and the mechanics, who sued seeking unpaid wages under federal and Florida law, failed to show that they are similarly situated with other mechanics so that class and collective certification would be appropriate, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for Nissan and denial of the mechanics’ motion for collective and class certification.
February 14, 2024
Judge: 4 CAFA Exceptions Don’t Defeat Federal Jurisdiction Of Fluoride Case

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A putative class complaint by residents of a city in New York seeking damages due to the discontinuation of adding fluoride to the drinking water failed to show that four exceptions to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) apply to their case, a federal judge in New York ruled, denying the residents’ motion to send their complaint back to state court.
February 14, 2024
Cheese Makers’ $3.5M Wage Class Settlement Preliminarily Approved

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California preliminarily approved a $3.5 million settlement between Leprino Foods Co. and Leprino Foods Dairy Products Co. (together, Leprino) and workers whose wage-and-hour class claims resulted in a jury verdict for Leprino.