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Mealey's Class Actions

  • February 26, 2021

    Plaintiffs Announce $92 Million Settlement In TikTok Privacy MDL

    CHICAGO — In what they tout as “rank[ing] among the nation’s highest privacy-related settlements,” a consolidated group of users of the TikTok app filed a notice in Illinois federal court on Feb. 25 announcing that they had reached an agreement to settle their privacy class claims against TikTok Inc. for $92 million and seeking preliminary approval of the deal.

  • February 26, 2021

    Class Petition Accuses Texas Electrical Network Operator Of Negligence

    HOUSTON — Energy Reliability Council of Texas Inc. (ERCOT), which manages approximately 90 percent of Texas’ electric load, failed to “employ simple common-sense precautions” and learn from system failures in 1989 and 2011 while preparing for unusually cold weather and snow forecasted to hit the state, resulting in widespread blackouts during a winter storm that started Feb. 14, a Texas resident alleges in her petition filed on behalf of herself and a class on Feb. 23 in a Texas state court.

  • February 26, 2021

    Texas Electricity Provider Hit With Class Petition For Soaring Prices After Storm

    HOUSTON — Griddy Energy LLC took advantage of a disaster in Texas and price gouged customers for electricity following a winter storm that “wreaked havoc” in Texas and elsewhere for a week, one Griddy customer whose bill rapidly increased to more than $9,000 during the storm alleges in her class action petition filed Feb. 22 in a Texas court.

  • February 26, 2021

    Pennsylvania Federal Judge: Service By Unrestricted Certified Mail Is Improper

    PITTSBURGH — Serving the defendant of a putative class complaint “by certified mail without restricted delivery is improper” a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Feb. 23 in a suit accusing a restaurant chain of shortchanging customers paying with cash, finding that the chain’s removal of the case was both timely and proper based on the amount in controversy.

  • February 25, 2021

    9th Circuit Partially Vacates Wage Summary Judgment For Flight Attendants

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 23 upheld the application of California law to wage and unfair competition law (UCL) claims by a class of flight attendants based in California and partially affirmed a summary judgment ruling in their favor, but reversed as to minimum wage and payment for all hours worked claims upholding the airline’s use of block time pay.

  • February 25, 2021

    ERISA Plan Administrator, Trustees Won’t Oppose Class Certification In Duties Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A pension benefit plan administrator and the plan trustees who are accused of breaching their duties of prudence and loyalty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by “dangerously underfund[ing]” the plan and failing “to provide meaningful benefits” filed a notice on Feb. 22 in a California federal court that they do not oppose a class certification motion filed by two plan participants.

  • February 25, 2021

    Investors:  Company Liable For Securities Fraud Based On Fracking Misstatements

    HOUSTON — A group of investors on Feb. 23 filed a putative class action for securities fraud in Texas federal court contending that an energy company involved in hydraulic fracturing exploration made materially false statements about its financial health and the viability of a shale play in the Permian Basin of Texas.

  • February 24, 2021

    Divided 2nd Circuit Denies Rehearing After Statistics, Disparate Impact Ruling

    NEW YORK — A divided Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 23 denied a petition for rehearing en banc that was filed by two job applicants after a split panel ruled in their putative class lawsuit on Sept. 21 that the use of national statistics showing that African Americans are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than whites doesn’t carry over and prove that African-American job applicants are disproportionately affected by a company’s alleged policy to not hire individuals with certain criminal convictions.

  • February 24, 2021

    Insurer Seeks Dismissal Of Class Action Alleging It Uses Unqualified Expert Witnesses

    HOUSTON — An insurer on Feb. 19 asked a federal court in Texas to dismiss a law firm’s fraud and civil conspiracy class action alleging that it repeatedly hires “unqualified people to prepare so-called controverting affidavits in areas” in which “they have no knowledge, skill, training, education, or experience,” arguing that the law firm’s own pleadings and Texas law disprove that the insurer and three of its expert witnesses knowingly made false representations.

  • February 23, 2021

    Class Settlement Valued At $59 Million Proposed In Raytheon Pension Dispute

    BOSTON — A former Raytheon Co. employee who filed a putative class complaint alleging that six pension plans sponsored by Raytheon calculated Joint and Survivor Annuity (JSA) benefits and preretirement survivor annuity (PSA) benefits by using outdated mortality and interest rate assumptions resulting in benefits less than an “actuarially equivalent” amount filed a motion on Feb. 12 seeking preliminary approval of a class settlement agreement that he alleges is valued at approximately $59 million.

  • February 23, 2021

    Potential Coverage Exists For Challenge To McDonald’s Steps To Contain COVID-19

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on Feb. 22 denied a commercial general liability insurer’s motion to dismiss a breach of contract and declaratory relief lawsuit brought by McDonald’s Corp. and former and current franchise owners seeking coverage for an underlying class action injunction alleging that they are taking inadequate steps to contain COVID-19 in the workplace.

  • February 23, 2021

    NFL’s Dismissal Motion Denied In Players’ Class Suit Over Drug Distribution

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on Feb. 19 denied the National Football League’s (NFL) motion to dismiss a third amended complaint by retired players who allege that they were supplied strong prescription pain medications to allow them to return to play, resulting in injuries to players that affected them even after retirement, noting that the case has been to the appeals court twice where earlier dismissals were not affirmed and that the NFL’s arguments  regarding preemption may be again raised on summary judgment or at trial.

  • February 23, 2021

    Vacation Renters Seek Reinstatement Of Class Suit Over Pandemic Refunds

    NEW ORLEANS — A vacation property rental company’s agreement with renters clearly stated that when rentals are unavailable, it will issue refunds, two renters allege in their appellant brief filed Feb. 22 in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking reversal of a trial court’s judgment dismissing their putative class complaint seeking refunds for rental plans that could not be completed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

  • February 23, 2021

    Trial Continued In Female Professional Soccer Players’ Suit Due To Pandemic

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California on Feb. 19 continued a jury trial in the case between female professional soccer players and the United States Soccer Federation Inc. (USSF) until June 15 “[d]ue to the unavailability of jurors during this pandemic”; the in-chambers order, which was a docket entry only, came a little over a month after preliminary settlement approval was granted concerning the players’ working conditions claims as the players seek to clear the way for an appeal of the summary judgment ruling for USSF on their pay claims.

  • February 22, 2021

    Fiduciary Duty Class Action Against Lowe’s, Aon Hewitt Headed For Trial

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — A class action by participants in and beneficiaries of the Lowe’s Cos. Inc. 401(k) challenging the move of more than $1 billion in plan assets to a growth fund managed by Aon Hewitt must go to trial, a federal judge in North Carolina said Feb. 12 in an order denying the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment.

  • February 23, 2021

    Fiduciary Duty Class Action Against Lowe’s, Aon Hewitt Headed For Trial

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — A class action by participants in and beneficiaries of the Lowe’s Cos. Inc. 401(k) challenging the move of more than $1 billion in plan assets to a growth fund managed by Aon Hewitt must go to trial, a federal judge in North Carolina said Feb. 12 in an order denying the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment.

  • February 22, 2021

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Amazon’s Petition In FAA Class Exemption Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Amazon.com Inc. seeking review of a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling on the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) exemption for classes of workers engaged in interstate commerce.

  • February 19, 2021

    Credit Unions Oppose Sonic’s Subpoena For Documents From Arby’s Data Breach Suit

    CLEVELAND — The lead financial institution (FI) plaintiffs in a consolidated class action over a 2017 data breach experienced by Sonic Corp. filed a motion in Ohio federal court on Feb. 10, seeking to quash Sonic’s subpoena for documents in a data breach suit against fellow fast food chain Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., characterizing the subpoena as an attempt “to circumvent the legal process for obtaining class member discovery” and arguing that the documents sought are irrelevant and privileged.

  • February 18, 2021

    AT&T Location Data-Selling Class Action Dismissed, Sent To Arbitration

    SAN FRANCISCO — Privacy and unfair competition claims over AT&T Mobility LLC’s now-discontinued practice of selling customers’ geolocation data to third parties were dismissed Feb. 16, with a California federal magistrate judge finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing to seek injunctive relief over the former practice and failed to demonstrate that AT&T’s arbitration provision was unconscionable.

  • February 18, 2021

    Proposed Class Action Against Red Robin Over Beer Pours Remanded To Nevada Court

    LAS VEGAS — A Nevada federal judge on Feb. 12 agreed to remand a proposed class action against the Red Robin restaurant franchise for shorting customers by serving them 14 ounces of Stella Artois beer in a 16-ounce glass, noting that the corporation’s sales figures did not reach the jurisdictional amount-in-controversy threshold required by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).