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Mealey's Class Actions

  • April 15, 2024

    5th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of ERISA Imprudence Suit Over Fees, Share Classes

    NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished opinion reversing dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act fees and funds challenge, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled an imprudence claim plausible “in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in [Hughes v. Northwestern University (Hughes I)] and circuit court decisions addressing similar allegations.”

  • April 15, 2024

    COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Scrutiny Question Won’t Be Answered By U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 15 declined to answer a question posed by a Michigan State University (MSU) worker in putative class complaint concerning whether Jacobson v. Massachusetts requires that a governmental action such as a vaccine mandate is “subject to heightened scrutiny” and whether such a mandate by MSU failed that test.

  • April 15, 2024

    U.S. High Court Won’t Consider Class Certification In ATM Fees Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court left untouched the certification of three classes in an antitrust case against network operators over access fee rules they impose on automated teller machine (ATM) operators on April 15 when it denied a petition for a writ of certiorari by Visa and Mastercard.

  • April 15, 2024

    U.S. High Court Denies Petition In Real Estate Commissions Class Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 15 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a real estate franchisor sued as part of an antitrust class action by home sellers over commission and asking the justices to decide whether a court or an arbitrator should decide a question of arbitrability.

  • April 15, 2024

    Class Deal Of Nearly $4M Gets Final OK In ERISA Suit Over 401(k) Fees, Funds

    ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge has granted final approval to a $3,925,000 class settlement in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where the plaintiffs alleged mismanagement of a 401(k) plan.

  • April 15, 2024

    Parties Stipulate To Certification Of Large Class In ERISA Retirement Case

    NEWARK, N.J. — The remaining parties in a suit over a retirement plan’s fees and funds and service providers’ purported use of participants’ confidential data in cross-selling have stipulated to certification of a large mandatory class and subclass in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.

  • April 15, 2024

    AI Hiring Company Says Court Got Illinois Jurisdiction Ruling Wrong

    CHICAGO — Illinois is an improper jurisdiction for an artificial intelligence-assisted interview case in which five of the six named plaintiffs were never in the state, and the court reached a contrary conclusion by relying on precedent ignoring that application software is not a product and the role a third party played in its use, the company argues in a motion for reconsideration of a federal judge in Illinois’ ruling denying a motion to dismiss.

  • April 12, 2024

    On Remand, Judge Deems $3.2M Costs, Fees Award In Wawa Data Breach Suit Reasonable

    PHILADELPHIA — After scrutinizing the factors and negotiations that resulted in a $3.2 million award of attorney fees, costs and service awards that accompanied the $9 million settlement of a consumer class action over a 2019 data breach experienced by Wawa Inc., a Pennsylvania federal judge found the award to be reasonable in light of relevant case law and similar data breach suits and despite arguments against the award risk by an objector.

  • April 12, 2024

    23andMe Data Breach Suits Centralized In Northern California MDL

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) on April 11 granted a request by genetic testing company 23andMe to consolidate 39 pending lawsuits against it in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, all of which relate to a data breach in which ancestral records for roughly 6.9 million customers were hacked and allegedly sold online.

  • April 12, 2024

    Supreme Court Finds Pure Omissions Not Actionable Under SEC Rule

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held April 12 that a private securities action cannot be brought on the basis of an omission on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission if the omission does not render other statements misleading, finding that pure omissions are not actionable under SEC Rule 10b-5.

  • April 12, 2024

    9th Circuit Discusses Parity Act Pleading Standard In Partly Reviving ERISA Case

    PASADENA, Calif. — Addressing “what pleading standard applies to cases alleging an improper internal process” under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA or Parity Act), a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 11 partly reversed dismissal of a putative class case over mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) treatment coverage.

  • April 12, 2024

    Unanimous High Court: Transportation Industry Work Not Needed For FAA Exemption

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Employees who fall within the carveout in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) for workers engaged in interstate commerce “‘must at least play a direct and ‘necessary role in the free flow of goods’ across borders,” but do not need to work in the transportation industry, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled April 12, quoting from Sw. Airlines Co. v. Saxon.

  • April 12, 2024

    8th Circuit Dismisses Insurer’s Appeal In Class Action For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed an automobile insurer’s appeal of a lower court’s partial denial of its motion to dismiss a putative class action challenging its practice of calculating a car’s actual cash value, finding that it lacks jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

  • April 12, 2024

    Borrowers File RICO, Conspiracy Class Action Against Wholesale Mortgage Lender

    DETROIT — Four homeowners allege in a class action filed in a federal court in Michigan that the nation’s largest wholesale mortgage broker, its CEO and several affiliated companies have participated in a “deliberate scheme, in coordination with a host of corrupted mortgage brokers, to cheat hundreds of thousands of borrowers out of billions of dollars in excess fees and costs that they paid to finance their homes.”

  • April 11, 2024

    Insurer Accused Of Using AI Software To Deny Claims ‘En Masse’ In Class Suit

    OAKLAND, Calif. — An insured filed a putative class action in California state court accusing his insurer of violating California’s insurance regulations and its unfair competition law (UCL) by using artificial intelligence (AI) software to deny claims for coverage.

  • April 11, 2024

    Staffing Company Will Pay $2.2M To Settle EEOC Hiring Discrimination Case

    LOS ANGELES — A temporary staffing agency will pay $2.2 million and enter into a consent decree requiring injunctive relief to end a lawsuit in a federal court in California alleging that the agency discriminated while hiring against a class consisting of Black, Asian, white and other non-Hispanic workers, male and female workers and workers with disabilities, the EEOC announced.

  • April 11, 2024

    Golf Attendants Seek Rehearing After 11th Circuit Agrees They Are Not Employees

    ATLANTA — Golf attendants at Palm Beach County, Fla., golf clubs who received discounted golf in exchange for their services filed a petition for rehearing after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s judgment for the county in their putative class lawsuit, opining that the attendants are public-agency volunteers and not employees under federal and state law.

  • April 10, 2024

    Viability Of UCL Class Action Involving Asbestos And Talc Rests With 9th Circuit

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments over whether allegations of a decades-long advertising campaign about the safety and purity of talcum powder sufficiently specifies the advertising in question and saves a California unfair competition law (UCL) class action alleging that in reality the products contained asbestos and other contaminants.

  • April 10, 2024

    Amici Support Facebook Before High Court, Say Split Over Disclosure Must End

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multiple groups filed a total of three amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the court should grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the company formerly known as Facebook Inc., echoing the social media giant’s argument that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals deepened a circuit split over what public companies must disclose when it partly revived a putative class complaint brought by investors.

  • April 10, 2024

    Products’ Nutrition Claims With ‘Childlike Drawings’ Are Puffery, Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a fruit company’s motion to dismiss a putative class action against it for labeling various fruit products as “Healthy” and providing “Good Nutrition” despite containing significant amounts of sugar, writing that the statements are next to “childlike drawings” and therefore unlikely to deceive a consumer.

  • April 10, 2024

    Stay Granted After Class Settlement Reached Between Seller, Real Estate Brokerage

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A federal judge in Missouri in a docket entry granted a stay as to a home seller’s putative class claims against a real estate brokerage firm and its subsidiary in a complaint accusing the brokerage, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and others of engaging in anticompetitive “steering” after the seller and brokerage filed a notice of pending settlement.

  • April 10, 2024

    9th Circuit Denies Objectors Rehearing Over $90 Million Facebook Tracking MDL

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of almost identical one-page orders, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied petitions for rehearing by objectors to the $90 million settlement of a 12-year-old privacy multidistrict litigation over internet tracking activities of social network users by Facebook Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms Inc.), which received final approval in November.

  • April 10, 2024

    Illinois Federal Judge Dismisses Claims In Dispute Over Natural Gas Release

    CHICAGO — A homeowning couple who brought a class action complaint against an Illinois public utility, its parent company and a public relations firm over the three companies’ involvement in releasing natural gas into a large underground aquifer failed to sufficiently plead several of their claims, including those brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), an Illinois federal judge found in partly granting the companies’ motion to dismiss.

  • April 09, 2024

    9th Circuit Revives Investors’ Suit Against Entertainment Company

    PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partly revived a suit by shareholders of Genius Brands International Inc. who claim the company and its CEO made misleading statements to investors, saying a California federal judge erred in finding that some of the company’s claims were not materially misleading.

  • April 09, 2024

    Jackson Water Crisis Plaintiffs Say Their Claims Are ‘Plausibly Pleaded’

    JACKSON, Miss. — The plaintiffs suing Jackson, Miss., over the drinking water crisis in the city have filed a brief in Mississippi federal court arguing that it should deny the city’s motion to dismiss their class action on grounds that they have “plausibly pleaded” a claim for the violation of their bodily integrity and that their second amended complaint includes facts showing that they relied on the city’s misrepresentations about the water crisis in making their decision to continue drinking tap water.