Mealey's Class Actions : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Class Actions

April 24, 2024
Home Buyer’s FCRA Class Suit Alleging Faulty Credit Reports Settled For $96,000

PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona largely granted final approval of $96,000 class settlement agreement in a lawsuit by a home buyer accusing a credit reporting company of failing to ensure that it was providing accurate credit reports after it reported him and others as “deceased,” opining that each of the 67 class members, down from the original estimate of 91, is entitled to receive the maximum statutory amount of $1,000 but that the $24,000 remaining that the lead plaintiff sought to distribute to the class members as “additional compensatory damages” will instead go to the parties’ cy pres recipient as there was no proof of additional actual damages or an agreement for punitive damages.
April 24, 2024
$12.25M Settlement Approved In Neighborhood Class’s Case Over Smokestack Demolition

CHICAGO — A federal magistrate judge in Illinois granted final approval of a $12.25 million settlement between the companies that caused a smokestack to be demolished at a coal power plant in a Chicago neighborhood and a class of residents in that neighborhood who alleged that they were exposed to a “plume of toxic debris and particulate matter” as a result of the demolition, causing breathing issues.
April 24, 2024
Alcoa, Independent Fiduciary Are Sued Under ERISA For Pension Risk Transfers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In what is at least the fourth putative class case filed in the past month challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs), retirees sued Alcoa Corp., related entities and an independent fiduciary in a District of Columbia federal court over four transactions they argue improperly “offloaded over $2 billion of Alcoa’s pension obligations.”
April 24, 2024
Minnesota Federal Court: ERISA Record-Keeping Claims Meet Matousek Requirement

MINNEAPOLIS — Claims relating to a 401(k) plan’s bundled record-keeping and administrative (RKA) fees that allegedly averaged $29 survive dismissal in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where the plaintiffs relied on participant fee disclosures, a Minnesota federal judge ruled.
April 24, 2024
Parties Outline Positions After Summary Judgment Denial In ERISA Funds Row

SAN FRANCISCO — After a California federal judge denied the defendants’ motions for summary judgment and to exclude expert testimony, the parties filed a corrected joint pretrial statement outlining their positions in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over the allegedly imprudent retention of certain funds.
April 23, 2024
J&J Seeks Dismissal Of ERISA Fiduciary Breach Suit Over Drug Benefits

CAMDEN, N.J. — Arguing in part that the sponsor of the self-funded health plans at issue “has every incentive to negotiate the best overall deal,” Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and related defendants asked a New Jersey federal court to dismiss the complaint and strike the jury demand in a putative class case asserting Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims over alleged “mismanagement of prescription-drug benefits.”
April 23, 2024
Judge Dismisses Funds’ ERISA Suit Against Administrative Service Providers

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Ruling that the trustees of two multiemployer, self-funded welfare benefit funds had standing to sue administrative service providers but “do not plausibly allege that Defendants exercise or possess[] discretionary authority required to be” fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a Connecticut judge dismissed the case without prejudice on April 22.
April 23, 2024
Judge Allows UCL Suit Against Company For Leaky Period Underwear

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied a period underwear maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit against it for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by advertising and representing its products as “leakproof” when in fact the products were allegedly never tested with human blood and are in fact not as absorbent as advertised.
April 23, 2024
Calif. High Court Answers 9th Circuit Question, Finds Inmate Class Not Owed Wages

SAN FRANCISCO — A class of nonconvicted inmates in a California county jail who perform services for a for-profit company that supplies meals have no claim for minimum wages and overtime under current state law, the California Supreme Court ruled April 22, answering a question certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an interlocutory appeal.
April 23, 2024
3rd Circuit Hears Arguments In 2 Cases Over Jurisdiction For Wiretapping Software

PITTSBURGH — Considering questions of personal jurisdiction and pleadings standards, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard combined oral arguments in two putative class actions that were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, in which Pennsylvania residents alleged violations of a state surveillance statute by Papa John’s International Inc. and a software company, respectively, based on wiretapping computer code that was surreptitiously placed on the devices of website visitors.
April 23, 2024
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Constitutionality Of Public Camping Ordinances

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys representing a class of homeless individuals, the United States and an Oregon city presented arguments on April 22 before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the constitutionality of the city’s ordinances barring camping in public spaces and making violations punishable by fines and arrests.
April 22, 2024
U.S. High Court Denies Domino’s FAA Petition In Truck Drivers’ Expenses Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 22 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Domino’s Pizza LLC after the company’s truck drivers (D&S drivers) were found by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in their class case alleging unreimbursed business expenses and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
April 22, 2024
Michigan Federal Judge Dismisses ERISA Case Over Outdated Mortality Tables

DETROIT — Saying he “sympathizes with Plaintiffs’ position” but agrees with the defendants’ “statutory interpretation analysis,” a Michigan federal judge dismissed with prejudice a putative class suit in which Kellogg Co. retirees argued that using outdated assumptions and mortality tables to calculate pension benefits violates the actuarial equivalence requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
April 22, 2024
Judge: Disclosure Of Driver’s License Info Did Not Violate New Hampshire Privacy Law

CONCORD, N.H. — Granting a motion to dismiss by Bath & Body Works LLC (BBW), a New Hampshire federal judge found that the retailer’s transmission of a customer’s driver’s license information to a third-party business partner did not violate the New Hampshire Driver Privacy Act (DPA) because the plaintiff did not establish that a “department record” had been sold or offered for sale.
April 19, 2024
Final OK Given To $62 Million Cy Pres Settlement Of Google Location History Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The same day he presided over a fairness hearing, a California federal judge issued a minute entry on the court docket on April 18 granting final approval to a $62 million settlement of a consolidated class action over the purported collection and retention of users’ location data by Google Inc., with most of the funds going to cy pres recipients.
April 19, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Response To Review Bid For 2nd Circuit ERISA Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Cornell University and related entities said they didn’t plan to file a brief unless asked, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an April 18 request for a response to a certiorari petition in which retirement plan participants argue that of two 2023 decisions that amplified a “preexisting circuit split” over Employee Retirement Income Security Act pleading standards for prohibited-transaction claims, the ruling against them “is the superior vehicle for review.”
April 19, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Investors’ Suit Against Gaming Company

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss a putative class complaint brought by investors against a gaming company and certain of its officers, agreeing that the investors did not show that the company misled investors through false statements about the technical aspects of its mobile gaming platform.
April 18, 2024
Court: Positive Outlook Doesn’t Outweigh Disclosures In Asbestos Securities Class

NEW YORK — Even while putting a positive spin on Garrett Motion Inc.’s future, the company repeatedly warned investors about the dire financial situation posed by the asbestos-related liabilities it acquired in its spinoff from Honeywell International Inc., and the company was unlikely to believe it could mislead the market given the public nature of its information, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said April 17 in affirming dismissal of a securities class action.
April 18, 2024
Amici File Briefs In Support Of Insurer’s High Court Appeal Of Remanded Class Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two sets of amici curiae filed briefs on April 17 in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting an insurer’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that a class action challenging its practices fits within the internal affairs and home state controversy exceptions to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
April 18, 2024
EEOC Complaint Accuses Sheetz Of Racially Biased Hiring Practices

BALTIMORE — Sheetz Inc., Sheetz Distribution Services LLC and CLI Transport LP (together, Sheetz) discriminate against classes of Black, Native American and other multiracial applicants based on their race by screening for criminal convictions and then denying employment based on them, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a complaint filed April 17 in a federal court in Maryland.
April 18, 2024
Judge Won’t Rethink Dismissal Ruling In GitHub AI Copyright Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — Five Doe defendants who claim that they did not receive proper attribution for use of their licensed materials on GitHub Inc.’s online collaboration platform failed in their quest for reconsideration of dismissal of their claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when a California federal judge ruled that they did not “show reasonable diligence in bringing the motion” and did not establish any of the prerequisites for justifying reconsideration.
April 18, 2024
Hyundai, Kia Engine Defect Settlement Approved; Attorney Fees Given Partial OK

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval of a class settlement agreement providing an extended warranty, recall and product improvements and reimbursements for repairs and other expenses to owners and lessees of certain Hyundai and Kia models that allegedly were built with defective engines that can spontaneously ignite and partially granted a motion for attorney fees, costs and service awards.
April 18, 2024
4th Circuit Reinstates Nevada Deception Claim In Lab Testing Costs Class Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — Patients accusing a laboratory testing company in a putative class complaint of violating Nevada and Florida law by omitting material information and making false and misleading representations may proceed only with their claim that the company violated Nevada law by failing to include the list prices for tests not covered by insurance with estimates for the patients’ financial responsibility, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in an unpublished per curiam opinion.
April 17, 2024
Settlement With Eli Lilly Over Insulin Costs Falls Apart In National Class Action

NEWARK, N.J. — A proposed settlement between Eli Lilly & Co. and class members in which the drugmaker would pay $13.5 million for an insulin price claims fund and ensure that class members will have prices for certain Lilly insulins capped at $35 a month for four years is off the table, lawyers for the plaintiffs told a New Jersey federal judge.
April 17, 2024
Centralization Of Cases Challenging Real Estate Commissions Denied By JPMDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) declined to centralize nine cases pending in seven districts brought on behalf of classes of home sellers alleging that rules governing buyer broker compensation violate antitrust laws, opining that pending nationwide class settlements in another case may resolve some of the claims in the nine cases.