Mealey's Class Actions
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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.
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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.
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April 17, 2024
Attorney Fee In ERISA Record-Keeping Suit Is Cut To 1/4 Of $4.1M Settlement
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Adopting the approach to attorney fees used in a 2014 decision in a different Employee Retirement Income Security Act case, a Connecticut federal judge on April 16 awarded class counsel a quarter of a $4.1 million class settlement with Xerox Corp. and its retirement plan committee rather than the requested third.
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April 17, 2024
Jack In The Box Workers Partially Awarded Attorney Fees, Costs In Wage Suit
PORTLAND, Ore. — Motions for attorney fees and costs by both sides in a wage-and-hour suit brought by a class of Jack in the Box Inc. workers who saw some success with their claims were partially granted and partially denied by a federal judge in Oregon who ruled that the workers were entitled to a portion of the attorney fees and costs they sought and that the employer was entitled to no attorney fees but was entitled to a portion of the amount it sought for witness fees and other costs.
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April 17, 2024
Federal Judge Clarifies Claims Deadline For Preliminarily Approved Class Settlement
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California issued an order clarifying the claims deadline for the submission of claims for purposes of a $23,997,500 settlement and notice plan that received preliminary approval in a putative class action alleging claims for unfair business practices, false advertising, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and breach of the duty of good faith against travel insurers.
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April 17, 2024
Apple, Plaintiffs, App Makers Differ On Discovery Issues In IPhone Antitrust Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — In a trio of discovery letter briefs filed in California federal court, Apple Inc., a class of consumers and a nonparty app developer bicker over the relevance of the plaintiffs’ discovery requests related to notification of the recently certified class and the merits of the class monopolization claims against Apple.
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April 17, 2024
New York Agrees To $17.5M Settlement In Religious Head Covering Removal Suit
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York issued an order in a class complaint by individuals who were forced to remove religious head coverings for post-arrest photos holding a partial summary judgment motion in abeyance in light of a proposed settlement under which New York City would pay $17.5 million.
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April 16, 2024
Law Firm Agrees To $8M Class Settlement After Data Breach
SAN FRANCISCO — Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has agreed to pay $8 million to end consolidated class litigation filed after the firm’s network was breached and the personal identifiable information (PII) of more than 630,000 individuals was potentially accessed, according to a motion for preliminary settlement approval filed in a federal court in California.
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April 16, 2024
Fracking Company: Mineral Rights Plaintiffs’ Case Fails; Lease Ownership Not Shown
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court arguing that a mineral rights class case brought against it should be dismissed because the plaintiffs fail to rebut the company’s cited authority that requires the plaintiffs to establish a chain of title evidencing their ownership in the leases that were allegedly breached.
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April 16, 2024
Class Certification Deemed Not Appropriate In Sesame Place Race Bias Lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA — Claims of racial discrimination made by customers of a children’s amusement park in Pennsylvania are not appropriate for class certification as there are two individualized questions related to the park owner’s liability for negligent supervision concerning who the customers interacted with and when the company became aware of issues with any employees that are unresolved, a federal judge in that state ruled April 15, adding that the plaintiffs also failed to show numerosity.
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April 16, 2024
California Appeals Court Upholds Judgment, Sanctions In On-Call Rest Periods Case
SAN FRANCISCO — A California trial court did not err in retroactively applying the state’s Emergency Ambulance Employee Safety and Preparedness Act (EAESPA) to a putative class complaint by an ambulance service employee arguing that she and others were improperly denied rest breaks as they were required to remain on call and did not abuse its discretion in imposing $2,000 in sanctions against the worker’s counsel after they refused to dismiss the lawsuit, a California appellate panel ruled, opining in part that the retroactive application of the EAESPA had already been considered and ruled on.
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April 16, 2024
Ga. Schools, Officials Have More Time To Respond To Athletes’ Transgender Complaint
ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia granted Georgia schools and officials’ request for additional time to file an answer to a putative class complaint by female student-athletes challenging the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) transgender eligibility policies and arguing that allowing transgender females to participate in women’s sports denies them equal opportunities in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
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April 16, 2024
Epic Games Proposes Injunction To Stop Google’s Monopolistic Practices
SAN FRANCISCO — Four months after a California federal jury found that Google Inc. engaged in anticompetitive conduct, tying and restraint of trade related to distribution of and payment for Android apps, plaintiff Epic Games Inc. filed a proposed permanent injunction in which it suggests that Google be prevented from engaging in various agreements, incentives and downloading and installation practices, among other things, for the purpose of making the relevant app markets competitive.
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April 16, 2024
Delaware High Court Partly Revives Investor Claims Against Dating Site Companies
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court partially reversed a decision from the state’s Court of Chancery in a putative class case brought by shareholders questioning the fairness of a technology company’s spinoff from a controlled subsidiary, finding that the investors adequately alleged that one member of a separation committee lacked independence from the tech company.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 15, 2024
On Remand, Judge Allows Suit Against Nestlé For Deceptive Sales Of ‘White Morsels’
SAN JOSE, Calif. — On remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a California federal judge on April 12 granted Nestlé USA Inc.’s motion to dismiss injunctive relief sought against it by consumers who claim that they were deceived into believing that the company’s “White Morsels” baking chips product was made of white chocolate but denied the motion as to their other claims, including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.