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

Mealey's Class Actions

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.
February 14, 2024
Reconsideration Of Partial Dismissal Of Website Data Collection Claims Sought

SAN DIEGO — Papa John’s International Inc. filed a motion for reconsideration in a federal court in California after a judge partially granted its motion to dismiss a putative class complaint alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) through the alleged interception and collection of users’ data on a pizza-ordering webpage, in light of the ruling in Briskin v. Shopify.
February 14, 2024
Magistrate Judge Denies Daubert Motions In Mislabeling Suit Against Rust-Oleum

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a plaintiff’s and a defendant’s motions to disqualify each other’s expert witnesses in a class action against Rust-Oleum Corp. for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by deceptively labeling its KRUD KUTTER cleaning products as “non-toxic” and “Earth friendly.”
February 14, 2024
GitHub, Microsoft, Coders To Confer Over Discovery In AI Copyright Licensing Row

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a dispute over licensing and attribution of computer code in open-source artificial intelligence (AI) collaborations, a California federal judge scolded defendants GitHub Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and five John Doe plaintiffs for not complying with the proper procedures for submitting discovery letters, leading him to deny the relief sought by the parties and to once again order them to meet and confer over their remaining discovery disputes.
February 14, 2024
Insurance Exchange’s Managing Agent Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of CAFA Reach

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court must decide whether a state complaint alleging breach of fiduciary duty filed in the name of a reciprocal insurance exchange by several subscribers who had earlier filed the same claims in their names on behalf of a class and then voluntarily dismissed the complaint after it was removed to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) is a class action belonging in federal court pursuant to CAFA, the exchange’s managing agent and attorney in fact agues in a reply filed in the high court.
February 14, 2024
Real Estate Broker Franchisor Asks High Court To Decide Who Decides Arbitrability

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A real estate franchisor sued as part of an antitrust class action by home sellers over commission rules filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to decide whether a court or an arbitrator should decide a question of arbitrability.
February 13, 2024
Amazon Accused Of Unfairly Imposing New Ad-Free Streaming Costs In Class Suit

SEATTLE — A California resident filed a putative class action in Washington federal court accusing Amazon.com Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by abruptly inserting ads into its Amazon Prime video streaming services unless subscribers pay a higher monthly fee.
February 13, 2024
Judge Orders Notices On Corner Post In Consolidated Illegal Exaction Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has directed notices to be filed on whether a pending U.S. Supreme Court case is relevant to consolidated cases in which group health plans allege that the government illegally exacted contributions from them under the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
February 13, 2024
Supplemental Brief Filed Supporting $3.5M Wage Settlement By Cheese Makers

FRESNO, Calif. — Workers whose wage-and-hour class complaint against Leprino Foods Co. and Leprino Foods Dairy Products Co. (together, Leprino) resulted in a jury verdict for Leprino filed a supplemental brief in a federal court in California supporting their motion for preliminary approval of a $3.5 million class settlement; the settlement motion was filed after the workers appealed the verdict to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
February 13, 2024
Federal Judge Denies Remand Of Class Suit Over No Breaks From Walkie Talkies

LOS ANGELES — A putative class complaint accusing a hospitality company of wage-and-hour violations due to its policy requiring workers to keep their walkie talkies on throughout their shifts, even during breaks, contains violations for which the amount in controversy requires the case to remain in federal court, a federal judge in California ruled, denying a motion to remand.
February 12, 2024
Class Complaint Accuses Digital News Company Of WARN Act Violations

NEW YORK — A January mass layoff of staff at The Messenger, a digital news website owned by JAF Communications Inc., violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, as well as the New York WARN Act, one of the former workers alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in New York.
February 12, 2024
Google Tells 9th Circuit Chrome Users Consented To Data Collection, Use

SAN FRANCISCO — In a Feb. 9 appellee brief, Google LLC explains to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the parties alleging privacy violations related to the purported collection and sharing of their personally identifiable information (PII) through the Chrome web browser “undisputedly agreed” to its privacy policy and related agreements “that describe the precise data collection and use” of which they complain, asking that the trial court ruling that disposed of all their claims be affirmed.