Mealey's Class Actions
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April 15, 2024
Pipeline Operators, Property Owners Agree To Settle Oil Spill Claims For $70M
LOS ANGELES — In California federal court, two companies that formerly operated an oil pipeline that ruptured and contaminated residential property in southern California filed a motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement that would see the companies pay $70 million to property owners who were affected by the rupture.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 09, 2024
Judge: Deception Claims Over ‘100% Recyclable’ Plastic Bottles May Proceed
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on April 8 denied a motion to dismiss a putative class action brought by three consumers and The Sierra Club accusing The Coca-Cola Co. and two other bottling companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling plastic bottles as “100% recyclable,” finding that the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged based on a survey that most consumers would be deceived.
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April 09, 2024
Investors, Pharmaceutical Company Seek Approval Of Securities Claims Settlement
CAMDEN, N.J. — A pharmaceutical company and certain of its executives have agreed to settle for $97 million a securities class action by investors accusing the company of artificially inflating stock value to stave off a buyout, according to a motion for preliminary settlement approval filed by the lead plaintiff.
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April 09, 2024
Norfolk Southern To Pay $600M To Settle Ohio Train Derailment Litigation
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (Norfolk Southern collectively) and the plaintiffs suing them filed notice in Ohio federal court on April 9 indicating that they have reached a $600 million agreement in principle to resolve the class action pertaining to alleged injuries from the release of toxic chemicals in the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; a third-party lawsuit among Norfolk Southern and railcar companies continues.
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April 09, 2024
Cornell Waives Response To Review Bid For ERISA Prohibited Transaction Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cornell University and related respondents have waived their right to respond to a certiorari petition in which retirement plan participants tell the U.S. Supreme Court 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.”
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April 09, 2024
Parties Dispute Summary Judgment Issues In ERISA Suit Over ESG Factors
FORT WORTH, Texas — In a reply brief supporting summary judgment in a putative class case concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of investment management firms, American Airlines Inc. and a related defendant reiterate their contentions that the plaintiff’s theories fail for reasons including that he can’t prove any loss to the retirement plans at issue.