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

Mealey's Class Actions

February 28, 2024
Dating App User, Bumble Say Settlement Reached In Biometric Data Collection Case

CHICAGO — A dating application user and the companies associated with the operation of that app filed a joint status report in a federal court in Illinois stating that a settlement in principle has been reached in a putative class complaint alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting, storing and using users’ data.
February 28, 2024
Initial OK Given To $2.45 Million Settlement Of Debt Collector Data Breach Suit

SEATTLE — Two months after the proposed settlement of a class action over the 2022 breach of a debt collector’s network was sent back for some fine-tuning, a Washington federal judge granted a renewed motion for preliminary approval of a $2.45 million agreement, finding that the parties cured ambiguous language in its scope of release and sufficiently identified the range of attorney fees and costs amounts sought.
February 27, 2024
U.S.: Supremacy Clause Stops Wage Statute From Applying To Immigration Detainees

SAN FRANCISCO — Application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs for federal immigration detainees housed in facilities run by a for-profit company is precluded pursuant to the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause and the intergovernmental immunity doctrine, the United States argues in an amicus curiae brief filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in two appeals by a Washington state detention center owner and operator challenging a minimum wage verdict for a class of immigration detainees and an unjust enrichment award for Washington.
February 27, 2024
AI Interview Company Can’t Escape Illinois Biometric Law Class Action

CHICAGO — The use of a company’s artificial intelligence-based virtual interview program within Illinois gives jurisdiction over the case and the allegations fall within the purview of Illinois law governing biometric data, a federal judge in Illinois said Feb. 26, dismissing only claims that the company profited from the sale of such data.
February 27, 2024
Students Reach $166M Settlement With 4 Schools In Price-Fixing Financial Aid Case

CHICAGO — Students who sued more than a dozen private universities for allegedly “participating in a price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition” filed a motion in a federal court in Illinois seeking preliminary approval of a $166 million class settlement with four of the schools.
February 27, 2024
Oregon City To U.S. High Court: Encampment-Related Fines, Jail Are Appropriate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Punishments for violating a public camping ordinance, including fines and short jail terms, do not violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an Oregon city argues in its petitioner brief filed Feb. 26 in the U.S. Supreme Court; the city is challenging a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling barring enforcement of the ordinance in a ruling in which certification of the class of involuntarily homeless individuals was upheld.
February 27, 2024
$13.7M Settlement Between Protesters, City For Arrests, Use Of Force Approved

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $13,731,000 settlement between the city of New York and a class of approximately 1,380 individuals who were arrested or arrested and subjected to force by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) during protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
February 27, 2024
Oregon Seeks Rehearing After 9th Circuit Ruling In Prisoner Vaccine Case

SEATTLE — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel created intra- and inter-circuit conflict with a decision denying Oregon’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to quash a trial court’s order compelling the deposition of the former governor in a class lawsuit by prisoners suing over the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and deaths due to the virus, the state argues in a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc.
February 27, 2024
Judge: PREP Act Applies To Class Action Alleging Injuries From COVID-19 Drug

LOS ANGELES — Patients and their family members who allege injuries after being prescribed and ingesting an antiviral drug used to treat severe COVID-19 symptoms saw their putative class action dismissed by a California federal judge who found that the manufacturer has immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
February 27, 2024
Man’s Claim Over CVS AI Screening Tool Disclosure Proceeds, Judge Says

BOSTON — A man who claims that his ultimately unsuccessful employment interview included an undisclosed artificial intelligence (AI) screening that constituted a lie detector test under Massachusetts law may proceed with his claim because his alleged injury is exactly the type protected by the law, a federal judge in the state said in denying a motion to dismiss.
February 26, 2024
Investor Says Data Company Misrepresented Abilities Of AI Program

NEWARK, N.J. — In a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in New Jersey, an investor says a data engineering company and certain of its executives misled him and other investors through claims about the supposedly innovative nature of its artificial intelligence model, after an industry analyst published a report claiming that the model was never viable.
February 26, 2024
Bench Trial Leads To Ruling Against Class In ERISA Row Over Proprietary TDFs

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Following a nine-day bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over proprietary target date funds (TDFs), a California federal judge on Feb. 23 found for the plan sponsor and investment manager on all remaining claims.
February 26, 2024
Class Complaint Accuses Labcorp Of Sending Protected Health Info To Google

PHILADELPHIA — Two patients of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp) filed a class complaint unsealed Feb. 23 by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, accusing the health care company of intercepting individually identifiable health information from its website users and sending the information to Google, which analyzes the data, matches the information to individuals and then shares its analysis with Labcorp.
February 26, 2024
Supreme Court Denies Insurance Exchange’s Managing Agent’s CAFA Reach Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a reciprocal insurance exchange’s managing agent and attorney in fact who asked the justices to decide whether a state complaint alleging breach of fiduciary duty filed in the name of the exchange by several subscribers is a class action that belongs in federal court as those subscribers 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).
February 26, 2024
Claims, Defendants Partially Dismissed In Homebuyers’ Commission Class Case

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois partially granted motions to dismiss filed by a real estate brokers trade association and real estate franchisors in a putative class complaint by homebuyers who accuse the defendants of conspiring over commission rates, resulting in homebuyers paying artificially inflated prices for residential real estate because a portion of the supracompetitive rates is incorporated into the sales price of homes.
February 23, 2024
$20M Settlement Involving ‘Differential Treatment’ Gets Initial OK In ERISA Row

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 22 granted preliminary approval of a proposed $20 million class settlement in a case where some plaintiffs allege that they are owed early retirement pension benefits and pension supplements due to a change in control (CIC); the proposal involves what the plaintiffs call “differential treatment” of two groups and would give estimated payments of $4,000 to $365,759 to 332 individuals.
February 23, 2024
Truck Purchasers Dismiss Engines Class Case After ‘Piecemeal’ Transfer Denied

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Truck purchasers who brought putative class claims against an engine maker in a federal court in Kansas alleging faulty engines filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice less than a month after their motion to transfer some of their claims was denied by a judge, who deferred ruling on the defendant’s motion to dismiss to allow the purchasers to consider whether they would like to seek dismissal to refile in Washington.
February 23, 2024
Airline’s Dismissal Bid Fails In Narrowed ESG Suit Focusing On Investment Managers

FORT WORTH, Texas — A narrowed Employee Retirement Income Security Act case focusing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported “proxy voting activism” of investment management firms such as BlackRock Inc. has survived dismissal, with a Texas federal judge saying in part that inference of a flawed process is plausible.
February 23, 2024
Kroger Pharmacy Customers Dismiss Consolidated Data-Sharing Class Suits

CINCINNATI — Customers of an Ohio supermarket chain whose two putative class complaints alleging that the installation and use of a tracking pixel on the chain’s pharmacy website to collect and share confidential patient information were consolidated in January filed a notice on Feb. 22 of voluntary dismissal without prejudice pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(A)(i).
February 23, 2024
$4M Deal With Cintas, Related Defendants Proposed In ERISA Imprudence Row

CINCINNATI — A class settlement involving a $4 million payment and non-monetary relief would resolve an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where Cintas Corp. and related defendants unsuccessfully sought U.S. Supreme Court review of the denial of their motion to compel arbitration, plaintiffs told an Ohio federal court.
February 23, 2024
Rehearing Denied After Reversal Of Dismissal With Prejudice Of Underfill Suit

PASADENA, Calif. — Members of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied rehearing after the majority ruled that a trial court abused its discretion when it denied in part a motion by consumers to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice their individual and putative class claims alleging underfill of lower calorie ice cream and instead dismissed the individual claims with prejudice after the plaintiffs expressed their intent to file a new suit with a new theory of liability.
February 23, 2024
$5.5 Million Settlement Reached In Amazon COVID-19 Screenings Cases

FRESNO, Calif. — California employees who brought class complaints that were later consolidated accusing Amazon.com Services LLC of failing to pay workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 symptom screenings before their shifts filed a motion in a federal court in California seeking preliminary approval of a $5.5 million settlement.
February 23, 2024
Walmart’s $2.5M Settlement In COVID-19 Screening Case Preliminarily Approved

PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona granted preliminary approval of a $2.5 million settlement to be paid by Walmart Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates Inc. (together, Walmart) to end a class complaint seeking compensation under Arizona law for time spent undergoing mandatory COVID-19 screening before each shift.
February 23, 2024
Pension Fund Says Sporting Goods Retailer Misled Investors About Post-COVID Sales

PITTSBURGH — Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. and certain of its executives misled investors about the company’s ability to maintain high sales of certain products such as outdoor goods, which surged in sales during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a pension fund says in a putative class complaint filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, claiming that the company issued misleading statements about the slowing of sales.
February 22, 2024
$20M Settlement Proposed In ERISA Case Involving Change In Control Benefits

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A proposed $20 million class settlement would give estimated payments of $4,000 to $365,759 to 332 individuals in a case where some allege that they are owed early retirement pension benefits and pension supplements due to a change in control (CIC), the plaintiffs told a Pennsylvania federal court on Feb. 21.