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Mealey's Class Actions

  • September 25, 2023

    $2.9M Class Settlement Gets Final OK In ERISA Fees, Funds Case

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 22 granted final approval to a class settlement in which a $2.9 million payment plus an agreement to boost monitoring of investment and service provider monitoring resolve a suit challenging fees and funds in jointly administered retirement plans.

  • September 22, 2023

    Final Approval Of $130,000 Class Settlement Sought In Vaccine Mandate Dispute

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Current and former employees of Ascension Michigan filed a motion on Sept. 21 in a federal court in Michigan seeking final approval of a $130,000 settlement in a class lawsuit over the health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.

  • September 22, 2023

    DOJ Files Statement Of Interest In Putative Class Suit Alleging ADA Violations

    BOSTON — After nursing home residents filed a putative class action against state officials in a Massachusetts federal court alleging that state nursing homes are segregating residents with disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest, asserting that the state’s argument that class members fail to share the same claims discounts “the longstanding, commonplace, and appropriate certification of classes in similar Olmstead cases.”

  • September 22, 2023

    $6M Settlement Reached In Race Case Against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., granted preliminary approval of a $6 million class settlement in a race bias, harassment and retaliation case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

  • September 22, 2023

    Homeless Waive Right To Respond To City’s Petition In Encampment Ordinance Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Homeless individuals representing a class who have sued an Oregon city over its public camping ordinance filed a waiver in the U.S. Supreme Court stating that they do not intend to respond to the city’s petition for a writ of certiorari, which asks the justices to decide whether enforcement of such laws constitutes “cruel and unusual” punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • September 22, 2023

    Judge Certifies Classes Of Smokers Deceived By American Spirits ‘Natural’ Claims

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge published the redacted version of his opinion granting in part a motion to certify a class of smokers accusing three tobacco companies of mislabeling American Spirit-brand cigarettes as “natural” and “additive-free,” shortly after three tobacco companies petitioned the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for permission to challenge the certification order, which was previously issued to the parties under seal.

  • September 21, 2023

    Best-Selling Fiction Writers Sue OpenAI For ‘Systematic Theft On A Mass Scale’

    NEW YORK — The Authors Guild and 17 of its members, who are best-selling fiction writers, filed a putative class complaint against OpenAI Inc. and related companies (OpenAI, collectively) in New York federal court, accusing the artificial intelligence research and deployment firm of “flagrant and harmful” infringement of their copyrighted works in the training of its large language models (LLMs) without obtaining licenses or permission.

  • September 21, 2023

    Taco Bell Worker Settles Biometric Data Case After Arbitration Order

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A Taco Bell employee who alleged in a putative class complaint that workers’ biometric data is collected, used and stored in violation of state law dismissed the case with prejudice on Sept. 20 in a federal court in Illinois after filing a notice of settlement.

  • September 21, 2023

    Hispanic Workers’ Claims Of Bias Against Wells Fargo Stayed In Federal Court

    SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge in Texas compelled arbitration individually staying claims for 16 of 17 plaintiffs who filed an amended class action against Wells Fargo Bank N.A. alleging that the bank forces its employees to offer predatory mortgage lending options to Spanish-speaking customers and excludes members of a bilingual team from opportunities within the company.

  • September 20, 2023

    SMU Student Tells Texas High Court That Pandemic Liability Act Isn’t Retroactive

    AUSTIN, Texas — The retroactive provision of the Texas Pandemic Liability Protection Act (PLPA) “is unconstitutional as applied to” Southern Methodist University (SMU) in a putative class complaint over the school’s closure during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, a student argues in an appellant brief filed in the Texas Supreme Court addressing a question certified by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • September 20, 2023

    BCBS Employees Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine File Class Suit

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Three workers filed a class complaint against BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Inc. (BCBS) in a federal court in Tennessee alleging that they were fired for their religious convictions after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

  • September 20, 2023

    Mortgage Servicer Removes Class Complaint Claiming Inaccurate Credit Reporting

    CHICAGO — A mortgage servicer has removed to a federal court in Illinois a borrower’s putative class complaint alleging that it supplied incorrect payment history information to consumer credit reporting agencies (CRAs), asserting federal question jurisdiction and standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

  • September 20, 2023

    Juul MDL Judge Approves $255M Settlement, Rejects All ClaimClam Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — The California federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) on Sept. 19 issued a final approval of a $255 million class settlement resolving economic loss claims brought against JLI on behalf of roughly 6.3 million class members and approved the rejection of “tens of thousands” of purported class members who filed claims through a third-party website while granting those individuals an extension to file timely claims.

  • September 20, 2023

    Plaintiffs Dismiss Suit Challenging AI Chatbot Privacy Practices

    SAN FRANCISCO — After warning that the release of artificial intelligence was done with “disregard for the potentially catastrophic risk to humanity,” 16 anonymous plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their complaint claiming that Microsoft Corp. and others violated federal privacy laws and state consumer protection laws, including California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • September 20, 2023

    Woman Sues Drug Manufacturers, Says OTC Cold Medicine Not Effective

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman filed a putative class action in a Missouri federal court, alleging that she and others similarly situated purchased over-the-counter (OTC) decongestant products containing phenylephrine (PE) that were ineffective.

  • September 20, 2023

    Federal Judge Approves Class Settlement In Pay-To-Pay Mortgage Fees Case

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia granted a motion seeking final approval of a $910,000 settlement in a class action alleging that a bank illegally charged hundreds of borrowers convenience fees to pay their monthly mortgage payments online or by telephone in violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (WVCCPA).

  • September 20, 2023

    Federal Judge Seeks Amended Class Settlement Motion In Papa John’s No-Poach Case

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky denied preliminary approval of a $5 million class settlement proposed in a case accusing a pizza chain franchisor of violating the Sherman Act by coordinating no-poach agreements between its franchisees, finding that insufficient information was supplied regarding adequacy, typicality and predominance.

  • September 19, 2023

    Borrowers Allege In Class Action That Lender Wrongfully Denied, Shorted COVID-19 Aid

    PHILADELPHIA — Borrowers filed a class action complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania alleging that their lender violated state and federal statutes when it denied some borrowers COVID-19 aid and approved only a portion of the aid for others claiming to be eligible for more funding.

  • September 19, 2023

    University Tuition Payers Denied Class Cert In Case Seeking Pandemic Refunds

    PHOENIX — A proposed class of individuals who paid Grand Canyon University (GCU) on-campus tuition, fees and room and board for the spring 2020 term failed to show that common questions predominate, a federal judge in Arizona ruled, denying the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification.

  • September 19, 2023

    Efforts To Bar Experts In Disability Access On New York City Subways Suit Fail

    NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge rejected renewed efforts by New York’s transportation authority to exclude experts retained by a group of disability advocate organizations alleging that the city failed to provide full accessibility to all users of the city’s subway system.

  • September 19, 2023

    RE/MAX Agrees To Settle Real Estate Commission Antitrust Class Claims For $55M

    CHICAGO — Home sellers and RE/MAX LLC filed a notice of pending settlement and joint motion stay an antitrust case as to RE/MAX on Sept. 18 in a federal court in Illinois; on the same day, RE/MAX filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it agreed to pay a total settlement amount of $55 million.

  • September 18, 2023

    Government Urges High Court To Uphold ‘Bedrock Principle’ Of Chevron Deference

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. secretary of Commerce, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the government) urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 15 brief to not overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference in a challenge to fishery regulations that were upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, writing that doing so could “cause disruption” to complex federal regulatory schemes.

  • September 18, 2023

    Class Certified In Suit Alleging Illegal Kickbacks And Scheme To Defraud Borrowers

    BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland certified a class of borrowers and two subclasses of borrowers, finding that a lender’s argument that some of the class did not endure financial losses failed to “undermine the predominance of common legal and factual issues” in the case alleging that the lender engaged in both an illegal kickback agreement with its title and settlement company and a related plan to defraud borrowers on more than 750 loans into paying made-up charges for title and settlement services.

  • September 18, 2023

    9th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Suit Over ‘Wet Ones’ Germ-Killing Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a consumer’s lawsuit claiming that a sanitary wipe product maker violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by falsely claiming that its product “Kills 99.99% of Germs,” finding that the court misconstrued the reasonable consumer standard.

  • September 15, 2023

    Certified Class: Insurer Used Single Experimental Treatment For Blanket Denials

    UTICA, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York on Sept. 14 certified a class of insureds who claim that United Behavioral Health violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by issuing blanket denials for residential treatments when it considered even a single aspect of the facility’s treatment experimental.