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Mealey's Class Actions

  • February 21, 2025

    Imprudence Claim Survives Dismissal In Suit Over ESOP’s Cash-Equivalent Strategy

    PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 20 dismissed a prohibited transaction claim but ruled that an imprudence claim asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act survives in a putative class action filed by former and current employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)participants who say that about 80% of the plan’s funds have been kept in cash equivalents — money market funds and short-term certificates of deposit — since at least 2009.

  • February 21, 2025

    Carnegie Mellon’s $4.8M Pandemic Closure Settlement Preliminarily Approved

    PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted preliminary approval of a $4.8 million settlement between Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and students who accuse the school of depriving them of the education and services for which they paid when it halted in-person learning in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • February 21, 2025

    4th Circuit Denies Rehearing Sought By Mortgagors After Class, Damages Ruling

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by borrowers who allege that they were required to pay for “worthless” home appraisals after the appellate panel considered for a second time class certification and damages for the borrowers and the majority ruled that there was no showing of concrete harm.

  • February 20, 2025

    Judge Permits ‘Mass Opt-Out’ From Eavesdropping Class Action Against Google

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge on Oct. 18 resolved a two-year-old discovery dispute in a class action over Google LLC’s purported eavesdropping of users of its Google Assistant (GA) app, reducing the number of user query samples the defendant must provide to the plaintiffs in light of a subsequent ruling certifying only a single class claim for unfair competition.

  • February 20, 2025

    5 Federal Workers’ Class Suit Alleges Info Access Is Largest Breach Since Watergate

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal officials’ decision to allow individuals from outside the U.S. government to access the “personal sensitive information” (PSI) of millions of federal workers “is the biggest breach of American trust by political actors since Watergate,” five federal employees allege in a class complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.

  • February 20, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Of $1.15M Lane Bryant Wage Class Settlement Denied

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied preliminary approval of a $1,150,000 class and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) settlement in a case against a plus size clothing retailer, opining that the parties “artificially lowered” the potential value of the PAGA claim and failed to provide sufficient information for the court to determine whether preliminary approval was appropriate.

  • February 20, 2025

    Mortgagors Seeks Rehearing After 4th Circuit Class Certification, Damages Ruling

    RICHMOND, Va. — Borrowers who allege that they were required to pay for “worthless” home appraisals as part of refinancing their mortgage loans filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc after the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals considered for a second time class certification and damages for the borrowers and the majority ruled that there was no showing of concrete harm.

  • February 19, 2025

    Final Approval Of Settlement Granted In Stock-Drop Suit Against Holding Company

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to an $850,000 settlement ending a class action filed by stockholders against a bank holding company for allegedly failing to disclose that the company maintained defective disclosure controls that increased the risk that it couldn’t timely file required financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission and become delisted from the NASDAQ, ultimately causing the stock price to drop after the alleged misrepresentations were disclosed.

  • February 19, 2025

    Penn State’s $17 Million Pandemic Closure Class Settlement Given Final OK

    PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Feb. 18 granted final approval of a $17 million class settlement between The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) and students who accused the school of charging money for in-person education and on-campus access and services but failing to deliver them in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • February 18, 2025

    TRO Denied In Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal workers suing under pseudonyms who accuse the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of failing to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claim are being used to collect information on them failed to show “that they are likely to incur some irreparable injury” without a temporary restraining order (TRO), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 17, denying a renewed TRO motion in the putative class case.

  • February 18, 2025

    Lead Claims Against Tampon Makers Dismissed In Part By Judge

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge issued two substantially similar rulings dismissing in part two putative class action lawsuits brought against tampon makers by women who accuse the companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by concealing the presence of lead in their tampons, finding that the claims should not be dismissed pending a Food and Drug Administration review of lead in tampons but also finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege that the tampons they bought contained dangerous levels of lead.

  • February 18, 2025

    Class Action Alleges Allstate Collected, Sold Data Without Plaintiffs’ Consent

    CHICAGO — A class action complaint filed in Illinois federal court alleges that The Allstate Corp. and its subsidiaries collected and sold the plaintiffs’ personal data and “‘trillions of miles’ worth of ‘driving behavior’” data without their consent.

  • February 18, 2025

    Carnegie Mellon Students Seek Preliminary Approval Of $4.8M Pandemic Closure Pact

    PITTSBURGH — Students who accuse Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) of depriving them of the education and services for which they paid when the school halted in-person learning in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic filed a motion for preliminary approval of a $4.8 million settlement on Feb. 14.

  • February 14, 2025

    Class Complaint Alleges Computer Fraud, Privacy Violations By Musk, Agencies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six U.S. citizens filed a putative class complaint in District of Columbia federal court over purported privacy violations by the access to government systems and citizens’ personal data given to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

  • February 14, 2025

    9th Circuit Rejects Appeal Of $725 Million Facebook Data-Sharing Suit Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — More than a year after a trial court approved the $725 million settlement of a consolidated class action over the 2015 sharing of Facebook users’ profiles with Cambridge Analytica, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 13 affirmed the approval over an appeal of the settlement and attorney fees amounts by two class members.

  • February 14, 2025

    False Advertising Claims Over Walmart Avocado Oil Inadequate, Judge Says

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 granted Walmart Inc.’s motion to dismiss a consumer’s putative class action accusing it of deceptively labeling its avocado oil product as pure avocado oil in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), finding that the plaintiff failed to allege that the product is labeled in a way that would deceive a consumer as to the purity of its oil.

  • February 14, 2025

    Insurer’s Dismissal Motion Partially Denied In Suit Alleging It Illegally Employs AI

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota on Feb. 13 granted in part and denied in part an insurer’s motion to dismiss a class complaint alleging it illegally uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deny elderly insureds medically necessary care based on a model that the insurer knows “has a 90% error rate,” allowing breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claims to proceed.

  • February 14, 2025

    Plaintiffs Sue W.L. Gore For Greenwashing, Hiding PFAS Content Of Its Clothing

    SPOKANE, Wash. — Plaintiffs have filed a class action against W.L. Gore & Associates in Washington federal court alleging that it has violated numerous state consumer protection laws and has fraudulently concealed the fact that its water-repellant Gore-Tex fabric contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are then shed into the environment upon use.  The plaintiffs argue that Gore is guilty of greenwashing by using PFAS but “purporting to be highly committed to environmental responsibility.”

  • February 13, 2025

    Woman Seeks Class Status For PFAS Case Alleging Carpet Makers Were Deceptive

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A woman filed an unopposed motion in Tennessee federal court on Feb. 12 to file a second amended class complaint against a carpet manufacturing company and its affiliates that she says are liable for knowingly using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to add stain-resistance to its carpets.  She argues that the companies “had exclusive knowledge” that its carpets contained PFAS and they “deceptively marketed and/or omitted material information” about that from the public.

  • February 13, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Given To $95 Million Settlement Of Siri Eavesdropping Suit

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A class action accusing Apple Inc. of collecting unauthorized recordings of Apple device users via its digital assistant Siri moved closer to resolution, with a California federal judge granting preliminary approval to a proposed $95 million settlement of the 5-1/2-year-old lawsuit.

  • February 13, 2025

    6th Circuit Won’t Revisit 2-1 Revival Of ERISA Suit Challenging TDFs

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 briefly denied a petition for rehearing en banc that six amicus curiae entities supported in a combined brief; the 2-1 decision at issue revived an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s retention of the passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.

  • February 13, 2025

    7 Union Pacific Workers File Consolidated Brief Opposing Class Tolling Petitions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rulings by three different federal circuits in several disability bias cases brought by Union Pacific Railroad Co. workers after class decertification that all found that American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling ends for class members only when they have been “unambiguously excluded” from the class are correct, and the U.S. Supreme Court should not grant Union Pacific’s three petitions challenging those rulings, seven workers argue in a consolidated respondent brief filed Feb. 12.

  • February 12, 2025

    Precious Metals Company Data Breach Class Claims Dismissed By Plaintiff

    DALLAS — A putative class action plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in Texas federal court of his lawsuit accusing a Texas-based precious metals refiner of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other consumer protection laws by failing to take cybersecurity measures to stop a data breach that allowed access to the personally identifiable information (PII) of himself and class members.

  • February 12, 2025

    Fortra Data Breach MDL Judge OK’s 1 Settlement, Stays Case For Global Settlement

    MIAMI — The Florida federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over a 2023 software app data breach granted final approval to the settlement of one of the MDL’s tracks on Feb. 11, while staying proceedings for the remaining parties while details of an announced global settlement are finalized.

  • February 12, 2025

    $22.6M FBI Basic Training Gender Bias Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint stipulation to file a sixth amended complaint in a gender bias case by female employees of the FBI was filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia one business day after a judge in that court granted final approval of a $22.6 million class settlement over those claims in the case that alleged gender bias during basic training.