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

Mealey's Class Actions

September 06, 2024
Magistrate Judge Allows Rebuttal Witness, 2nd Report In COVID-19 Class Suit

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge on Sept. 5 ruled that a rebuttal witness on ventilation systems can testify for state officials facing a class action from a group of inmates in Oregon prison who allege that they were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when state officials failed to protect them from heightened exposure to COVID-19.
September 06, 2024
9th Circuit Stops Efforts To Revive Behavioral Health Benefits Claim In Coverage Row

SAN FRANCISCO — Saying in an unpublished memorandum disposition that it previously “reversed (without remand) both the district court’s class certification order and merits judgment on the denial of benefits claim,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a mandamus petition in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where health insurance plan participants sought reprocessing of nearly 67,000 mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims.
September 06, 2024
Consumer Drops Suit Accusing Arrowhead Water Of Microplastics Contamination

LOS ANGELES — A consumer filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in California federal court weeks after filing a third amended complaint accusing the company that sells Arrowhead-brand bottled water of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling its product as “100% Mountain Spring Water” when it allegedly contains microplastics that may be detrimental to human health.
September 05, 2024
Judge Again Rejects Gaming Company’s Bid To Arbitrate False Advertising Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — After soliciting another round of supplemental briefing on new state law precedent, a California federal judge on Sept. 4 again denied a gaming company and its co-founders’ motion to compel arbitration of putative class claims against them for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by falsely advertising their mobile games as offering live competition, reiterating that the arbitration agreement is unconscionable and unenforceable.
September 05, 2024
Illinois Data Protection Law Covers Nonprescription Eyewear Setting, Court Says

CHICAGO — Someone trying on nonprescription eyewear through an online tool does not qualify as a patient seeking health care, and the provider’s collection of facial scans in that setting falls outside the exclusion on health care data collection in the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), an Illinois appellate court said in answering a certified question.
September 04, 2024
Woman Says Defective Potassium Pill Caused Mother’s Fatal Cardiac Arrest

NEWARK, N.J. — A woman who alleges that her mother died after ingesting defective potassium chloride pills manufactured by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed suit in a New Jersey federal court, seeking to represent a class of consumers whose damages she says total more than $50 million.
September 04, 2024
Class Action: 3M, DuPont Hid PFAS Dangers In Carpet In ‘Concealment Enterprise’

MINNEAPOLIS — Two consumers filed a putative class action in Minnesota federal court against the 3M Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., and DuPont affiliates, contending that they were fully aware of the health risks posed by stain-repellant products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that they made and sold to carpet manufacturers and others without disclosing the toxicity of the products in what the plaintiffs call the “PFAS Concealment Enterprise.”
September 04, 2024
Judge Denies Motion To Deny Class Certification In Moderator Suit Against TikTok

SAN FRANCISCO — Stating that “the Court is confused as to why this motion was filed at all,” a California federal judge denied a motion to deny class certification by TikTok Inc. and its parent company in a putative class action regarding the defendants’ alleged negligence in failing to protect content moderators from harm, finding that the defendants failed to show why excluding from the class those who signed arbitration agreements “should defeat class certification.”
September 04, 2024
8th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of ERISA Excessive Fee Suit On Benchmarks Issue

ST. LOUIS — Repeatedly citing Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co. and ruling that there was “a lack of meaningful benchmarks suggesting that the costs are too high for a plan of its size,” an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a 401(k) plans fees and funds.
September 04, 2024
Dog Supplement Makers Seek Stay To Petition High Court After Class Ruling

PASADENA, Calif. — The makers of Cosequin, a pet supplement, filed a motion in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay the mandate pending filing of a petition for writ of certiorari; the motion comes about a week after the panel issued an amended opinion affirming a trial court’s grant of class certification to consumers who allege that the products they bought were falsely marketed as improving joint health.
September 04, 2024
Collection Agency Opposes Debtor’s High Court Petition On Intangible Harm, Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — No review is necessary of debtor’s petition for a writ of certiorari concerning standing in a lawsuit over the transmission of debtors’ personal data to a third party as there is no circuit split on the issue of what showing of concrete intangible harm is necessary to establish standing, a collection agency argues in its brief in opposition filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
September 04, 2024
‘Sunday Ticket’ Subscribers Appeal Judgment For NFL After $4.7B Verdict Vacated

LOS ANGELES — Residential and commercial subscribers to DirecTV LLC’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in California after a $4.7 billion jury verdict on their Sherman Act claims was vacated by a judge who granted a motion for judgment as a matter of law filed by the National Football League Inc. (NFL), NFL Enterprises LLC and individual teams.
September 04, 2024
Voluntary Dismissal Conditionally Granted In Underfill Class Suit

SAN DIEGO — In a second pass at the motion following remand by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal judge in California conditionally granted voluntary dismissal without prejudice sought by consumers in their putative class complaint alleging underfill of lower calorie ice cream but instructed that the consumers must pay the ice cream company and its CEO more than half of the attorney fees they requested and refile any new case related to the same issues in the same district court and that the case must be assigned to the same judge.
September 03, 2024
Judge: Investors’ Claims Against TikTok’s Content Moderator Survive Dismissal

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida denied a motion from a French telecommunications company that provided content moderation for TikTok Inc. to dismiss a putative class complaint brought against them by investors who claim that the company made false statements to investors about its use of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) images to train moderators, holding that the investors adequately substantiated falsity and scienter to survive dismissal.
September 03, 2024
HHS Issues Status Report In Decade-Old Medicare Coverage Row Over Hospital Stays

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The secretary of Health and Human Services filed a status report in a Connecticut federal court regarding progress in implementing a final rule to comply with a court order and injunction in a long-running class action in which a district court in 2020 allowed a portion of a class of Medicare beneficiaries placed on observation status after being admitted to the hospital as inpatients to appeal their denial of coverage.
September 03, 2024
J&J Entities: Talc Plaintiffs’ Medical Monitoring Class Too Variable For Success

TRENTON, N.J. — Variability in how states handle medical monitoring claims makes them improper for class action treatment in a case brought by women allegedly harmed by the use of consumer talcum powder, and the flaw exposes the litigation’s true purpose: increasing the amount of claims in any potential bankruptcy, Johnson & Johnson and related entities tell a federal judge in New Jersey.
September 03, 2024
After Affirming Dismissal Of ERISA Offsetting Case, 8th Circuit Denies Rehearing

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for panel or en banc rehearing in a putative class suit over the practice known as “cross-plan offsetting”; in seeking rehearing, health plan participants argued that the ruling upholding dismissal ignored their “plausible allegations that the plans’ offset-authorizing terms are unenforceable and this Court’s prior decision in [Peterson v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (Peterson II)] holding that both patients and their doctors are obviously injured when they receive cross plan offsets instead of cash.”
September 03, 2024
Judge Won’t Remand Putative Class Suit Against Wal-Mart Over Avocado Oil Sales

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a consumer’s motion to remand his putative class action against Walmart Inc. for allegedly deceptively labeling its avocado oil product as pure avocado oil in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, finding that Walmart properly removed the suit after calculating that the amount in controversy is greater than $5 million.
August 30, 2024
ERISA Class Action Over BlackRock Index TDFs Survives Summary Judgment

RICHMOND, Va. — Two weeks after certifying a class in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs), a Virginia federal judge on Aug. 29 issued separate rulings denying the defendants’ summary judgment motion and denying the plaintiffs’ motion to exclude experts Lorie L. Latham and Russell R. Wermers.
August 30, 2024
Judge Won’t Reconsider Certification Of Class Action Against Pasta Company

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Aug. 29 denied an Illinois-based pasta manufacturer’s motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order certifying a class action against it for allegedly deceiving consumers into believing its products originated in Italy based on its label bearing the statement “Italy’s #1 Brand of Pasta” and Italian flag colors.
August 30, 2024
Oral Argument Including DOL Set In 9th Circuit ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case

SAN FRANCISCO — With oral argument set for Sept. 12 in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case involving the effective vindication doctrine, a health plan participant who filed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over a tobacco surcharge has filed a notice of supplemental authorities including a recent Sixth Circuit ruling.
August 30, 2024
Final Approval Of $10.8M Settlement Sought In Wage Suppression Case

NEWARK, N.J. — Individuals who worked for a tax preparation franchisor or franchisees who brought a class complaint in a federal court in New Jersey alleging that there was a conspiracy to suppress compensation via no-poach agreements filed motions for final approval of a $10.8 million settlement and for approval of attorney fees, expenses and service awards.
August 29, 2024
Federal Judge: Rapid Release Tylenol Class Action Fails Under Preemption Grounds

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. improperly advertised that its Tylenol Rapid Release Gelcaps worked faster than the cheaper tablet alternatives after finding that a woman’s claims are preempted by federal law.
August 29, 2024
Consumer Groups Urge 9th Circuit To Rehear Baby Food UCL Case

PHOENIX — Consumer and food associations filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to grant a baby food company’s petition for panel or en banc rehearing, writing that a panel’s reversal of the dismissal of class claims accusing it of deceptive labeling will create “confusion.”
August 29, 2024
6th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Misclassification Suit Involving ERISA Benefits

CINCINNATI — Reversing dismissal of a putative class action in which insurance agents assert Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims over alleged misclassification and denial of benefits, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the lower court erred by relying on documents regarding which “there are legitimate questions” of whether they “are a full set of the relevant, governing plan documents.”