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

Mealey's Class Actions

August 29, 2024
Production Of Full Funding Agreement Ordered In DUFTA Case Involving Insurer

WILMINGTON, Del. — Saying his relevance conclusion sprang from “the class action context . . . and the express terms of the Funding Agreement itself,” a Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor ordered the plaintiffs in a suit over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits to produce the funding and contingent fee agreements in their entirety.
August 28, 2024
Federal Judge Grants Final Approval In Data Breach Class Action

LINCOLN. Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge dismissed a data security breach class action and issued final approval of a $850,000 class action settlement in a data security breach suit after determining that the settlement fairly and adequately represents the interests of the class members.
August 28, 2024
Preliminary Approval Granted To $19M Settlement In Recalled Baby Sleeper Suit

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $19 million class settlement between consumers and Fisher-Price Inc. and its corporate parent, Mattel Inc., in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the safety risks of the now recalled Rock ’n Play Sleeper (RNPS) were not disclosed when the units were being sold in violation of various consumer protection laws.
August 28, 2024
Investor Asks Supreme Court To Consider Opt-Outs In Shareholder Settlements

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An investor in a movie theater chain tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Delaware Supreme Court was wrong to affirm a settlement between the chain and other investors because the settlement contained no opt-out clause for objecting investors such as herself; the investor says that the case provides the ideal vehicle to solve a circuit split over such opt-out clauses.
August 28, 2024
Judge Dismisses Putative Class Suit Over Alleged Data Breach For Lack Of Standing

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Granting dismissal of a putative class action against a private contractor over an alleged data breach, an Ohio federal judge said the plaintiff “has not adequately pleaded that any of his PII [personally identifiable information] was improperly accessed, let alone stolen.”
August 27, 2024
City Of Baltimore: Fracking Operators, Others Conspired To Inflate Oil Prices

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The city of Baltimore has filed a putative class action against multiple hydraulic fracturing companies in New Mexico federal court arguing that they engaged in a conspiracy to restrict the production of crude oil, along with “Wall Street investors, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and certain non-OPEC member countries aligned with OPEC, called “OPEC+” in an effort to inflate the price of crude oil.
August 27, 2024
Investors: Norfolk Southern Broke Securities Laws Related To Ohio Train Derailment

ATLANTA — Investors have filed a brief in Georgia federal court opposing a motion to dismiss their securities fraud class action against Norfolk Southern Corp. and its principals, arguing that they have laid out in “exacting detail” that the defendants misled investors about the purported safety of the railroad’s operations while the company implemented cost-cutting procedures that “systematically dismantled critical safety measures in pursuit of profits, culminating in the derailment” of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which resulted in toxic chemical pollution in that town.
August 27, 2024
Certification Of Arbitration Order For Appeal Denied In Citibank ‘Redlining’ Case

LOS ANGELES — A California woman who filed a putative class complaint against Citibank N.A. under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for allegedly “redlining” customers with Armenian names failed to show that a difference of opinion exists surrounding an April ruling granting the credit card issuer’s motion for arbitration, a federal judge in California ruled, denying a motion for certification of the order for interlocutory appeal.
August 27, 2024
Airlines Will Settle Pilot’s USERRA Payless Leave Class Suit For $4.75M

SPOKANE, Wash. — Alaska Airlines Inc. and Horizon Air Industries Inc. have agreed to pay $4.75 million to a class of commercial airline pilots who allege that they were denied pay during short-term military leaves while pay was provided to pilots taking other types of leaves, according to motion for preliminary settlement approval filed in a federal court in Washington.
August 27, 2024
$725M Profile-Sharing Suit Settlement Is Fair, Facebook And Plaintiffs Tell Court

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook and plaintiffs who successfully reached a $725 million settlement agreement in a consolidated privacy class action over the sharing of Facebook users’ profiles with Cambridge Analytica urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reject the appeal of two objectors who argue that the settlement should be higher and the attorney fees greatly reduced.
August 26, 2024
Bench Trial Yields Ruling For Defendants In ERISA Fees, Funds Challenge

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Noting in part that that she afforded “little to no weight” to the testimony of two of the class’s experts, a California federal judge ruled for the defendants on all claims after a bench trial, in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over 401(k) fees and funds.
August 26, 2024
Former Employees Reach Settlement With Philadelphia Inquirer Over Data Breach

PHILADELPHIA —Three employees or former employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC moved for preliminary approval of a $525,000 class action settlement reached with the newspaper to settle claims for damages caused by a data breach that the newspaper did not disclose to subscribers and employees for nearly a year.
August 23, 2024
Excessive-Fee Claim Survives Dismissal In Multiemployer Health Plan ERISA Case

CHICAGO — Denying dismissal of an excessive-fee claim in a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning a national multiemployer health plan, an Illinois federal judge said the lack of “direct guidance” regarding the pleading standard for such a claim means that “the court must reason by analogy” to retirement plan cases.
August 23, 2024
Hospitality Business Workers’ Human Trafficking Claims Settled for $730,000

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal magistrate judge in Oklahoma on Aug. 22 granted final approval of a $730,000 settlement between hospitality businesses based in that state and workers from the Philippines who allege that they were induced to travel to the United States to work based on false promises.
August 22, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal For ‘Pesky’ Standing Requirements In Medicare Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling dismissing a putative class action filed by the spouse of a decedent pursuant to the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Act regarding a workers’ compensation insurer’s alleged failure to reimburse Medicare for the decedent’s mesothelioma-related treatment, finding that though the requirements of standing “are often pesky,” the spouse lacked standing in this case.
August 21, 2024
6th Circuit Becomes Latest To Apply Effective Vindication Doctrine In An ERISA Case

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 20 became the fifth circuit court to rule an arbitration provision unenforceable on the grounds that it barred “effective vindication” of statutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act rights, reaching the result acting U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Julie A. Su urged in an amicus brief.
August 20, 2024
Company Says Stay Needed To Avoid ‘Substantial Prejudice’ To PFAS Defendants

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — One of the defendants in a putative class action brought by firefighters who contend that they were poisoned by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which acts as a protective coating in firefighting gear, moved in Connecticut federal court on Aug. 19, seeking a stay of the case pending a final transfer decision by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The defendant adopted the arguments that 3M asserts in its separate motion in which it argues that all of the defendants will suffer “substantial prejudice absent a stay.”
August 20, 2024
After Bench Trial, 9th Circuit Partly Revives Pension Benefits Class Action

PASADENA, Calif. — Exercising its discretion to reach several issues in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension benefits class action, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued an Aug. 19 unpublished memorandum disposition reversing a partial grant of summary judgment and partly reversing judgment issued after a bench trial.
August 20, 2024
Residents Allegedly Harmed By Creosote Get Preliminary Approval Of $3.5M Settlement

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge granted preliminary approval of a proposed class settlement that would see two petroleum companies place $3.5 million in a litigation fund to resolve claims alleging that they contributed to creosote contamination at a property that spread to the groundwater of neighboring areas.
August 20, 2024
Consumers Oppose Store’s Petition In Class Arbitration, Severing Claims Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Questions presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition by the operator of household rental stores that concern a court’s right to refuse to sever and compel arbitration of individual portions of a claim should be denied as the question concerning a severance clause “has no practical implications outside the unique severance clause at issue in this case” and the questions regarding the rental store’s processing fee and an arbitration agreement “involve the application of well-settled law to the particular facts of this case,” consumers argue in their Aug. 19 opposition brief.
August 20, 2024
Judge Certifies Class In Imprudence Case Over BlackRock Index TDFs

RICHMOND, Va. — Certification of a modified class has been granted in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs), with a Virginia federal judge saying, “That a small portion of unnamed class members who invested in the BlackRock TDFs did not suffer losses in their individual accounts due to the timing of their investments or for other reasons does not create intra-class conflicts.”
August 20, 2024
U.S. High Court: U.S. May Participate In Arguments Over Attorney Fees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 19 granted a motion by the United States for leave to participate in and for divided argument in an appeal over preliminary injunctions and attorney fees after a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Virginians were the prevailing parties in a putative class complaint over a now-repealed statute regarding the suspension of driver’s licenses.
August 20, 2024
Medical Supply Company Opposes Chiropractic Practice’s TCPA FCC Rule Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chiropractic practice’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking a decision on whether the Federal Communications Commission’s interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) prohibited faxes must be accepted should be denied as there is no circuit split, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision was correct and the case is a “poor vehicle” for resolving the question presented, a medical supply company accused of sending unsolicited faxes in violation of the TCPA argues in its opposition brief.
August 19, 2024
Man Files Putative Class Alleging Some Shale Oil Producers Fixed Gas Prices

SAN FRANCISCO — A man filed a putative class action on Aug. 16 against multiple hydraulic fracturing companies in California federal court contending that they engaged in a conspiracy “to coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of retail gasoline” in violation of the Sherman Act.
August 19, 2024
$75M Broiler Chicken Price-Fixing Settlements Granted Final Approval

CHICAGO — A combined $75 million in settlements between direct-purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) and two of more than a dozen broiler sellers accused of fixing the prices for chicken was granted final approval by a federal judge in Illinois.