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

Mealey's Class Actions

February 03, 2025
Consumers: No Review Of Class Certification Needed In Pet Supplement Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consumers tell the U.S. Supreme Court that no review of class certification in a case over the label claims on a pet supplement is necessary as courts of appeal agree regarding “the real issue on appeal” and have determined that plaintiffs in a class case may rely on an expert’s not-yet-executed damages model so long as the model is deemed reliable and may be used to calculate classwide damages.
January 31, 2025
$450,000 Newspaper Subscription TCPA Class Settlement Preliminarily Approved

PHILADELPHIA — A $450,000 class settlement to be paid by a telecommunications company to end a Philadelphia woman’s complaint that she and a certified class received more than one newspaper subscription phone call in the last four years despite being on the National Do-Not-Call Registry (DNC) and not having established business relationships with the defendant was preliminarily approved by a federal judge in Pennsylvania.
January 31, 2025
Amid ERISA Bench Trial, Defendants Seek Partial Decertification Of Class

BOSTON — More than a week into a bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit primarily challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, the defendants on Jan. 30 moved in Massachusetts federal court to decertify the mandatory class as to one claim, saying in part that the named plaintiffs’ expert agreed that that claim “is unique to” a fund that is no longer proprietary “and different from the other claims he opines on.”
January 31, 2025
Petition For Rehearing Expected After Wash. Wage Law Found To Apply To Detainees

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted an extension for filing a petition for rehearing after a split panel ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs for federal immigration detainees housed in the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) run by a for-profit company does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the for-profit company does not have derivative sovereign immunity.
January 31, 2025
Judge Grants Final Approval Of $22M Settlement In Block.one EOS Securities Case

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $22 million settlement in a class action accusing a company that promised that it would develop a software program enabling the creation of novel EOS cryptocurrency blockchain technologies of making “a host of materially false and misleading statements to induce investors to purchase EOS Securities” and failing to register its initial coin offering (ICO).
January 31, 2025
Amici To 2nd Circuit: Reverse ERISA Determination On Deferred Compensation Plans

NEW YORK — A handful of amici curiae organizations are urging the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate or reverse a determination that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the compensation incentive and equity incentive plans at issue in a suit over a Morgan Stanley deferred compensation program, with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) arguing that the lower court’s “conclusions run counter to significant contrary case law and regulatory guidance and upend employers’ longstanding understanding of the rules applicable to incentive plans.”
January 30, 2025
Putative Class Suit Over Fish Oil Health Claims Dismissed With Prejudice

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a supplement maker’s motion to dismiss a consumer’s putative class action accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling a fish oil product as beneficial to heart health, finding the claims preempted and concluding that the label statements at issue “are not capable of deceiving a reasonable consumer.”
January 30, 2025
Federal Judge Approves Catholic University’s $2M Pandemic Closure Settlement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued two orders, one granting final approval of a $2 million class settlement to be paid by The Catholic University of America to end a student’s claims over the school’s closure during the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the second awarding class counsel $666,666.66 in attorney fees and $132,048.14 in costs and the class representative $7,500 for a service award.
January 30, 2025
Allstate Prevails In Suit Over 401(k)’s Use Of Certain TDFs, Advisory Services

CHICAGO — Saying in part that without “relevant analysis and opinions,” an expert’s “report and testimony cannot create a genuine factual dispute,” an Illinois federal judge granted summary judgment against plaintiffs who challenged a retirement plan’s use of Northern Trust target date funds (TDFs) and advisory services under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
January 30, 2025
$47.5M Settlement Between Battery Maker, Shareholders Granted Final Approval

SAN FRANCISCO — A $47.5 million settlement was granted final approval by a federal judge in California, concluding a case brought by shareholders against the developer of a “solid-state” electronic vehicle battery alleging that the developer violated federal securities laws by misrepresenting the progress and effectiveness of their batteries.
January 29, 2025
Final Approval Of $200M Settlement Granted In Uber IPO Misstatement Class Action

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California issued final approval of a $200 million settlement to end a class action lawsuit bought by investors against ride sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. and certain of its executives that claimed that the company issued a series of misleading statements in the lead-up to its May 2019 initial public offering (IPO).
January 29, 2025
ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

Class settlements below $5 million have been finalized or proposed in 17 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between mid-October and late January.
January 29, 2025
$4.5M Deal Gets Final OK In ERISA Lawsuit Over Proprietary Index Funds

NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge has granted final approval to a $4.5 million class settlement in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over the selection and retention of proprietary index fund products, awarding $1.5 million of that sum for attorney fees and a total of $45,000 for incentive awards.
January 29, 2025
Federal Judge Approves Alaska Airlines’ $4.75M USERRA Payless Leave Settlement

SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington granted final approval of a $4.75 million settlement between Alaska Airlines Inc., Horizon Air Industries Inc. and a class of commercial airline pilots who allege that they were denied pay during short-term military leaves; the agreement will result in a gross average of $8,928 per class member plus prospective relief.
January 28, 2025
Video Game Player, Amazon Announce Settling Of BIPA Suit; Judge Stays Deadlines

SEATTLE — The same day that Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) and Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon, collectively) and a plaintiff announced the settlement of claims under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) related to a basketball video game, a Washington federal judge stayed proceedings in the putative class action while the settlement is finalized.
January 28, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Hear Case On Whether CAFA Was Triggered In Zantac Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 27 declined to review a ruling by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that found that a motion to consolidate did not trigger federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), which affirmed a district court decision to remand to state court nine cases asserting personal injury claims stemming from their use of Zantac.
January 28, 2025
Settlement With ‘Landmark’ Recovery In Mortality Table Row Wins Final Approval

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Jan. 27 granted final approval to a class settlement including what retirees said is a “landmark recovery” of $10 million in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over allegedly outdated mortality tables used to calculate joint and survivor annuity (JSA) benefits in two Citgo Petroleum Corp. pension plans; he also approved the separate $4.75 million agreement, of which $4,366,908.05 is for attorney fees, $308,091.95 is for expenses and $75,000 is for service awards.
January 28, 2025
Securities Suit Involving Reinsurance Dismissed For Lack Of Scienter

NEW YORK — Ruling that the “allegations fail to raise the required strong inference of scienter” and that further amendment would be futile, a New York federal judge dismissed a putative class action that attempted to use a reported error on the reinstatement premium for a specialty casualty reinsurance treaty — and purported statements from confidential witnesses — as the basis for securities fraud claims.
January 28, 2025
Judge OKs $1.07 Million Settlement Of Pharmacy Service Data Breach Class Action

BOSTON — A proposed $1,075,000 settlement of class action negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims over a pharmacy service’s 2021 data breach received final approval from a Massachusetts federal judge, who found that the agreement satisfied the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.
January 27, 2025
Oil, Gas Royalty Settlement Objectors Brief 10th Circuit On Attorney Fee Challenge

DENVER — A trial court in approving more than $17.3 million in attorney fees as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement ignored the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling in Strack v. Continental Resources, which requires percentage-based common fund fee awards to be tested by a lodestar cross-check, and failed to follow the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals mandate to apply controlling Oklahoma law, objectors argue in separate appellant briefs filed in the 10th Circuit.
January 27, 2025
J&J Wins Dismissal Of Fiduciary Breach Claims In ERISA Drug Costs Lawsuit

CAMDEN, N.J. — One of the two high-profile Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty suits focused on health plans’ pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and prescription drug benefits has been partly dismissed with leave to amend, with a New Jersey federal judge on Jan. 24 ruling that the plaintiff lacks standing to assert the key claims in her putative class case.
January 27, 2025
$69M Settlement Gets Initial OK In ERISA Target Date Funds Challenge

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on Jan. 24 preliminarily approved a $69 million proposal that the class representative said would be “the largest settlement in the history of investment performance cases in an [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] context.”
January 27, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Consider Service Awards, Attorney Fees In Meta Privacy Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An objector to the $90 million settlement of a multidistrict litigation over Meta Platforms Inc.’s purported online tracking of Facebook users saw his petition for certiorari denied Jan. 27, with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take up his questions over the propriety of plaintiff service awards and attorney fees in the settlement.
January 27, 2025
Expectant Mothers’ Class Suit Challenges President’s Birthright Citizenship EO

SEATTLE — Three expectant mothers who live in Washington but are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents filed a class complaint on Jan. 24 in a federal court in that state challenging one of President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 Executive Orders (EO) they say will alter birthright citizenship and leave their children “without status in” the United States.
January 27, 2025
U.S. High Court Grants Labcorp’s Article III Injury, Class Certification Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 24 agreed to decide a question posed by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings’ (Labcorp) concerning certification of a class where some members lack injury under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.