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

Mealey's Class Actions

October 23, 2024
Adequacy Challenges Fail, Class Is Certified In ERISA Fees, Funds Lawsuit

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Rejecting arguments that the named plaintiff and his counsel don’t meet adequacy requirements, a North Carolina federal judge granted certification of a mandatory class of more than 55,000 retirement plan participants in a lawsuit challenging the plan’s record-keeping and administrative fees and share classes.
October 22, 2024
Judge Partly Dismisses Class Claims Against Walmart Over Fish Oil Health Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part Walmart Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misrepresenting the health benefits of its store brand fish oil supplement, finding certain claims preempted by federal regulation but rejecting Walmart’s argument for dismissal based on the doctrine of primary jurisdiction.
October 22, 2024
6th Circuit Again Uses Effective Vindication Doctrine In An ERISA Lawsuit

CINCINNATI — In an Oct. 21 unpublished opinion noting a different panel’s recent conclusion that “arbitration clauses that forbid participants from obtaining plan-wide remedies under [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] are unenforceable,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed dismissal of a putative class action over allegedly imprudent management of a retirement plan.
October 22, 2024
Iowa Federal Judge Denies Motion To Exclude Expert In FLSA Bench Trial

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa federal judge said that because a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) dispute will be resolved through a bench trial, excluding certain testimony from an expert witness retained to opine on damages is unnecessary.
October 21, 2024
Magistrate Reduces Data Sample Google Must Produce In Assistant Eavesdropping Row

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.
October 21, 2024
Judge Remands Suit Over Sugary Snacks, Citing ‘Abstention Doctrines’

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge granted a putative class plaintiff’s motion to remand her suit accusing a fruit snack maker of deceiving consumers as to the sugar content of its products, ruling that while the defendant’s removal was proper, remand is required under century-old precedent because the federal court lacks jurisdiction over any of the plaintiff’s claims.
October 21, 2024
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear Appeal Where It Reversed Dismissal Of ERISA Case

SAN FRANCISCO — With no substantive explanation for why it chose to let the unpublished memorandum disposition reversing dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit stand, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected petitions for panel or en banc rehearing that drew two supporting amicus curiae briefs.
October 21, 2024
Plaintiffs Settle Data-Sharing Suit With Univision After Class Certification Denied

MIAMI — Two months after a Florida federal judge denied a motion to certify a class action against the operator of the Univision NOW website for its purported sharing of private video viewing information of the site’s users, the same judge administratively closed the lawsuit the same day the three named plaintiffs announced that they had reached a settlement with the defendant.
October 21, 2024
Papa John’s Website User Asks 3rd Circuit To Rethink Jurisdiction Ruling

PITTSBURGH — One month after a split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of a wiretapping lawsuit related to purported tracking of website activity by Papa John’s International Inc., the lead plaintiff in the putative class action filed a petition for rehearing, maintaining that he sufficiently established Pennsylvania jurisdiction over the pizza chain and contending that the majority’s ruling conflicted with Third Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
October 18, 2024
Temple University’s $6.9M Pandemic Closure Settlement Given Preliminary OK

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania preliminarily approved a $6.9 million settlement to be paid by a Philadelphia university to end a consolidated class complaint by students accusing the school of unjust enrichment and breaching its implied contractual duty to provide in-person education and access to campus services when it shut its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 18, 2024
Standing, Deference Are Among Disputes In Bid For 9th Circuit To Rehear ERISA Case

PASADENA, Calif. — Focusing on claims not at issue during a bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension benefits class action, the appellant urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny a petition for panel or en banc rehearing that is supported by an amicus curiae brief.
October 18, 2024
10th Circuit Backs Dismissal Of Overstock Shareholder’s Market Manipulation Suit

DENVER — Affirming dismissal of a putative class action in which a shareholder asserted securities fraud claims against an online retailer and some executives, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in part “that an open-market transaction may qualify as manipulative conduct, but only if accompanied by plausibly alleged deception,” noting that it was an issue “of first impression for this court.”
October 18, 2024
At Least 7 Recent ERISA Putative Class Actions Target Tobacco Surcharges

In the past month, at least seven putative class actions targeting surcharges that tobacco or nicotine users allegedly must pay to maintain health insurance have been filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
October 18, 2024
U.S. High Court Asked To Review Big ERISA Multiplan Opt-Out Class Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three service providers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision they say “raises serious constitutional concerns as to the allowable breadth of class actions brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of participants in thousands of unrelated employer-sponsored [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] benefit plans.”
October 18, 2024
Google Defendants Want Pair Of AI Copyright Suits Consolidated

SAN FRANCISCO — Two cases challenging the data used to train artificial intelligence share sufficiently similar parties, facts and overlapping classes and should be consolidated, Google LLC and its parent Alphabet Inc. told a federal judge in California.
October 17, 2024
Residents Tell 5th Circuit That City Introduced ‘Poison’ In Jackson, Miss., Water

JACKSON, Miss. — Residents of Jackson have filed an opening appeal brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking reversal of a lower court’s dismissal of some of the claims in their drinking water contamination lawsuit against the city on grounds that the court erred in its conclusion that the plaintiffs’ allegations do not shock the conscience. The residents argue that “the City introduced a poison into the water supply, pumped that water into residents’ homes, and then coerced them to drink it by lying about its safety.”
October 17, 2024
Consumers Amend Claims Against Baby Bottle Maker For Undisclosed Microplastics

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of plaintiffs filed an amended putative class action complaint in California federal court accusing a maker of baby bottles of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by failing to disclose the risk that its products “leach harmful microplastics directly into the food and drink of vulnerable babies and young children.” The same plaintiffs previously filed suit in the same court against a different bottle manufacturer.
October 17, 2024
2nd Circuit Finds NBA Website User Is A Consumer And May Proceed With VPPA Suit

NEW YORK — Reversing a trial court’s dismissal of a putative class action against the National Basketball Association (NBA) under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel concluded that the lead plaintiff qualifies as a consumer under the statute and that he has standing to sue for the NBA’s purported sharing of his personal viewing information (PVI) related to videos he watched on the NBA’s website.
October 17, 2024
Counsel Seeks Final Approval Of $316.5M PFAS Deal Between Water Providers And BASF

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Class counsel for public water systems (PWS) in numerous municipalities has moved in South Carolina federal court for final approval of a $316.5 million class settlement between multiple drinking water providers and BASF Corp. related to BASF’s manufacture of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are ingredients in the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).
October 17, 2024
Amicus Bid In 11th Circuit ERISA Effective Vindication Case Draws Opposition

ATLANTA — An advocacy organization’s request for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act putative class action where the lower court applied the effective vindication doctrine has drawn opposition, with the appellants telling the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the proposal doesn’t add “to the arguments already before this Court” and “is tainted by the financial interests of counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellees.”
October 17, 2024
Hormel Settles Pork Direct Purchasers’ Price-Fixing Claims For More Than $4.8M

MINNEAPOLIS — Hormel Foods Corp. will pay $4,856,000 to settle class claims by direct purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) who have accusing various pork suppliers in a multidistrict litigation of conspiring to stabilize and increase the price of pork, according to an order granting final approval filed by a federal judge in Minnesota.
October 16, 2024
Over-The-Counter Pill Labeled Maximum Strength Was Not, Man Alleges In Complaint

NEW YORK — A New York man filed a complaint in New York federal court seeking to represent a class action of consumers who purchased Target Corp.-branded gas relief pills and were led to believe that the product was “maximum strength” when in fact stronger products are on the market.
October 16, 2024
Objectors File Briefs In 3 Appeals Challenging Real Estate Commissions Settlements

ST. LOUIS — Objectors to settlements between home sellers, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) and real estate franchises found by a jury to have conspired to artificially inflate the cost of commissions in residential real estate transactions have filed a trio of appellant briefs in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
October 15, 2024
Judge Won’t Dismiss Putative Class Suit Against Snapple For ‘ALL NATURAL’ Labels

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge denied a beverage-maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit accusing it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by falsely marketing its beverages as “ALL NATURAL” when they in fact contain citric acid and artificial colors.
October 15, 2024
10th Circuit: Untimely Removal Of Class Wage Suit Against Wendy’s Supports Remand

DENVER — A fast food franchisor’s removal of a wage-and-hour complaint to federal court following class certification was untimely, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, opining that the company was given notice that the Class Action Fairness Act’s (CAFA) $5 million threshold was met in two letters sent months earlier demanding unpaid wages.