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Mealey's Class Actions

  • February 12, 2026

    Attorney Fee Denial In Federal Workers’ Lump-Sum Payment Class Case Vacated

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a trial court’s denial of attorney fees for former government employees who negotiated a settlement with the United States in a class case over unused leave payments and directed the lower court on remand to address in the first instance whether the United States’ conduct prior to the lawsuit was “substantially justified.”

  • February 11, 2026

    Panera Bread Settles Over Data Breach As More Class Complaints Mount

    ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on Feb. 10 granted final approval to a $2.5 million nonreversionary class settlement resolving data privacy claims arising from Panera LLC’s 2024 data security breach involving unauthorized access to the names and Social Security numbers of the company’s employees, authorizing reimbursements of up to $500 in ordinary losses and up to $6,500 in extraordinary losses; following a separate data breach in January, Panera has been named as the defendant in a series of class complaints in the same court.

  • February 11, 2026

    Migrant Support Group, Others Note Verb Tense In Asylum Rights High Court Brief

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal government parties who are arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that individuals stopped in Mexico before crossing into the United States can’t apply for asylum under 8 U.S. Code Section 1158(a)(1) or be inspected by immigration officers under 8 U.S. Code Section 1225(a) are ignoring “Congress’s use of the present tense—as well as the present progressive ‘arriving’ in nearby provisions,” a migrant support group and others argue in their Feb. 10 respondent brief; the federal government is challenging a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that partially upheld a permanent injunction in a class case over a now-rescinded border metering policy.

  • February 11, 2026

    Airline In ERISA Case Involving ESG Ordered To Pay Nearly $4.6M In Attorney Fees

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Feb. 10 awarded a class $4,596,287.50 of the $7,907,760.60 it requested for attorney fees following a bench trial in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of nonparty investment management firms; he also denied a request for a $15,000 service award and clarified aspects of the injunctive relief ordered in the Sept. 30 final judgment denying monetary damages.

  • February 11, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms Remand Of Data Breach Suit Against Health Care Provider

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the remand of a putative class action against a Texas health care provider for allegedly failing to protect patient data from a cyberattack, writing that a federal statute allowing removal and substitution of the United States as defendant for private health centers receiving federal funds did not apply to this case in which the center was facing claims for a “criminal data breach.”

  • February 11, 2026

    Connecticut Supreme Court: State Law Requires Pay For Mandatory Security Screening

    HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Feb. 10 that state law requires employees to be paid for time spent undergoing mandatory security checks and that no de minimis exception exists, addressing two questions certified by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a putative class suit against Amazon entities.

  • February 10, 2026

    Judge Dismisses Class Allegations In Suit Against California Fair Plan Association

    LOS ANGELES — Noting that good cause has been shown, a California judge granted an insured’s motion to dismiss without prejudice class allegations in the insured’s lawsuit alleging that the California Fair Plan Association (CFP) issued property insurance policies with fire coverage that is unlawfully restrictive as to smoke damage claims.

  • February 10, 2026

    Talc Class Claims Stricken, Medical Monitoring Claim Dismissed By Judge

    TRENTON, N.J. — The competing interests in a proposed class action covering both those with talc-based injuries and those seeking medical monitoring for potential future injuries cannot meet the adequacy requirements for class status, and the defects cannot be cured by dividing the two interests into subclasses, a federal judge in New Jersey said in striking class claims.

  • February 09, 2026

    Wit, Related Case Get New Remedies Order On Mental Health, Substance Use Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Superseding a November 2020 remedies order in related class actions over thousands of mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims, a California federal magistrate judge said in part that for five years, criteria that United Behavioral Health (UBH) adopts to implement a generally accepted standard of care (GASC) requirement in any plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “shall accurately reflect GASC” pursuant to a prior ruling in the case “and the requirements of any applicable state law.”

  • February 09, 2026

    Experts Opining On Data To Consider Class Certification Partially Admitted

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois partially granted and partially denied dueling motions to exclude experts from testifying in a putative class action related to allegedly defective transmissions on Ford Motor Co. trucks.

  • February 09, 2026

    Fracking Operator Amends Answer, Seeks To Compel Arbitration In Royalty Dispute

    PITTSBURGH — As a long-running hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute continues, hydraulic fracturing company XTO Energy Inc. has filed an amended answer in Pennsylvania federal court denying allegations against it while maintaining its objection to class certification and reiterating its intent to compel arbitration of “any arbitrable claims brought by absent class members.”

  • February 09, 2026

    Panel: Indian Lands Interest Holders’ Claims Fail In Ongoing Pipeline Dispute

    ST. LOUIS — In a long-running dispute between individuals with ownership interests in Indian trust lands and a pipeline company that operates on those lands, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in favor of the pipeline company, finding that the interest holders’ claims for trespass, breach of contract and unjust enrichment fail because no legal ruling gives the interest holders the “equitable possessory interest” to tribal lands held in trust such that they have an individual cause of action for trespass under federal common law; however, the panel remanded the case on the issue of whether it can be consolidated with a similar case that is pending.

  • February 06, 2026

    Illinois Federal Judge: ERISA Forfeiture Case Mostly Survives Dismissal

    CHICAGO — Noting that the plan language “mandates the Plan Committee to utilize forfeitures to pay reasonable administrative expenses . . . before offsetting employer contributions,” an Illinois federal judge ruled that all claims except two prohibited transaction ones survive dismissal in a suit that is part of a wave of putative class cases challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions.

  • February 06, 2026

    AI Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Push Back On Dismissal Attempt

    SAN FRANCISCO — The filing of an amended complaint did not revive arguments deemed waived in an artificial intelligence discrimination case, and nothing in any statute or case law precludes a disparate impact action and a punitive damages claim, plaintiffs tell a federal judge in California in opposing dismissal.

  • February 06, 2026

    Judge Denies Motion To Reconsider Ruling In Cryptocurrency Sale Dispute

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida denied a motion filed by the co-founder of a cryptocurrency and the company that managed the cryptocurrency asking the judge to reconsider its grant of partial summary judgment to the investors who sued them for selling the cryptocurrency without filing a registration statement, finding that the defendants didn’t “present any ‘intervening change in law’ or ‘new evidence’ to suggest that the Court should reconsider its previous Order.”

  • February 06, 2026

    9th Circuit: Shareholders Sufficiently Alleged Falsity About Technology, Inventory

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court’s order dismissing shareholders’ putative class action alleging that Funko Inc. and certain of its executives violated federal securities laws by issuing misleading statements about the company’s inventory, storage and technology, finding that the plaintiffs pleaded with sufficient particularity factual allegations regarding the falsity of statements concerning existing technology and inventory management.

  • February 06, 2026

    2nd Circuit Addresses Standing For Representative ERISA Claims In Pension Case

    NEW YORK — Reversing a determination that the named plaintiff in the dispute over using a half-century-old mortality table to calculate joint and survivor annuities (JSAs) has standing “to seek monetary payments on behalf of the” pension plan, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 5 otherwise affirmed the lower court’s ruling in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case on interlocutory appeal.

  • February 06, 2026

    ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

    Class settlements below $5 million were proposed, granted preliminary approval or finalized in 17 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between early November and late January.

  • February 05, 2026

    Judge Orders ‘Puff Bar’ Vape Sellers To Pay $129K In Deceptive Marketing Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Feb. 4, who previously refused to certify a consumer class action against two companies that sell “Puff Bar”-brand synthetic nicotine vapes, ordered the companies to pay more than $96,000 in statutory damages and roughly $32,000 in attorney fees for deceptively marketing their products to the plaintiff in violation of New York and New Jersey consumer protection laws.

  • February 05, 2026

    ‘Japanese’ Alcohol Brand Will Remove Deceptive Labels In Class Action Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer representing a certified statewide class in a lawsuit against a California company for deceptively marketing the origin of Japanese-style sake that is manufactured domestically filed a motion in California federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement under which the company will remove the allegedly deceptive origin labels from its products and pay the plaintiffs attorney fees of $645,000.

  • February 05, 2026

    TRO Granted To Putative Class Of Oregon ICE Facility Protesters, Journalists

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon, over the federal government’s argument against class relief before certification, granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to a putative class of journalists and protesters who allege that they were shot at and tear-gassed in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while attending and covering immigration policy protests outside a building in Portland that they refer to as the “Portland ICE building.”

  • February 05, 2026

    Class Complaint Accuses AG1 Of Failing To Disclose Auto-Renewal Terms

    LOS ANGELES — A health supplement company that largely advertises itself via social media automatically renews customers’ subscriptions without disclosing the terms in violation of several California laws, including the Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) and the unfair competition law (UCL), a Los Angeles resident alleges in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in that state.

  • February 05, 2026

    Costco Hit With Class Suit Over ‘No Preservatives’ Promises On Rotisserie Chicken

    SAN DIEGO — Costco Wholesale Corp. advertises its signature rotisserie chicken as containing “no preservatives” even though the popular members-only store item contains sodium phosphate and carrageenan, two consumers allege in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in California.

  • February 04, 2026

    9th Circuit: Employer’s New Arbitration Terms During Class Suit Are Unenforceable

    SAN FRANCISCO — An employer’s attempt to roll out a new, mandatory arbitration agreement in the midst of class litigation that automatically opted employees out of the class unless they quit their jobs or opted out of the arbitration agreement “subvert[s]” Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s decision to decline enforcement of the agreement.

  • February 04, 2026

    Dismissing ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case, Judge Gives Employer Outlier Win

    ST. LOUIS — Giving an employer an outlier victory in a putative class action that is similar to many other recent Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, a Missouri federal judge on Feb. 3 dismissed the complaint with prejudice and said the statute at issue “does not impose a retroactive reimbursement requirement for tobacco cessation surcharges."