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Mealey's Class Actions

  • April 01, 2026

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Challenge Over $115M Data Collection Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously denied an objector’s petition for rehearing en banc of its decision affirming a district court order granting final approval of a $115 million class action settlement resolving claims that Oracle America Inc. unlawfully tracked and monetized users’ online activity, noting that no judge requested a vote after the full court was advised of the petition.

  • April 01, 2026

    Expanded Class Complaint Alleges Nondisclosure Of PHL’s Poor Financial Status

    CHICAGO — Policyholders filed an amended putative class action complaint in an Illinois federal court, adding 11 more named plaintiffs and expanding allegations that State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., which marketed and serviced life insurance and annuity products issued by PHL Variable Insurance Co. pursuant to a distribution agreement, failed to disclose PHL’s financial deterioration, including its use of affiliated reinsurance transactions, prior to its placement into administrative supervision and rehabilitation proceedings that resulted in limitations on policyholder benefits.

  • March 31, 2026

    Amid Surge In ERISA Suits Over American Century TDFs, Judge Grants Dismissal

    CLEVELAND — On the heels of a surge of similar litigation over the selection and retention of American Century Fund target date funds (TDFs) as retirement fund options, an Ohio federal granted dismissal of a putative class suit on the grounds that at most, the allegations show “modest underperformance” that “is insufficient to infer imprudence.”

  • March 31, 2026

    Federal Government Tells High Court Judicial Review Of TPS Terminations Is Barred

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) bars judicial review of the Homeland Security secretary’s designation of temporary protected status (TPS), as well as the termination of such designation, the secretary and other federal government agencies and officials argue in a petitioner brief filed March 30 in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 31, 2026

    With Objections Resolved, Residential Treatment Deal Wins Final Approval

    UTICA, N.Y. — Following an agreement that resolved objections, a New York federal judge on March 30 granted final approval to a $1,415,000 settlement that concludes a class action concerning allegations that United Behavioral Health violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by issuing blanket denials for residential treatments for mental health and chemical dependency claims when it considered even a single aspect of the facility’s treatment experimental.

  • March 30, 2026

    Federal Circuit Upholds Approval Of $125M PACER Class Settlement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An attorney who, proceeding as a pro se objector, has challenged the approval of a number of class action settlements failed to convince the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction or abused its discretion when it approved a $125 million Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (PACER) fees class settlement that will provide hundreds of thousands of PACER users with “substantial” reimbursements for all PACER fees paid during an eight-year class period.

  • March 30, 2026

    Judge: ERISA Plan Service Providers Waived Right To Compel Arbitration

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Denying administrative service providers’ motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action filed by multiemployer funds that could involve thousands of self-funded health plans, a Connecticut federal judge ruled that the providers “knowingly relinquished their right to arbitrate . . . by acting inconsistently with that right.”

  • March 30, 2026

    Dollar General’s Deceptive Pricing Class Settlement Valued At $15M Approved

    NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A New Jersey judge granted final approval of a class settlement between consumers and Dolgencorp LLC, doing business as Dollar General, in a case alleging deceptive pricing practices that will provide $8.5 million for the common fund and other injunctive relief in the form of discounts valued at $6.5 million.

  • March 30, 2026

    Partial Dismissal Granted In Putative Class Challenge Of U.S. Immigration Policies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington partially granted dismissal of individual claims made in a putative class complaint by a dozen noncitizens and two organizations challenging alleged guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to arrest noncitizens and fast-track their deportations, opining that “Congress stripped courts of jurisdiction over the individual aliens’ challenges to the Government’s practice of dismissing full removal proceedings.”

  • March 27, 2026

    Split 9th Circuit Stays Preliminary Injunction In Ore. ICE Facility Protest Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority granted a temporary administrative stay of a preliminary injunction in a provisionally certified class case by journalists and protesters who allege that they were shot at and tear-gassed while attending and covering immigration policy protests outside a building in Portland that they refer to as the “Portland ICE building.”

  • March 27, 2026

    2nd Circuit Partly Reverses In ERISA Mortgage-Backed Securities Case

    NEW YORK — Leaving for the trial court the question of whether a mortgage servicer acted in a fiduciary capacity in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centered on residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on March 26 partly reversed and remanded a ruling against pension fund trustees, concluding that the mortgages underlying three of the six such securities at issue “are plan assets under” the applicable regulation.

  • March 27, 2026

    Judge: Copyright Act Preempts Certain Arguments In Ancestry Photo-Use Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge held that plaintiffs in a putative class complaint plausibly allege misappropriation-based injuries because of Ancestry.com Operations Inc. and related entities using their yearbook photos without their permission, but the judge held that certain theories of misappropriation are preempted by federal copyright law.

  • March 27, 2026

    No Preliminary Injunction Reconsideration In Parole Termination Case Prompts Appeal

    BOSTON — Newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other federal government parties filed a notice of appeal immediately after a federal judge in Massachusetts denied their motion to reconsider or stay a January preliminary injunction in a class case by noncitizens challenging the government’s termination of family reunification parole (FRP).

  • March 27, 2026

    Kimberly-Clark Settles Consumers’ ‘Flushable’ Wipes Claims For Up To $20M

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Kimberly-Clark Corp. will pay more than $3.2 million in attorney fees and costs as part of a settlement valued at up to $20 million but paying out less than $1 million to a consumer class who alleged that the wipes they purchased were falsely advertised as “flushable,” according to a class settlement agreement granted final approval by a federal judge in New York following remand by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which vacated an earlier settlement approval granted in January 2024.

  • March 27, 2026

    Reservist Differential Pay Class Certified Nearly 1 Year After Feliciano Decided

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge certified a class of military reserve and National Guard members seeking differential pay and interest for time spent in active duty and away from their federal civilian jobs, opining in part that a potentially overbroad class “definition is preferable to an overly narrow one” and that modifications may still be made as the case proceeds.

  • March 27, 2026

    Class Suit Over Theater Beer Size Dismissed For Speculative Amount In Controversy

    SHERMAN, Texas — A putative class complaint accusing a movie theater of using 22-ounce cups for beers being sold as 24-ounce may rely only on the value of the alleged two missing ounces when determining the amount in controversy, a federal judge in Texas ruled, dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction.

  • March 26, 2026

    J&J Insists Circuits Are Split On Daubert Requirements For Class Certification

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A representative of a class action who argues that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly found that a lower court relied on “an unexecuted damages model developed by an experienced economist” in granting certification of a class action mischaracterizes the case in her opposition to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., and the high court must address the split the decision created, J&J says in a reply brief.

  • March 26, 2026

    $2.9M Data Breach Class Action Settlement Receives Final Approval

    WARWICK, R.I. — A Rhode Island state judge granted final approval of a $2.9 million class action settlement that resolves claims alleging that a health care provider failed to protect patient data from a 2024 ransomware attack; the class action settlement also provides service awards of $4,000 for each class representative and attorney fees of nearly $1 million.

  • March 26, 2026

    Judge Extends Submission Date In Hurricane Coverage Dispute Over Settlement Funds

    NEW ORLEANS — In an insured’s dispute with his lender over its alleged failure to endorse settlement checks as an additional payee in a hurricane coverage dispute involving a now-insolvent insurer, a Louisiana federal judge granted the parties’ joint motion to extend a submission date for filing briefs in response to the lender’s motion to dismiss an amended complaint.

  • March 25, 2026

    Retirees Will Ask D.C. Circuit To Revive PRT Case Against Alcoa USA Corp.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — On March 24, Alcoa USA Corp. retirees filed a notice that they will attempt to revive their putative class challenge to pension risk transfers (PRTs) in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals; the appeal will be the second in a string of similar cases filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • March 25, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Asylum Rights Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Only someone who “arrives in the United States” may seek asylum, and that phrase, as used in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), only refers to someone in the United States and not someone at the border standing in Mexico, Assistant to the Solicitor General Vivek Suri argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 in a case in which 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.

  • March 25, 2026

    Bid To Restrict Videos Of DOGE Depositions Is Denied In N.Y. Federal Court

    NEW YORK — Denying a motion for a protective order to restrict public dissemination of video recordings of depositions of U.S. DOGE Service employees and others in a suit over termination of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants, a New York federal judge ruled that the materials are not judicial documents and the government failed to show the “good cause” necessary for such restriction.

  • March 25, 2026

    Insurer Urges High Court To Resolve Circuit Split Over Data Breach Standing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Writing that the lower courts “have yet to settle on a consistent standard” for Article III standing in data breach cases, an insurance group and its subsidiaries petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, arguing that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals improperly expanded standing in a data breach class action by allowing a pair of plaintiffs to proceed based on the alleged disclosure of nonsensitive personal information by a third-party hacker, creating circuit splits and warranting review.

  • March 24, 2026

    TRO Denied In Putative Class Suit Over Government’s Biometric Data Collection

    PORTLAND, Maine — A federal judge in Maine on March 23 opined that a putative class complaint that accuses the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its various agencies of violating the constitutional rights of Maine residents by collecting their biometric and personal data while they are observing and recording public immigrant enforcement operations “raises serious constitutional issues” but declined to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) as the plaintiffs failed to sufficiently show a likelihood that they will succeed on the merits of their claims.

  • March 24, 2026

    $68M Settlement For Google Assistant Eavesdropping Claims Gets Preliminary OK

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a motion for preliminary approval of a $68 million settlement of a group of plaintiffs’ putative class claims against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (collectively Google) for allegedly eavesdropping on Google Assistant (GA) users in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and privacy laws.