Mealey's Class Actions

  • September 10, 2026

    8th Circuit Rejects More Arguments To Undo Housing Commission Settlements

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a per curiam opinion that cited an August panel decision rejected four appeals seeking to set aside more than $110 million in settlements that were part of more than $1 billion collected for home sellers who accused National Association of Realtors (NAR) and real estate franchises of conspiring to artificially inflate residential real estate commission costs.

  • September 10, 2026

    Judge Grants Final Approval Of Approximately $6M Securities Fraud Settlement

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York issued a final order and judgment granting final approval of a $5,875,000 settlement to end investors’ securities fraud class action against a Chinese internet and data center service provider and certain of its former executives.

  • September 10, 2026

    Investors Ask 4th Circuit To Reconsider Boeing Class Certification Decision

    RICHMOND, Va. — Investors asked the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear its decision to reverse class certification in their securities fraud suit against The Boeing Co. and its former officials over alleged misstatements about the company’s emphasis on safety that artificially inflated the company’s stock price, arguing that the panel’s decision is extreme and will upend class action litigation in the circuit.

  • September 10, 2026

    Judge: Investors Failed To Identify False Statements About Clinical Trial

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed investors’ putative class action against a clinical biopharmaceutical company and certain of its senior officers and board members for making allegedly false and misleading statements about a clinical trial of the company’s flagship product, holding that the investors failed to identify an actionable false statement.

  • September 10, 2026

    Sephora Unfairly Markets Adult Products To Youths, Plaintiffs Say In Class Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A parent and a 13-year-old girl filed a putative nationwide class action in California federal court against Sephora USA Inc. alleging it is violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by marketing skincare and beauty products to minors that the plaintiffs say Sephora knows contain chemicals that are not suitable for use by young people and may cause them to develop harmful skin conditions.

  • September 10, 2026

    Ruling Affirming Section 1782 Subpoenas Is Focus Of Certiorari Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a certiorari petition that has been distributed for the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sept. 28 conference, the petitioners argue that allowing “pre-suit discovery” wrongly transforms the statute governing discovery in aid of foreign proceedings into “a weapon for would be private foreign plaintiffs against U.S. residents”; the respondent counters that the statute “permits discovery for use in a reasonably contemplated foreign proceeding, regardless of whether some potential pre-cursor ‘administrative or quasi-judicial proceeding [is] already underway.’”

  • September 09, 2026

    10th Circuit Denies Kansas Law Toxic Tort Repose Exception Appeal

    DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition by two individuals who accuse the alleged owners and operators of a Kansas facility of exposing them and others to carcinogens, seeking interlocutory review of the question whether the latent disease exception to the Kansas Product Liability Act’s (KPLA) statute of repose applies to toxic tort claims arising from air emissions.

  • September 09, 2026

    Partial Dismissal Granted In Investors’ Suit Alleging Improper Medicare Billing

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted in part motions to dismiss in investors’ putative class suit alleging that a company that operates skilled nursing facilities used improper Medicare billing practices to inflate revenue, finding that Securities Act claims survive against the company, individual defendants and certain underwriter defendants for financial misstatements but that Exchange Act claims are dismissed without prejudice for failure to plead scienter.

  • September 09, 2026

    Split Colorado Supreme Court Denies Petition In Toxic Exposure Case

    DENVER — A divided Colorado Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by three individuals whose attempt to amend a putative class complaint over ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from sterilization facilities was denied after an appellate panel ruled that standing to sue under Colorado law couldn’t be established based on an alleged increased risk of future illness or disease.

  • September 08, 2026

    Arbitration Properly Denied In Headrest Class Action, Plaintiff Tells High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The plaintiff bringing class claims against a car manufacturer over an alleged headrest defect on Sept. 4 filed a response brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to deny a car manufacturer’s petition for a writ of certiorari over the enforceability of delegation clauses in arbitration agreements by nonsignatories, denying that there is a circuit split over the issue and writing that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly denied arbitration.

  • September 08, 2026

    Zillow Asks High Court To Clarify Inflation Maintenance Certification Standard

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Zillow Group Inc. filed a reply in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Zillow’s petition for a writ of certiorari, arguing that the court should grant the petition because lower courts wrongly granted and affirmed class certification in a securities fraud case without considering whether Zillow’s back-end disclosures after a drop in its stock price corrected earlier alleged misstatements, saying the reasoning “threatens to make class certification virtually automatic in most securities cases.”

  • September 04, 2026

    Investors Seek Rehearing In ‘Channel Stuffing’ Securities Fraud Appeal

    CHICAGO — Investors in an animal health product producer filed a petition for rehearing in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that a Seventh Circuit panel erred in affirming a lower court’s dismissal of their putative securities fraud class action against the producer and two of its executives by misapplying the scienter standard.

  • September 04, 2026

    Railway, Class Support Denial Of Relief From Train Derailment Injury Releases

    CINCINNATI — A trial court acted within its discretion when it denied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60 motions for relief from the personal injury payment releases filed by class members who settled claims over a chemical release that occurred after a train derailed in Ohio in February 2023, Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (together, Norfolk Southern) and class counsel on behalf of the settlement class argue in appellee briefs filed in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 26 and Sept. 3, respectively.

  • September 04, 2026

    Colorado Federal Judge Adds ‘No Standing’ Ruling In Wave Of PRT Cases

    DENVER — Saying there is a lack of “controlling authority to guide the Court’s analysis,” a Colorado federal judge found that retirees lacked standing to bring a putative class case that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; he therefore granted dismissal without prejudice of all the claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.

  • September 04, 2026

    Unwanted Marketing Texts Class Suit Against Tobacco Company Dismissed By Judge

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge on Sept. 3 dismissed with prejudice a putative class action against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (RJR) for allegedly sending marketing text messages to a consumer whose telephone number was listed in the national Do Not Call (DNC) registry, writing that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “does not create a private cause of action based on unwanted text messages.”

  • September 04, 2026

    1st Argument In Appeals From Wave Of Tobacco Surcharge Cases Is Set

    The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 in the most advanced appeal arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, and at least five similar appeals are under way.

  • September 03, 2026

    3rd Circuit: Oil, Gas Producer Didn’t Abandon Arbitration Rights In Royalty Dispute

    PITTSBURGH — An oil and gas producer sued by a class of leaseholders seeking allegedly unpaid royalties didn’t abandon its arbitration rights related to unnamed class members when it waited until after class certification to move to compel arbitration against those with arbitration clauses in their leases, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an interlocutory appeal, vacating the trial court’s ruling and remanding.

  • September 03, 2026

    Federal Government Petitions U.S. Supreme Court In Noncitizen Removal Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal government parties filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to consider three questions concerning the lawfulness of a presidential proclamation that limited asylum and withheld removal applications and the availability of classwide relief.

  • September 03, 2026

    Split 1st Circuit Upholds Bond Hearing Ruling For Noncitizen Class

    BOSTON — Noncitizens who have been detained while already in the United States must be released or provided with bond hearings, a divided First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court decision in a class action.

  • September 01, 2026

    11th Circuit Upholds Stay Of Class Suit To Recover Special Needs Trusts’ Funds

    ATLANTA — A putative class complaint seeking to recover more than $100 million loaned out from pooled special needs trust funds must be stayed during bankruptcy proceedings involving the funds’ trustee as the class claims are intertwined with the bankruptcy court claims even though the trustee is not named as a defendant in the class suit, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished per curiam opinion.

  • September 01, 2026

    Class Certification, Sanction Motions Denied In 14-Year- Long Case Against Google

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge refused to grant class certification and denied competing spoliation motions filed by Google LLC and individuals who sued the company for purported privacy violations in a long-running class action, ruling that the individuals did not establish a basis for identifying affected web users, certifying a damages class or obtaining prospective relief.

  • September 01, 2026

    9th Circuit Revives ERISA Challenge To Management Of Multiemployer Plan

    PASADENA, Calif. — Reviving a class action focused on the management of a multiemployer plan that used a single investment pool, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished memorandum that the trial court “did not have the benefit of” a decision in which the appellate court subsequently addressed how to assess claims concerning the duty of prudence under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • August 31, 2026

    Bank Of America Settles Claims Of Facilitating Epstein’s Trafficking For $72.5M

    NEW YORK — Bank of America N.A. (BANA) will pay $72.5 million to settle a class complaint by an alleged trafficking victim who accused the financial institution of knowingly assisting, supporting and facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ventures, according to an order granting final settlement approval issued by a federal judge in New York on Aug. 28.

  • August 31, 2026

    Data Breach Claims Dismissed For Failure To Show Injury, Traceability

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge dismissed without prejudice a consolidated class action brought by individuals whose personal information was allegedly compromised in a July 2025 cyberattack on health care technology provider Healthcare Interactive Inc., finding that the plaintiffs lacked Article III standing because, although six of the 17 named plaintiffs alleged more specific harms, none provided sufficient detail tying those harms to information the company possessed or to the breach itself, while the remaining plaintiffs relied on generalized or conclusory allegations of injury.

  • August 31, 2026

    Federal Judge Adopts Recommendation, Severs EtO Exposure Suit Into 3 Suits

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge in Puerto Rico adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation and severed claims against three medical sterilization facilities named as defendants in a proposed class action, creating separate suits against each of the three sterilization facilities, which allegedly released ethylene oxide (EtO).  The judge said separate suits will eliminate any prejudice to the defendants that could result if all the claims are tried together.