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Mealey's Class Actions

  • August 19, 2025

    Genetic Data Privacy Suit Against Porta Potty Firm Survives Dismissal

    CHICAGO — A job applicant’s putative class action against a sanitation company under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) may proceed, an Illinois federal judge ruled, concluding that the plaintiff sufficiently pleaded that interview questions about his family’s medical histories constituted a request for genetic information under the statute.

  • August 19, 2025

    2nd Circuit Upholds Arbitration Denial In NFL Coach’s Race Bias Suit

    NEW YORK — Rulings denying arbitration of a National Football League (NFL) coach’s race bias claims against the Denver Broncos and NFL based on his employment agreement with the New England Patriots and denying reconsideration were proper as the coach’s agreement “provides for arbitration in name only and accordingly lacks the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act (‘FAA’),” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming the trial court’s orders in a putative class suit by three current and former NFL coaches.

  • August 19, 2025

    9th Circuit Reverses ‘Child In Care’ Interpretation In Foster Children Class Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a lower court ruling that interpreted the term “child in care” as used in a class action settlement to exclude two groups of children for whom the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) had legal but not physical custody, finding that the children in the groups have a due process right “to be free from serious abuses even when placed with their biological parents.”

  • August 18, 2025

    Class Responds To Anthropic, Amici’s Attempt At Immediate Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A class of copyright holders told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in opposition to artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC’s petition for an immediate appeal of a class certification ruling that summary judgment in the case left only allegations that Anthropic PBC pirated and retained works en masse and that any claim that a verdict would be a death knell for the company is undercut by an agreement to cap the appellate bond at $5 billion.

  • August 15, 2025

    3rd Circuit Holds Shareholder Can’t Opt Out Of Class Action 3 Years Late

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a pharmaceutical company’s shareholder could not opt out of a settlement of a securities fraud class action more than three years after the class opt-out period ended, finding that the shareholder’s continued separate action against the company did not properly show its intent to opt out of the class.

  • August 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Wage Ruling For Immigration Detainee Class

    SEATTLE — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) after the panel majority ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.

  • August 15, 2025

    Timeclock Seller Prevails On Employer’s Cross-Claims In Illinois Privacy Action

    CHICAGO — A company facing an ongoing class action involving finger-scan timeclocks that it sold has had an employer’s cross-claims against it dismissed with prejudice in an Illinois federal court, where a judge recently found that under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), “the templates at issue in this case constitute biometric information.”

  • August 14, 2025

    7th Circuit Rejects Purchasers’ Opposition To $75M Chicken Antitrust Settlement

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a second ruling this year on a settlement in an antitrust case accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken affirmed the trial court’s final approval of the more than $75 million agreement between direct-purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) and House of Raeford Farms Inc. and Koch Foods Inc., JCG Foods of Alabama LLC, JCG Foods of Georgia LLC and Koch Meat Co. Inc. (together, Koch).

  • August 13, 2025

    Anthropic, Amici Ask 9th Circuit For Review Of Class, Fair Use Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — A ruling denying summary judgment on claims that Anthropic PBC pirated and kept copyrighted works and a second one certifying a class of potentially impacted copyright holders is replete with individuality issues and notice manageability problems and the rushed class ruling prematurely forces the company to grapple with the possibility of billions of dollars in business-ruining damages, the company and various amici curiae tell a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in seeking immediate appeal.

  • August 13, 2025

    Amici Support GEO Group In High Court Appeal Over Interlocutory Orders

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nevada Hospital Association (NHA) filed one of six amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting arguments by The GEO Group Inc. that a decision concerning its entitlement to derivative sovereign immunity as a federal contractor is important enough to the merits that it should be treated as final and thus appealable.

  • August 13, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Of Class Settlement, Certification Granted In RESPA Suit

    FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California preliminarily granted approval of a class action settlement and conditional class certification in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) case, authorizing class members to receive $875 in cash compensation per affected loan with an estimated gross settlement award totaling $30.5 million.

  • August 13, 2025

    $299,000 Class Deal Wins Final OK In ERISA Row Over Plan’s Tobacco Surcharge

    CHICAGO — Resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over annual $1,152 surcharges imposed on about 431 health plan participants who use tobacco, an Illinois federal judge on Aug. 12 gave final approval to a $299,000 class settlement and made awards in the amounts requested, including $99,666.67 for attorney fees and a $5,000 case contribution award.

  • August 13, 2025

    After Bench Trial, Judge Gives Plan Sponsor Win In ERISA Imprudence Row

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Following a four-day Employee Retirement Income Security Act bench trial in a suit over a retirement plan’s recordkeeping fees and share classes, a North Carolina federal judge on Aug. 12 found not only that the class of more than 55,000 participants didn’t establish any breach of the plan sponsor’s fiduciary duty of prudence but also that the sponsor’s process was prudent.

  • August 13, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Vacates Contempt Ruling In Immigrant Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed an appeal by the federal government for lack of appellate jurisdiction and vacated a trial court’s ruling that probable cause exists to determine that the federal government’s actions in an immigrant removal class case constitute criminal contempt, opining that the government “satisfied the stringent requirements for a writ of mandamus.”

  • August 13, 2025

    Judge Trims Fees, Service Awards In $7.15M Class Settlement Of ERISA Case

    BOSTON — With a Massachusetts federal judge granting final approval, an Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over a profit sharing plan settled on a class basis for $7.15 million with a reported average gross recovery of $89,000; however, the judge awarded reduced attorney fees and service awards.

  • August 12, 2025

    Judge Won’t Stay AI Case While Anthropic Appeals Class Cert, Fair Use Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — Any appeal by Anthropic PBC of a ruling rejecting fair use defenses for pirating copyrighted works or granting class certification should involve a full record, and to the extent going to trial financially threatens the artificial intelligence company, that reality would be the outcome of its own conduct, a federal judge in California said Aug. 11 in declining to stay the case pending appeal.

  • August 12, 2025

    Suit Over Airline’s LTD Plan Is Voluntarily Dismissed After Resolution Report

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A putative class complaint that a disabled pilot filed over a May 2024 plan revision that he alleged resulted in underpayment of long-term disability (LTD) benefits was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on Aug. 11 after the defendants told the Texas federal court in a dismissal motion that the pilot’s union had already gotten the issues resolved through a Railway Labor Act (RLA) dispute-resolution process.

  • August 12, 2025

    Amici Support 4th Circuit Review Bid Re Standing Ruling In Lawsuit Over PRT

    RICHMOND, Va. — A petition for permission to file an interlocutory appeal to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched recent string of Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) is unopposed and has garnered two supporting briefs from amici curiae; among other things, the retirees allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes annuity providers riskier.

  • August 11, 2025

    9th Circuit Briefing Wraps Up In 1st ERISA Forfeiture Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — Initial briefing has concluded in the most advanced of five appeals that have been filed over rulings in cases challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, with the appellant who is seeking revival of the putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case referencing two amicus curiae briefs in his reply filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 11, 2025

    $3.5M Class Settlement OK’d In Assisted Living Facilities Misrepresentation Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California approved a $3.5 million class action settlement and injunction between the operator of assisted living communities and a resident resolving claims that the operator misrepresented to residents its capability of adequately providing care services.

  • August 11, 2025

    Judge Partly Grants Motion To Certify Class In Misleading Crypto Promotions Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion by cryptocurrency investors to certify a class against a cryptocurrency developer, the developers’ executives and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr. who promoted the crypto coin as a reliable investment, allegedly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other state laws.

  • August 11, 2025

    Class Certification, Injunction Granted In Suit Over Birthright Citizenship EO

    GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland issued two opinions, one certifying a class of children born or who will be born in the United States and are challenging a Jan. 20 executive order (EO) that purportedly ends birthright citizenship and one granting a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the EO against the nationwide class.

  • August 11, 2025

    4th Circuit: Regular Appeal Notice Proper For Challenging CAFA Remand Order

    RICHMOND, Va. — A regular notice of appeal filed under 28 U.S. Code Section 1291 is appropriate to seek review of a remand order based on the Class Action Fairness Act’s local controversy exception, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a remand order in a putative class complaint alleging community lead exposure following hydroblasting of a television tower in Baltimore.

  • August 11, 2025

    $6.9M Settlement Gets Final OK In ERISA Imprudence Row Over Fees And Funds

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal magistrate judge granted final approval to a $6.9 million class settlement of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit involving recordkeeping fees and proprietary target date funds (TDFs); according to retirement plan participants, the gross amount is “approximately 12% to 38% of damages” estimated by their expert.

  • August 07, 2025

    Fiduciary Breach Claim Partly Survives In Long-Running Insurance Coverage Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — After more than a decade of litigation that includes numerous appellate court rulings in a class action over thousands of mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims, a California federal magistrate judge ruled that part of a breach of fiduciary claim survives and exhaustion as to that remaining claim is not required or is excused.