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

Mealey's Class Actions

April 30, 2025
Class Certification Granted In Stock Loss Suit Over ‘Sham’ Wells Fargo Interviews

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted class certification to a group of shareholders in their suit against Wells Fargo & Co. and certain of its executives after news of the company’s practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices led to a drop in stock value, finding that the shareholders satisfied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s class certification requirements.
April 30, 2025
Citing Wit, Judge Adds Subclass In ERISA Suit Seeking Reprocessing

SAN FRANCISCO — In an amended order repeatedly citing an August 2023 Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in a similar case, a California federal judge modified the class definition to add a subclass in a case seeking reprocessing of mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims, denying a competing motion for decertification.
April 30, 2025
Amici Tell 3rd Circuit Well-Intentioned Data Shield Law Violates 1st Amendment

PHILADELPHIA — Two trade associations and a nonprofit open records advocate teamed up on an amicus curiae brief in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, supporting a group of data brokers that seek to have a New Jersey data shield law, which protects personal data of judges and police, declared in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
April 30, 2025
News Organization, Workers Agree To $4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $4.5 million settlement to end a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act class case brought by workers against JAF Communications Inc. after they were terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger.
April 30, 2025
U.S. High Court Justices Hear Arguments On Potentially Uninjured Class Members

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys representing Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp), a class of visually impaired consumers and the United States as amicus curiae supporting neither party debated before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 29 whether class certification is appropriate where the class contains members who may have no injury under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
April 29, 2025
Class Suit Over Passport Gender Policy Amended After Stay Partially Granted

BOSTON — An amended class complaint challenging a January executive order (EO) and its implementation that removed the option to designate “X” on passports for those individuals who do not identify as female or male or who wish to keep a specified gender off their passport was filed in a federal court in Massachusetts one week after a judge in that court partially granted a motion to stay agency action and for preliminary injunction.
April 29, 2025
$2.4 Million Settlement Of Anesthesia Firms’ Data Breach Gets Final Approval

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The same day that a New York federal judge presided over a fairness hearing for a $2.4 million settlement of a data breach suit against an anesthesia provider management company, he granted final approval of the agreement, disposing of putative class negligence and consumer protection violation claims against the firm and its affiliates in an April 28 order.
April 29, 2025
Wedding Planning Website Accused Of Selling Vendors Deceptive ‘Leads’

LOS ANGELES — A group of vendors that provide wedding-related services on April 28 filed a putative class complaint in California federal court against the operator of wedding planning website “The Knot,” accusing it of fraudulent inducement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for deceiving them into paying thousands of dollars for access to its “lead-generating” service, which either did not produce leads or generated mostly fake leads.
April 29, 2025
Government Seeks Stay Of Injunction In Class Suit Over Parole Grant Terminations

BOSTON — A federal judge’s preliminary injunction in a class case over the federal government’s en masse rescission of temporary parole grants for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela seeking humanitarian relief “improperly overrode” the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “exercise of discretionary authority,” the federal government argues in a reply in support of an emergency motion for stay filed April 28 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
April 29, 2025
As 6th Circuit Mulls Rehearing 1 VPPA Suit, High Court Extends Briefing In Another

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a 60-day extension for a man to submit his response to a petition for certiorari pertaining to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in light of his pending rehearing motion in a very similar VPPA lawsuit on appeal in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
April 29, 2025
Government Claims 2023 Immigrant Separation Pact Allows Legal Service Changes

SAN DIEGO — A class settlement agreement approved in 2023 that ended claims by immigrants who sued the U.S. government after being separated from their children permits the government to change its method of providing legal services, the federal government argues in an opposition filed in a federal court in California to a motion by the class to enforce the agreement’s provision of legal services.
April 29, 2025
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Veterans’ Pay In Appeal Of Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 heard arguments from counsel representing veterans and the United States in a class dispute over the application of the Barring Act to settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests.
April 28, 2025
Final Approval Of NIL Student-Athletes Case Delayed For Modifications

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California delayed final approval of a names, images and likenesses (NIL) class settlement that student-athletes have said will result in “$20 billion more flowing to student-athletes over the next ten years” to allow for the parties in the case “to attempt the modify the settlement agreement so that members of the Injunctive Relief Settlement Class will not be harmed by the immediate implementation of the roster limits provisions.”
April 28, 2025
U.S. High Court Skips 2nd ERISA Prohibited Transaction Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an April 28 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a ruling that the petitioners said pertained to whether “a routine, arm’s-length agreement for plan services” can be a prohibited transaction under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; the denial follows a unanimous April 17 reversal the high court issued in a different ERISA prohibited transaction case.
April 28, 2025
Ga. Federal Judge Approves Company’s Class Settlement For PFAS In Drinking Water

ROME, Ga. — A specialty chemical manufacturer with admitted involvement in contaminating groundwater in northwest Georgia with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will pay $1 million in class benefits, establish a temporary drinking water fund and pay attorney fees and costs to a group of water subscribers and ratepayers through a partial class action settlement that was granted final approval by a federal judge.
April 25, 2025
Judge OKs Adding Some Claims, Including Forfeiture Ones, In Fiduciary Duty Suit

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Partly granting plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a second amended complaint in their putative class action over management of defined-contribution retirement plans, a Michigan federal judge cited McManus v. Clorox Co. in allowing them to add new claims concerning the common practice of using forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan sponsor’s required contributions.
April 24, 2025
Jury Finds Norfolk Southern Completely At Fault For Ohio Train Derailment

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal jury in Ohio on April 23 ruled in favor of a railcar company and determined that Norfolk Southern Railway Corp. is completely at fault for the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that exposed residents to toxic chemicals. The jury also found that Norfolk Southern did not prove that it has paid more than its proportionate share of any common liability for harm to members of the class that sued it.
April 24, 2025
Plaintiffs Dismiss Class Suit Over Fluoride Mouth Rinse For Young Kids

SAN DIEGO — Three plaintiffs on April 23 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of their putative class action against a dental health products maker for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misrepresenting its fluoride mouth rinse product as safe for children under 6, one week after the defendant moved to dismiss on the grounds that its product is labeled with multiple warnings restricting its use to children over 6.
April 24, 2025
Federal Jury Awards Class Nearly $39M In ERISA Fees Challenge

NEW YORK — A rare Employee Retirement Income Security Act jury trial resulted in a unanimous April 23 verdict awarding $38,760,232 in damages to a class of retirement plan participants who challenged the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP), according to a text-only entry on the New York federal court docket.
April 23, 2025
Judge Strikes Class Claims From Google AI Copyright Suit, Allows Amendment

SAN JOSE, Calif. — As originally defined, a proposed class in an artificial intelligence copyright action constituted an improper fail-safe class, a federal judge in California said while allowing an amendment that cures the defect and finding two Google LLC entities’ challenge to the new class definition premature.
April 23, 2025
Settlement Of Over $20.5M Proposed In Retiree Medical Benefits Termination Row

SAN FRANCISCO — A putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over termination of retiree medical benefits would be resolved for $20,545,000 under a settlement that the plaintiffs have asked a California federal court to grant preliminary approval.
April 23, 2025
Class Action Alleges Toyota, Progressive Violated Federal Wiretap Act

SHERMAN, Texas — A class action was filed in a Texas federal court alleging Toyota Motor North America Inc., Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and a provider of data analytics services in the automotive industry violated the Federal Wiretap Act and seeking to hold the defendants responsible for the injuries they inflicted on tens of thousands of class members because of their unauthorized collection and dissemination of private information from Toyota vehicles.
April 22, 2025
Anthropic Says AI Copyright Action Too Unwieldy For Class Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — An artificial intelligence copyright class action spans a century, would include more than five million works owned by various people, trusts and other entities and would require the court to decide ownership millions of times over, a company tells a federal judge in California in an opposition to certification. In a separate letter brief, Anthropic PBC tells the court that the plaintiffs were misrepresenting a court’s order and the course and timing of discovery.
April 22, 2025
En Banc 9th Circuit Finds Jurisdiction Over Shopping App For Cookie Collecting

SAN FRANCISCO — The en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 21 reversed a panel’s ruling and found that personal jurisdiction exists over putative class claims against a payment processing and shopping app accused of violating California privacy and unfair competition laws by concealing that it was using cookies to collect California consumers’ personal data for resale.
April 22, 2025
U.S. High Court Requests Respondents’ Input On ERISA Meaningful Benchmark Issue

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 asked respondents to weigh in on a petition for review of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ 2-1 revival of a putative class action challenging retention of a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.