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Mealey's Class Actions

  • March 11, 2026

    Preliminary Injunction, Class Certification Denied In ICE ‘Metro Surge’ Case

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota denied a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification to three individuals suing over allegedly unconstitutional practices by federal agencies carrying out “Operation Metro Surge” in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas by stopping and questioning people they perceive to be Somali and Latino without “reasonable suspicion” of removability and arresting people without warrants and probable cause.

  • March 11, 2026

    Judge Grants Final Approval Of Hospital Data Breach Class Action Settlement

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge issued an order granting final approval of a class action settlement comprising an $18 million cash settlement fund from which awards will be paid to settlement class counsel for $6 million in attorney fees and $40,223.84 for litigation costs in a suit over a cyberattack and data breach at a Connecticut health system, finding the settlement “reasonable” and the relief “adequate.”

  • March 11, 2026

    4th Circuit Undoes Mandatory Class In ERISA Suit Over Passive Target-Date Funds

    RICHMOND, Va. — Reversing and vacating certification of a mandatory class in a case challenging an employer’s decision to offer passively managed BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs) in its retirement plan, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 10 said the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims at issue are “individualized” monetary ones that “cannot be joined in a mandatory class” and the lower court should not have “postponed the necessary rigorous analysis of commonality.”

  • March 11, 2026

    Judge Declines To Certify Class Of AirTag ‘Stalking’ Victims Suing Apple

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion that was filed by plaintiffs who claim that Apple Inc.’s “AirTag” tracking devices were used to stalk them in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, in which they sought to certify three nationwide classes of people allegedly “tracked without consent by Apple’s AirTag,” and directed the parties to prepare to discuss whether the cases should be severed.

  • March 11, 2026

    ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Developments Include 2 More Dismissals

    As federal judges resolve dismissal motions in a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges, denials still predominate, but defendants won dismissal in two of the latest four rulings.

  • March 10, 2026

    Prohibited Transaction Claims Survive In ERISA Suit Over Prescription Costs

    NEW YORK — After two similar putative class actions filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in other jurisdictions were dismissed for lack of standing, a New York federal judge on March 9 ruled that plaintiffs who sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. and related entities over purported mismanagement of a prescription drug program have standing but sufficiently stated only their prohibited transaction claims.

  • March 10, 2026

    Boat Owner Files Class Action Over Raw Sewage Discharge Into Potomac River

    GREENBELT, Md. — The owner of a boat moored on the Potomac River filed a class action complaint in a Maryland federal court against the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority seeking damages arising from the recent collapse of a sanitary sewer line that discharged hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the river.

  • March 09, 2026

    Ill. Federal Judge Certifies Question On ECPA’s Crime-Tort Exception To 7th Circuit

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge refused to reconsider his ruling that denied a health care provider’s motion to dismiss a putative class action complaint alleging that it improperly shared confidential medical information with Facebook but allowed “an early trip to the Seventh Circuit” U.S. Court of Appeals by certifying a question for an interlocutory appeal.

  • March 09, 2026

    ERISA Prescription Costs Suit Is Again Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge described alleged price comparisons as “staggering” but nevertheless ruled that the amended complaint in a putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over purported mismanagement of prescription drug benefits did not cure the deficiencies that resulted in the original complaint being dismissed for lack of standing.

  • March 09, 2026

    NFL Coach Argues Against Supreme Court Consideration Of Arbitration Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for a writ of certiorari by the National Football League and three teams concerning the enforceability of arbitration agreements that designate the NFL commissioner as the default arbitrator and allow the commissioner to develop the arbitral procedures because there is no circuit split, no question warranting high court review and no conflict with Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) precedent, an NFL coach who brought a race bias putative class suit argues in his March 6 opposition brief.

  • March 09, 2026

    9th Circuit Mostly Vacates Preliminary Injunctions In Refugee Admissions Class Suit

    PASADENA, Calif. — A divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, in a ruling that impacts more than 100,000 conditionally approved refugees, largely reversed two preliminary injunctions in a class lawsuit challenging a 2025 inauguration day executive order (EO) that suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), leaving in place only the portions of the two injunctions that required the federal government to reinstate cooperative agreements with domestic resettlement support centers (RSCs).

  • March 06, 2026

    Objectors To Settlement In Residential Treatment Case Lose Class Counsel Bid

    UTICA, N.Y. — Purported class members who are unhappy with the terms of a proposed $1,415,000 settlement unsuccessfully sought to have separate class counsel appointed for a “Wilderness Subclass” that a New York federal judge said doesn’t exist in the case 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 06, 2026

    Class Action DOGE Data Privacy Suit Survives Dismissal Motion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a motion filed by a federal agency and the U.S. Department of Treasury to dismiss an amended putative class complaint alleging unlawful disclosure of federal employees’ personal data to the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), holding that the employees sufficiently alleged damages under the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974 by asserting that they purchased identity theft protection services following public concerns about DOGE’s access to government records.

  • March 06, 2026

    Judge Approves $2.2M Settlement In Data Breach Suit Against Radiology Practice

    MINNEAPOLIS — Finding it “reasonable,” a Minnesota judge approved a settlement with a cap of $2.2 million in a data breach class action suit against a radiology practice involving more than 580,000 class members related to a February 2024 data breach where plaintiffs’ private information “had been potentially accessed by computer hackers.”

  • March 06, 2026

    11th Circuit: Attorney Failed To Show Right To Collaborator’s Fees After Settlement

    ATLANTA — An attorney and his firm failed to show that they entered into a joint venture with another attorney and his firm that would allow them to lay claim to half of more than $12 million in attorney fees awarded following an antitrust settlement in a multidistrict litigation, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the complaint.

  • March 06, 2026

    Judge Appoints Referee To Review Attorney Fees In $3.2M Data Breach Settlement

    GREENVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina judge deferred ruling on a motion by plaintiffs in a data breach class action for $1.5 million in attorney fees, comprising approximately 47% of a $3.2 million settlement fund for patients affected by a medical company data breach, and appointed a referee to review the fees sought by plaintiffs after their attorneys provided “inadequate” billing records.

  • March 05, 2026

    Amid Criticism, Judge Gives Initial Approval To $7.25B Roundup Cancer Settlement

    ST. LOUIS — Amid concerns raised by some putative class members, a state court judge in Missouri on March 4 granted preliminary approval to a $7.25 billion nationwide Roundup settlement between the putative class and Bayer Corp., Monsanto Co.’s parent company, which would resolve claims alleging that the herbicide causes cancer.

  • March 05, 2026

    TIAA Gets ERISA Suit Over Cross-Selling Narrowed For Lack Of ‘Class Standing’

    NEW YORK — Greatly narrowing a putative class suit in which plaintiffs challenging purported cross-selling done by a third-party service provider have sought to represent participants in thousands of retirement plans, a New York federal judge on March 4 ruled that the plaintiffs “may not attempt to pursue classwide claims for those plans in which they did not participate” because they didn’t show “class standing” as required in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 05, 2026

    Scholars, Religious Groups, Dozens Of Other Amici Support Birthright Citizenship

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Race law scholars and faith-based groups filed amicus curiae briefs March 3 and 4 in the U.S. Supreme Court, joining more than three dozen other amici in arguing against a January 2025 executive order (EO) that would end birthright citizenship.

  • March 05, 2026

    Business Owner To Seek Rehearing After Grant Bias Class Suit Dismissal Upheld

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a business owner two additional weeks to file a petition for rehearing after a split appellate panel affirmed dismissal of the owner’s putative class lawsuit alleging racially discriminatory grantmaking; the panel agreed with the trial court that the owner failed to show standing to sue the grant program administrators as he never completed a grant application.

  • March 04, 2026

    Ohio High Court In Mortgage Case Splits On Retroactive Application Of Class Ban

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — The entire Ohio Supreme Court agreed that a property owner has standing to sue the prior owner’s lender for failing to timely record the release of the mortgage; however, the high court split on the issue of applying retroactively an amendment to the state’s mortgage-release statute prohibiting classwide collection of damages with the majority finding retroactive application appropriate.

  • March 04, 2026

    10th Circuit: Investors Didn’t Prove DISH’s 5G Network Statements Were False

    DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of investors’ putative class action against Dish Network Corp. (DISH) and certain of its executives for allegedly false and misleading statements made regarding the company’s 5G network development and deployment, finding that the investors’ allegations failed to support a conclusion that the subject statements were false when made or that the defendants acted with scienter.

  • March 04, 2026

    2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Over Norfolk Southern’s Alleged Misstatements

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of investors’ securities fraud class action against Norfolk Southern Corp., certain executives and underwriters relating to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, holding that certain statements were inactionable puffery and the others were not false.

  • March 04, 2026

    Judge: Investors Repackaged Previously Denied Arguments Over Offering Documents

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a biopharmaceutical company’s motion to dismiss investors’ amended class action against it for allegedly failing to disclose the findings from clinical trials of its lead product candidate that, once revealed, caused the company’s stock to drop, finding that the investors had repackaged arguments that had previously been rejected.

  • March 04, 2026

    4th Circuit Backs Trial Court In ERISA Plan Termination Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Concluding in an unpublished opinion that the trial court properly applied the governing principles of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, “credited evidence where warranted, and rejected claims where the proof fell short,” the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 3 affirmed two denials of class certification and two other rulings in a long-running case over termination of a retiree welfare benefits plan that was the subject of consolidated appeals.