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Mealey's Class Actions

  • March 13, 2026

    Split 4th Circuit Protects Musk, Others From Depositions In USAID Case, For Now

    RICHMOND, Va. — Issuing a 2-1 ruling concerning a class action challenging the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a petition for a writ of mandamus and directed the trial court to issue a protective order to prevent depositions of Elon Musk, Peter Marocco and Jeremy Lewin.

  • March 13, 2026

    Magistrate Rules On Discovery Motion In Suit Alleging Insurer Illegally Employs AI

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota granted in part and denied in part plaintiffs’ motion to compel an insurer to respond to discovery and produce certain documents in their class complaint alleging that it illegally uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deny elderly insureds medically necessary care based on a model it knows “has a 90% error rate,” ordering the insurer to produce all required documents within 21 days.

  • March 13, 2026

    Final Approval Granted For Injunctive Settlement In PII Free Trial Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted final approval of a class action settlement resolving allegations that a corporation violated the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (IRPA) by displaying individuals’ personally identifiable information (PII) in seven-day free trials of its data aggregation products, which the plaintiffs contended were used to market paid subscriptions; the settlement provides injunctive relief barring the use of Illinois class members’ PII in free trials, includes $2,500 service awards for two class representatives and $492,500 in attorney fees and costs.

  • March 13, 2026

    Costco Sought Tariff Refunds, Now Consumers’ Class Suit Seeks The Same

    CHICAGO — Costco Wholesale Corp., one of thousands of companies that sued the United States in 2025 seeking to halt tariffs put in place beginning in February of that year and seeking refunds for the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) duties plus interest, must return that money to consumers if they are successful in obtaining the refunds in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, an Illinois man and Costco member alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in the state.

  • March 13, 2026

    Deal For $27.5M Plus Passes Reported In Suit Over Early Retirement Policy

    CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who appealed dismissal of their putative class suit over a United Airlines Inc. early retirement policy would accept $27.5 million and “8 vacation passes” per member of the proposed settlement class to resolve the case under a deal they outlined for an Illinois federal court in a motion for an indicative ruling.

  • March 13, 2026

    Amazon Pledges To Seek High Court Review Of Class Certification In BIPA Suit

    CHICAGO — Amazon on March 12 told the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it plans to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court following the circuit court’s refusal to reconsider its ruling that a lower court did not err in certifying a class of users of its “virtual try-on” (VTO) feature and asked the Seventh Circuit to hold off on issuing its mandate.

  • March 12, 2026

    Government Asks High Court To Stay Orders Postponing End Of TPS For Syria, Haiti

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government filed two applications with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to stay orders issued in two putative class lawsuits that postpone the termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for individuals from Syria and Haiti; in the latest application filed March 11 and concerning individuals from Haiti, the government argues, referencing earlier rulings by the high court for the government concerning a similar case over Venezuela, that “[l]ower courts should be guided by this Court’s conclusions that the government was likely to succeed on the merits,” but instead “stop-and-start litigation over TPS terminations has become endemic.”

  • March 12, 2026

    Woman Tells High Court To Reject Petition Mulling Daubert Requirements For Class

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — 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, but in a petition for a writ of certiorari, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (J&J) “pivots and seeks review of a different question,” the representative of the class tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a March 11 opposition brief.

  • March 12, 2026

    Preliminary Injunction, Certification Granted In Oregon ICE Facility Protest Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — Approximately a month after granting a temporary restraining order (TRO), a federal judge in Oregon granted provisional class certification and issued a preliminary injunction in a 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 11, 2026

    Filed-Rate Doctrine Bars Class Action Against Allstate, 5th Circuit Affirms

    NEW ORLEANS —The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 10 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer and denial of the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in their lawsuit alleging that Allstate violated the Texas Insurance Code by charging its longstanding customers higher premiums than new customers for materially identical automobile insurance coverage, agreeing with the lower court that the filed-rate doctrine bars the action because the plaintiffs inherently challenge the reasonableness of the filed insurance rates that were reviewed by the Texas Department of Insurance.

  • March 11, 2026

    Judge Grants Preliminary OK To $2.9M Settlement For Toothpaste Water Contamination

    CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York federal magistrate judge granted preliminary approval to a settlement worth $2.9 million against a “naturally sourced” toothpaste maker and its subsidiary company who were accused of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by not informing consumers the toothpaste maker’s facility received a Food and Drug Administration warning letter in 2024 over water contamination.

  • March 11, 2026

    Certification Of 1 Subclass In COVID-19 Vaccine Case Against United Upheld

    NEW ORLEANS — A partially divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court’s certification of only one subclass out of several proposed classes and subclasses in a case by workers who accuse United Airlines Inc. of discrimination by failing to provide religious and medical accommodations, finding no abuse of discretion in the certification only of employees who sought an accommodation due to religious beliefs and were accommodated with unpaid leave.

  • 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.