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

Mealey's Class Actions

February 14, 2025
Plaintiffs Sue W.L. Gore For Greenwashing, Hiding PFAS Content Of Its Clothing

SPOKANE, Wash. — Plaintiffs have filed a class action against W.L. Gore & Associates in Washington federal court alleging that it has violated numerous state consumer protection laws and has fraudulently concealed the fact that its water-repellant Gore-Tex fabric contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are then shed into the environment upon use. The plaintiffs argue that Gore is guilty of greenwashing by using PFAS but “purporting to be highly committed to environmental responsibility.”
February 13, 2025
Woman Seeks Class Status For PFAS Case Alleging Carpet Makers Were Deceptive

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A woman filed an unopposed motion in Tennessee federal court on Feb. 12 to file a second amended class complaint against a carpet manufacturing company and its affiliates that she says are liable for knowingly using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to add stain-resistance to its carpets. She argues that the companies “had exclusive knowledge” that its carpets contained PFAS and they “deceptively marketed and/or omitted material information” about that from the public.
February 13, 2025
Preliminary Approval Given To $95 Million Settlement Of Siri Eavesdropping Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — A class action accusing Apple Inc. of collecting unauthorized recordings of Apple device users via its digital assistant Siri moved closer to resolution, with a California federal judge granting preliminary approval to a proposed $95 million settlement of the 5-1/2-year-old lawsuit.
February 13, 2025
6th Circuit Won’t Revisit 2-1 Revival Of ERISA Suit Challenging TDFs

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 briefly denied a petition for rehearing en banc that six amicus curiae entities supported in a combined brief; the 2-1 decision at issue revived an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s retention of the passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.
February 13, 2025
7 Union Pacific Workers File Consolidated Brief Opposing Class Tolling Petitions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rulings by three different federal circuits in several disability bias cases brought by Union Pacific Railroad Co. workers after class decertification that all found that American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling ends for class members only when they have been “unambiguously excluded” from the class are correct, and the U.S. Supreme Court should not grant Union Pacific’s three petitions challenging those rulings, seven workers argue in a consolidated respondent brief filed Feb. 12.
February 12, 2025
Precious Metals Company Data Breach Class Claims Dismissed By Plaintiff

DALLAS — A putative class action plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in Texas federal court of his lawsuit accusing a Texas-based precious metals refiner of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other consumer protection laws by failing to take cybersecurity measures to stop a data breach that allowed access to the personally identifiable information (PII) of himself and class members.
February 12, 2025
Fortra Data Breach MDL Judge OK’s 1 Settlement, Stays Case For Global Settlement

MIAMI — The Florida federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over a 2023 software app data breach granted final approval to the settlement of one of the MDL’s tracks on Feb. 11, while staying proceedings for the remaining parties while details of an announced global settlement are finalized.
February 12, 2025
$22.6M FBI Basic Training Gender Bias Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint stipulation to file a sixth amended complaint in a gender bias case by female employees of the FBI was filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia one business day after a judge in that court granted final approval of a $22.6 million class settlement over those claims in the case that alleged gender bias during basic training.
February 12, 2025
Government: Cases In ACA Reinsurance Dispute Were Properly Ruled Untimely

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing that U.S. Supreme Court precedents foreclose equitable tolling of the statute of limitations in Tucker Act class actions, the U.S. government urged the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling that group health plans’ consolidated cases challenging exactions made under the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) were untimely.
July 22, 2024
Claims Trimmed From Remanded Crypto Wallet Data Breach Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A cryptocurrency wallet firm and two of its business partners saw their motions to dismiss a suit over a 2020 data breach partly granted, as a California federal judge found some claims to be preempted by a forum selection clause and others to be insufficiently pleaded.
February 12, 2025
Judge Dismisses Contractor, Allows Only UCL Claim In Crypto Wallet Data Breach Row

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a subcontractors’ motion to dismiss claims against it related to a crypto wallet data breach incident after finding the claims fall under a forum selection clause requiring exclusive jurisdiction in France despite it being a nonsignatory to the contract, but declined to dismiss the plaintiffs’ putative class claim accusing the French parent company of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
February 12, 2025
Final Attorney Fees Award Granted In Decade-Old Defective Flooring Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — More than four years after a class action settlement over defective bamboo flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators Inc. received final approval, a California federal judge granted a motion by class counsel for a final attorney fees award of $863,919.82, representing 25% of the value of store vouchers redeemed by class members in the last two years.
February 11, 2025
Rehearing Sought After Minimum Wage Ruling Against Detention Center Operator

SEATTLE — A for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc after a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel 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.
February 11, 2025
AI Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Seek Conditional Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — Job seekers who claim they were discriminated against by an artificial intelligence hiring tool asked a federal judge in California to approve conditional certification of the collective action, saying the move will help protect prospective class members and ensure efficient resolution of the case.
February 11, 2025
Enforcement Of Settlement, Attorney Fees In GoDaddy TCPA Class Case Denied

MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge in Alabama denied a motion to enforce a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement with GoDaddy.com LLC, writing that the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a July 2024 opinion vacated the District Court’s settlement approval as well as its ruling on attorney fees, clearing the way for the web hosting company to terminate the agreement.
February 10, 2025
Class Suit Alleges 2 Genders-Only Passport Policy Violates U.S. Constitution

BOSTON — The removal of 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 in response to a Jan. 20 executive order (EO) violates the U.S. Constitution, seven U.S. citizens allege in a putative class complaint filed Feb. 7 in a federal court in Massachusetts.
February 10, 2025
Woman Seeks To Represent Nationwide Class Against Toxic Embryo Solution Maker

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A woman who alleges that her developing embryos were destroyed by a toxic solution used during fertility-related treatments that was later recalled filed a putative nationwide class action in a Connecticut federal court against the manufacturer of the solution.
February 10, 2025
TRO Ruling Deferred After Government Agrees Not To ID FBI Workers On Trump Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government will not publicly release the identities of Federal Bureau of Investigation workers involved in investigating two events involving President Donald J. Trump at least until after ruling is issued on anticipated motions for a preliminary injunction in two cases seeking to stop such disclosures, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 7.
February 10, 2025
Class Counsel Assigned In Consolidated Geisinger Health Data Theft Suit

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge concluded that the plaintiffs in a putative class action over a data theft incident experienced by Geisinger Health “would undoubtedly be well-served by either group of experienced and accomplished attorneys” proposed in competing motions to appoint class counsel; however, he selected the attorneys proposed by the plaintiff in the first-filed suit, finding them to be “best positioned to represent the interests of the class.”
February 07, 2025
HP Inc. Gets Amended ERISA Forfeiture Suit Tossed With Prejudice In Federal Court

SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the first companies to face an Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit for allegedly not putting forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions toward administrative expenses got the amended complaint dismissed with prejudice; the California federal judge said in part that “the same categorical rule implicit in Plaintiff’s initial Complaint pervades the revised pleading” and “flies in the face of decades of ERISA practice.”
February 07, 2025
5 Motions To Dismiss Bellwether Complaint Filed In MOVEit Data Breach MDL

BOSTON — The software company that designed the MOVEit file-transfer app filed a motion in Massachusetts federal court to dismiss the bellwether complaint in the massive multidistrict litigation over a 2023 ransomware attack that targeted the app, as did four of its clients, whose customers had their personal information exposed in the incident.
February 07, 2025
Maryland High Court: Seller Not Registered As Home Builder, Must Answer Cases

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Supreme Court ruled that because a company that sold two houses did not register under state law as a “home builder,” a contractual one-year time limit cannot apply to two homeowners who filed separate class actions alleging they were misled about 30-year deferred sewer and water costs associated with their home purchases.
August 02, 2024
Data Breach Class Suits Against Health Care Provider, IT Vendor Consolidated

SCRANTON, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has consolidated nine putative class actions against Geisinger Health and its third-party information technology services vendor stemming from the Nov. 29 discovery that a former employee of the vendor had accessed and acquired the personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI) of individuals who received health care from the provider.
February 06, 2025
Amici Support Appellees In 11th Circuit ERISA Pension Assumptions Row

ATLANTA — Agreeing with appellees, amici curiae have filed two briefs supporting affirmation of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) as amicus in December urged the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn; the appeal seeks revival of a putative class action challenging assumptions used to calculate annuities for married pension plan participants.
February 06, 2025
Workers: 1 Class Properly Certified, 3 Others Should Be Too In Vaccine Mandate Case

NEW ORLEANS — A trial court properly certified a class of customer-facing workers who sought religious accommodations from United Airlines Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine policy and were place on unpaid leave for an indefinite amount of time, but the court erred by leaving certain workers outside of the certified class and by denying certification of three other proposed classes, United Airlines workers argue in an appellee/cross-appellant brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals.