Mealey's Class Actions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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February 05, 2025
Privacy Suit Over Mental Health Site’s Data Sharing Mostly Survives Dismissal
PHOENIX — Two users of a mental health firm’s website adequately pleaded putative class claims for wiretapping, unfair competition and privacy over the site operator’s use of Meta Platforms Inc’s Pixel to collect and share users’ personal data, an Arizona federal judge ruled, mostly denying the operator’s dismissal motion.
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February 05, 2025
CareFirst Data Breach Suit Settlement For Injunctive Relief Gets Initial OK
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 4 granted preliminary approval to a settlement of a decade-old putative class action over a health insurer’s 2014 data breach that offers only injunctive relief to class members.
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February 05, 2025
CrowdStrike Says Stranded Travelers’ Claims Against It Are Preempted
AUSTIN, Texas — Tech company CrowdStrike Inc. on Feb. 4 filed a motion in Texas federal court to dismiss or strike a putative class complaint brought against it by travelers who accuse it of negligence for allegedly leaving them stranded in airports by causing 8.5 million computers to crash in one day, writing that federal law preempts such claims.
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February 05, 2025
FBI Workers Involved In Trump Cases File 2 Suits To Keep Identities Private
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two complaints, one of which is a putative class action, and two motions for temporary restraining orders (TROs) were filed Feb. 4 by current and former employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA) in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to stop the publication or dissemination of a list allegedly being compiled of FBI employees who were involved in investigating two events involving President Donald J. Trump; the complaints allege that releasing the workers’ identifies will violate their privacy rights and put them at risk of retribution.
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February 04, 2025
$5.9M Class Deal To Resolve Suit Against ESOP Trustee Wins Initial Approval
CHICAGO — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action asserting claims against the former trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) would be resolved under a $5.9 million class settlement that an Illinois federal judge has preliminarily approved.
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February 04, 2025
4th Circuit Sends Most Of Servicemembers’ Credit Card Rates Claims To Arbitration
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s order that the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) overrode arbitration agreements and permitted former servicemembers to proceed with a class complaint over civilian interest rate charges on credit card balances accrued while servicemembers, opining that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires enforcement of the arbitration agreements.
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February 04, 2025
Florida Judge Gives Final OK To $6.8 Million Settlement Of Hospital Data Breach Row
TAMPA, Fla. — A $6.8 million settlement of class claims over a hospital’s 2023 data breach achieved final approval from a Florida judge on Feb. 3, with attorney fees, costs and service awards also getting the thumbs up.
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February 04, 2025
Plastic Surgeon Allegedly Failed To Protect Patient Data And Nude Photos From Hackers
LOS ANGELES — Eight patients on Feb. 3 filed suit in California federal court accusing a plastic surgeon and his medical practice of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by failing to protect their data or prevent a cyberattack by hackers who obtained data including nude photographs of patients, some of which the hackers have allegedly posted online.
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February 04, 2025
Judge Orders Jurisdictional Inquiry In ‘Drip Pricing’ Suit Against Flower Company
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 3 ordered a jurisdictional inquiry in a putative class action lawsuit filed by a California resident who accuses an Illinois floral arrangement delivery company of engaging in the practice of “drip pricing,” specifically by allegedly adding a undisclosed “surprise fee” of $19.99 to customers’ orders at the last step of a complicated purchase process in violation of California consumer protection laws, including the unfair competition law (UCL).
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February 04, 2025
Judge Certifies Classes, Denies Summary Judgment In ERISA Imprudence Row
GALVESTON, Texas — Briefly adopting memorandum and recommendations issued in 2023, a Texas federal judge on Feb. 3 overruled all objections, denying motions for summary judgment and partial summary judgment and granting certification of two classes in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute over alleged retirement plan mismanagement.
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February 04, 2025
Rehearing Motion Extension Request Opposed In Home Appraisal Fee Class Appeal
RICHMOND, Va. — Lenders accused of requiring borrowers to pay for “worthless” home appraisals as part of refinancing their mortgage loans filed an opposition Feb. 3 in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to a motion for an extension of time to file a petition for rehearing; the motion was filed by the borrowers one week after the appellate panel considered for a second time class certification and damages for the borrowers and the majority opined that there was no showing of concrete harm.
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February 04, 2025
8th Circuit Upholds Remand Of Putative Class Suit Alleging Sharing Of Health Info
ST. LOUIS — A trial court’s remand of a putative class suit accusing a health care company of violating Missouri law by sharing private health information with third parties was upheld by an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that opined that federal jurisdiction did not exist under the federal officer removal statute or the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
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February 04, 2025
Federal Government Employees File Privacy Class Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two federal workers referred to only as Jane Does filed a class complaint in a federal court in the District of Columbia accusing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of failing to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails that the workers claim are being used to collect information on workers that is being sent to someone working for Elon Musk.
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February 04, 2025
9th Circuit Upholds Attorney Fees, Costs In 1 Of Several Related Labeling Cases
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an award of more than $7.9 million in attorney fees and expenses for class counsel in one of several related single-state class lawsuits over the labeling of a glucosamine and chondroitin product, finding that the evidence supported the trial court’s determination that fees were related to the class’s success and the defendant failed to undermine class counsel’s representation that all work performed for the other cases was excluded from its calculations.
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February 03, 2025
Judge Addresses Exclusion, Summary Judgment Bids In Long-Running RESPA Suit
FRESNO, Calif. — Under Jan. 31 orders that a judge sitting by designation in California federal court issued, a combined Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. hearing and bench trial on economic harm will be the next development in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) class action involving captive reinsurance agreements.
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February 03, 2025
Class Claims Over Trans Fats In Packaged Ramen Dismissed With Prejudice
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied a consumer’s amended motion for class certification in her lawsuit accusing a packaged ramen maker of concealing the presence of trans fats in its products in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and then dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice after finding the plaintiff had failed to resolve previously identified deficiencies in her class claims.
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February 03, 2025
User Dismisses Class Suit Claiming LinkedIn Trained AI On Users’ Private Messages
SAN FRANCISCO — Less than two weeks after filing a putative class action in California federal court accusing LinkedIn of violating federal law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by accessing its premium users’ private messages to train artificial intelligence models without their consent, the plaintiff, a premium user of LinkedIn’s professional networking and social media site, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice.
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February 03, 2025
Panel Affirms Denial Of Condo Owner’s Motion To Intervene In Class Action Suit
GRETNA, La. — A Louisiana appeals court affirmed a lower court’s denial of a condominium unit owner’s motion to intervene in a class action lawsuit arising from Hurricane Ida property damage, concluding that the movant failed to satisfy the required elements to intervene pursuant to Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 1091.
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February 03, 2025
Consumers: No Review Of Class Certification Needed In Pet Supplement Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consumers tell the U.S. Supreme Court that no review of class certification in a case over the label claims on a pet supplement is necessary as courts of appeal agree regarding “the real issue on appeal” and have determined that plaintiffs in a class case may rely on an expert’s not-yet-executed damages model so long as the model is deemed reliable and may be used to calculate classwide damages.
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January 31, 2025
$450,000 Newspaper Subscription TCPA Class Settlement Preliminarily Approved
PHILADELPHIA — A $450,000 class settlement to be paid by a telecommunications company to end a Philadelphia woman’s complaint that she and a certified class received more than one newspaper subscription phone call in the last four years despite being on the National Do-Not-Call Registry (DNC) and not having established business relationships with the defendant was preliminarily approved by a federal judge in Pennsylvania.
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January 31, 2025
Amid ERISA Bench Trial, Defendants Seek Partial Decertification Of Class
BOSTON — More than a week into a bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit primarily challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, the defendants on Jan. 30 moved in Massachusetts federal court to decertify the mandatory class as to one claim, saying in part that the named plaintiffs’ expert agreed that that claim “is unique to” a fund that is no longer proprietary “and different from the other claims he opines on.”