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

Mealey's Class Actions

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.
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.