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

Mealey's Class Actions

February 03, 2026
5th Circuit: District Court Wrong To Dismiss Stock Drop Suit With Prejudice

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a lower court was wrong to dismiss investors’ putative class action against a telecommunications corporation and certain of its executives for misleading investors about its failure to remedy old lead-sheathed telephone cables, finding that the lower court did not provide an analysis to support dismissing the complaint with prejudice.
February 03, 2026
Third-Party Payer Class Tells High Court That Review Not Needed In Certification Spat

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that found no error in the certification of a national third-party payer (TPP) class of entities that paid for the diabetes drug Actos, despite the court recognizing that there is no way to calculate the number of class members that were not harmed, does not warrant review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund argues in an opposition filed Feb. 2.
February 03, 2026
Judge Approves $3M Settlement Of Consumers’, Employees’ Data Breach Claims

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington granted final approval to a settlement worth $3 million, including $1 million in attorney fees, in favor of a class of more than 34,000 individuals who alleged that their sensitive data was breached during a hack of a workflow solutions company and its subsidiaries in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws.
February 03, 2026
23andMe Bankruptcy Judge Approves $50M Settlement; Data Breach MDL To Be Dismissed

The parties to multidistrict litigation in California federal court against 23andMe Inc. and affiliates for a data breach in which millions of customers’ genetic data and personally identifiable information (PII) was hacked filed a joint status report on Feb. 2 stating the plaintiffs will move to dismiss the MDL following the final approval in Missouri federal bankruptcy court of a settlement worth up to $50 million to resolve U.S. customers’ claims against 23andMe, with 25% allocated for attorney fees.
February 03, 2026
Public Interest Firm, Other Amici Support Trump’s View Of Birthright Citizenship

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Kirkwood Institute Inc. and two legal scholars in a Feb. 2 amicus curiae brief are the latest to support in the class case before the U.S. Supreme Court the view of birthright citizenship held by President Donald J. Trump and federal agencies on whether a January 2025 executive order (EO) that declared that children born in the United States are not citizens when their mother is “unlawfully present in the United States” or their mother’s presence is “temporary” and their father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident complies with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
February 03, 2026
Google Assistant Users Seek Approval Of $68M Settlement For Eavesdropping Claims

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge terminated a hearing date after a group of plaintiffs moved for preliminary approval of a $68 million settlement of their putative class claims against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (collectively Google) for allegedly eavesdropping on Google Assistant (GA) users in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and privacy laws.
February 02, 2026
9th Circuit: Judge Properly Found Securities Claims Against Crypto Firm Barred

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s order granting a motion from an issuer of crypto tokens and its CEO to dismiss class action securities claims against them, finding that the 2017 offering of the tokens was a separate offering from the 2013 offering, making the federal securities claims time-barred.
February 02, 2026
Former DOL Officials, Other Amici Urge 4th Circuit Affirmance In PRT Case

RICHMOND, Va. — Three amicus curiae briefs filed Jan. 30 urge the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched string of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges, with one of those briefs coming from former U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) officials who argue that the Jan. 9 amicus brief the DOL filed here shows that “an effort is underway to limit the scope of” the private right of action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
January 30, 2026
6th Circuit Grants Rehearing En Banc In Class Action Suit Against Auto Insurer

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 29 granted a petition for rehearing en banc and vacated a panel majority’s opinion that found that an insured met the necessary requirements to certify a class and had standing to bring a class action suit that alleges that an auto insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith in determining a vehicle’s total loss value.
January 29, 2026
Government To High Court: Service Members’ Vaccine Mandate Petitions Are Moot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 28 — two weeks after the federal government argued in two oppositions that the issue in companion cases is moot — distributed for its Feb. 20 conference two petitions by members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force that ask the high court to consider in class cases whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows for their reinstatement following their refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine to include back pay and retirement points.
January 29, 2026
Class Certification, Summary Judgment Denied In Suit Over NFL Disability Denials

BALTIMORE — Finding that “the commonality and typicality prerequisites are not met here,” a Maryland federal judge on Jan. 28 declined to certify “a class spanning over five decades of NFL players” in a suit over NFL disability benefits; in separate rulings the same day, she denied three motions in which the defendants sought summary judgment and denied the plaintiffs’ motion to strike two declarations submitted in support of the summary judgment motions.
January 29, 2026
Pension Benefits Statements Case Dismissed By Agreement Of Parties

LOS ANGELES — A putative class pension benefit statements case on its second remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was dismissed with prejudice by a California federal judge on Jan. 28 pursuant to a joint stipulation.
January 29, 2026
Judge Approves $7.5 Million Class Settlement For Case Involving Premature Birth Drug

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted final approval of a $7.5 million class action settlement to end claims that a drug manufacturer knew that its premature birth prevention drug was ineffective and awarded attorney fees, costs and service fee awards for the named plaintiffs.
January 28, 2026
Judge OKs Subclasses As Long-Running Multiplan ERISA Suit Continues

AUSTIN, Texas — On remand following the dispute’s second trip to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Texas federal judge created four subclasses in the suit brought on behalf of participants in thousands of unrelated Employee Retirement Income Security Act retirement and health benefit plans.
January 28, 2026
Noncitizen Subclass Granted Preliminary Injunction In Parole Termination Case

BOSTON — A recently modified subclass of noncitizens whose family reunification parole (FRP) is slated to be terminated as part of a year’s worth of immigration policy changes that began immediately after President Donald J. Trump’s January 2025 inauguration was granted a preliminary injunction by a federal judge in Massachusetts; in April 2025, the same judge partially granted emergency relief to a larger class of noncitizens facing parole revocation, but that order was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court the following month and vacated by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in September.
January 28, 2026
Full 11th Circuit Will Consider Overruling Its ERISA Exhaustion Precedent

ATLANTA — Agreeing to en banc rehearing concerning a 40-year-old circuit precedent that two panel members had said “imposed a judicially-created and atextual administrative exhaustion requirement for fiduciary-breach and statutory claims under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 27 vacated a ruling affirming dismissal of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuation case.
January 28, 2026
Interlocutory Review Denied Following Ruling On Website Tracker As Pen Register

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California denied a website owner’s motion to certify for interlocutory appeal an October order declining dismissal of a putative class case alleging that the website’s third-party trackers that collect users’ data violate the California Invasion of Privacy Act’s (CIPA) pen register/trap-and-trace law, finding that “every federal court to tackle the CIPA applicability question has rejected” the website owner’s position that the pen register prohibition doesn’t apply and rejecting the defendant’s argument that the case presents a novel issue.
January 28, 2026
Data-Sharing Class Claims Against Shopify Partly Dismissed By Federal Judge

OAKLAND, Calif. — After a previous dismissal ruling was reversed and remanded by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Shopify Inc. partly succeeded in its second motion to dismiss privacy claims against it, with a California federal judge finding that some of a plaintiff’s putative class claims over the online retailer’s purported collection and sharing of customer data for the creation of individualized profiles failed for not adequately alleging an injury.
January 27, 2026
9th Circuit Won’t Allow Interlocutory Appeal On Class Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — A grant of class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment will stand after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 26 denied a petition for leave to file an interlocutory appeal that involves the question of whether underpayment of benefits for an ERISA plan is an injury sufficient for standing purposes.
January 27, 2026
10th Circuit Affirms $17.3M Attorney Fee Award In Fracking Royalty Dispute

DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 26 affirmed a lower court’s award of more than $17.3 million in attorney fees as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement on grounds that the trial court assessed the award’s reasonableness by weighing it using Oklahoma’s statutory factors and conducting a lodestar cross-check and there was no abuse of discretion.
January 27, 2026
6th Circuit Vacates Injunction In Social Media Sex Offender Disclosure Dispute

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 26 vacated a preliminary injunction and remanded a putative class action filed against a county attorney by a Kentucky registered sex offender seeking to prevent enforcement of a Kentucky law requiring certain registered sex offenders to display their full legal name on their social media accounts, finding in part that the law at issue may cover conduct to which the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not apply.
January 27, 2026
Judge Grants Dismissal Of Agency Heads In Putative Class Suit Over HHS RIF

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed as redundant agency heads named as defendants in a putative class complaint over an April 2025 reduction-in-force (RIF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that affected approximately 10,000 employees and was allegedly based on inaccurate records in violation of the Privacy Act; this case is one of several currently challenging various 2025 RIFs impacting numerous federal agencies.
January 27, 2026
6 More ERISA Forfeiture Cases Have Been Dismissed By Federal Judges

Aligning with the majority of rulings in the wave of putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class suits challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, federal judges have granted defendants’ dismissal motions in cases filed against RTX Corp., Amazon.com Services LLC, WakeMed Health & Hospitals, Meijer Inc., Alliance Coal LLC and Northrop Grumman Corp.
January 27, 2026
J&J Asks High Court To Decide If Experts Must Meet Daubert For Class Certification

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A woman asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an extension to respond to a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (J&J), which asks the court to rule on whether expert testimony on damages during the class certification stage must comply with Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
January 27, 2026
Apple And Its CEO Waive Response To High Court Ad Market Antitrust Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Apple Inc. and its CEO waived their right to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a professional certification school seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a lower court’s ruling compelling arbitration and dismissing a class action antitrust suit alleging that Google and Apple violated state and federal antitrust laws by unlawfully agreeing to divide online search and search advertising markets.