Mealey's Class Actions
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July 12, 2024
Parties In ERISA Suit Over Fund Managers’ ESG Efforts File Posttrial Briefs
FORT WORTH, Texas — Following a four-day bench trial in Texas federal court, parties in a class action over environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of investment management firms filed posttrial briefs on July 11.
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July 12, 2024
Judge OKs $2M Class Settlement In ERISA Row But Denies Incentive Award Requests
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Approving a $2 million class settlement in a case involving the investment decisions and administrative costs of a terminated retirement plan, a Georgia federal judge granted attorney fees and expenses as requested but cited Johnson v. NPAS Sols., LLC in denying requests for $5,000 and $10,000 incentive awards.
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July 11, 2024
Judge Dismisses Former Twitter Employees’ ERISA Suit For Severance Benefits
SAN FRANCISCO — Ruling that the plaintiffs didn’t prove that a severance plan is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a California federal judge granted dismissal of a putative class complaint in which former Twitter employees sought more than $500 million in benefits.
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July 11, 2024
Judge Dismisses Suit Accusing Plant Butter Seller Of Deceptive Avocado Oil Claims
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed two consumers’ putative class action claims against a company that sells plant butter for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by allegedly misrepresenting its products as made primarily with avocado oil after finding that the products’ labels would not deceive a reasonable consumer.
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July 11, 2024
Fracking Companies Violated Antitrust Laws By Controlling Oil Production, Man Says
PORTLAND, Maine — A man has filed a putative class action in Maine federal court against a small group of hydraulic fracturing operators, arguing that they violated federal and state antitrust laws when they conspired to “coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production” as a means to controlling the price of gasoline and setting it at an “artificially high level.”
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July 11, 2024
Split 9th Circuit: Equal Rights Protections Include U.S. Citizenship Bias
HONOLULU — Equal rights protections in 42 U.S. Code Section 1981 prohibit citizenship or alienage discrimination of U.S. citizens in hiring, a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s dismissal of putative class discrimination claims by a naturalized U.S. citizen and creating a split with the Fifth Circuit’s 1986 decision in Chaiffetz v. Robertson Research Holding, Ltd.
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July 11, 2024
Putative Class Says Fracking Operator Contaminated Their Drinking Water
PITTSBURGH — A group of residents have filed a putative class action against a hydraulic fracturing operator arguing that their water supply has been contaminated by fracking waste fluid that was released into the environment when an incident at a well caused a geyser to erupt and the leaked fluid got into a local aquifer.
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July 11, 2024
Rehearing Sought After 9th Circuit Issues Class Scope Ambiguity Tolling Opinion
SAN FRANCISCO — Union Pacific Railroad Co. filed a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc after a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled while answering a question that it stated was one of first impression that where a class definition is narrowed, any dispute or ambiguity regarding the applicability to certain plaintiffs “should be resolved in favor of tolling so that bystander members of the class need not rush to file separate actions to protect their rights.”
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July 10, 2024
2nd Circuit Won’t Rehear ERISA Effective Vindication Case After 2-1 Ruling
NEW YORK — Denying without explanation a petition for panel or en banc rehearing in a case involving a high-profile Employee Retirement Income Security Act issue, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 9 declined to revisit a 2-1 ruling that applied the effective vindication exception and upheld denial of a motion for individual arbitration concerning an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal.
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July 10, 2024
Judge: No Preliminary Injunction In Case Alleging Securities Fraud, Elder Abuse
OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman who claims that she and her late husband were fraudulently persuaded by a man and his financial institutions to invest in two real estate entities, allegedly violating federal securities laws in the process, failed to show that she would suffer irreparable harm without preliminary injunctive relief, a California federal judge held, denying her motion.
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July 10, 2024
October Argument Set On Dismissal Motion In ERISA Pension Risk Transfer Case
GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge on July 9 scheduled Oct. 10 oral argument on the only fully briefed dismissal motion in the handful of similar recent putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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July 10, 2024
Excluding Expert, Judge Grants Summary Judgment Against Class In ERISA Fees Suit
PITTSBURGH — Excluding an expert whose testimony has had mixed fates under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals challenges in other courts, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled against a large class in granting summary judgment for PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and related defendants in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over allegedly excessive record-keeping fees.
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July 10, 2024
Class Counsel Get 25% Of $1M Settlement In ERISA Record-Keeping Fees Case
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Granting final approval to a $1 million class settlement with Yale-New Haven Hospital Inc. and related entities to resolve allegations of imprudent record-keeping and administrative (RK&A) retirement plan fees, a Connecticut federal judge awarded class counsel $250,000 of that amount for attorney fees and expenses.
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July 10, 2024
$5M Class Settlement Wraps ERISA Suit Over Health System Retirement Plans
DETROIT — Granting final approval to a $5 million class settlement in a suit challenging numerous aspects of the management of two Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) retirement plans, a Michigan federal judge awarded a third of that amount as attorney fees and $7,500 to each of the four named plaintiffs as an incentive.
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July 09, 2024
Class Seeks Rehearing After Settlement, Attorney Fees Vacated In GoDaddy TCPA Suit
ATLANTA — A class whose Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) settlement with GoDaddy.com LLC was vacated by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in May filed a petition for panel rehearing seeking clarification for “the basis of its decision.”
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July 09, 2024
In Camera Review Ordered Of Clawed-Back Documents In Amazon Alexa Privacy Suit
SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on July 8 found that plaintiffs who sued Amazon.com Inc. over the unauthorized recording and retention of private conversations sufficiently established “a good faith belief” that at least some of the more than 2,000 documents that the defendant clawed back from its discovery production were improperly withheld as privileged, granting their motion for in camera review of those documents.
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July 09, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Bids For Attorney Fees, Reassignment On Remand In ERISA Row
SAN FRANCISCO — In a July 8 order without explanation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that partly overturned dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over benefit statements denied pension plan participants’ opposed motions to reassign the case on remand and for $179,925 in attorney fees for the appeal.
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July 09, 2024
Air Force, Space Force Members Tell 6th Circuit COVID-19 Vaccine Case Not Moot
CINCINNATI — A class complaint by members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons in which a classwide preliminary injunction was vacated as moot by the U.S. Supreme Court must be permitted to proceed as “the case, unlike the preliminary injunction, is not moot,” the service members argue in an appellant brief filed July 8 in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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July 09, 2024
8th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Cross-Plan Offsetting Suit For Lack Of Standing
ST. LOUIS — Distinguishing two decisions on which health plan participants relied, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 8 upheld dismissal of a putative class suit over the practice known as “cross-plan offsetting,” saying that the participants “have not shown a concrete injury.”
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July 09, 2024
J&J Moves To Dismiss Amended Complaint In Fiduciary Breach Row Over Drug Benefits
CAMDEN, N.J. — Johnson and Johnson and the committee that administers the health plans the company sponsors have moved in New Jersey federal court to dismiss the amended complaint in a high-profile putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty suit focused on the plan’s pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and prescription drug benefits.
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July 08, 2024
Judge: Plaintiffs Lack Standing To Block ‘Hypothetical’ J&J Asbestos Bankruptcy
TRENTON, N.J. — Class action plaintiffs told a federal judge in New Jersey that they would appeal his ruling denying a restraining order and finding that alleged injuries from a hypothetical future asbestos-talc bankruptcy and other potential conduct do not provide standing to enjoin the filing of such a case.
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July 08, 2024
Dismissal Bids Fail In Suit Over ESOP’s Allegedly Imprudent Releveraging Deal
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In a July 5 ruling denying motions to dismiss an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit concerning an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), an Arkansas federal judge said in part that ESOP participants “plausibly allege[] that the terms of the releveraging deal were imprudent.”
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July 08, 2024
Federal Judge: DraftKings Customer Plausibly Shows Company’s NFTs Are Securities
BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts held that a customer of an online sports gambling company adequately showed that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) sold by the company are a security under a long-standing test, denying a motion from the company and certain of its executives to dismiss the customer’s putative class complaint alleging that the company sold unregistered securities in violation of federal law.
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July 08, 2024
Federal Judge: No Class Certification In COVID Shot Stock Loss Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion for class certification in a securities dispute brought by investors who claim that a biotechnology company, a hedge fund that backed it and others issued false statements about a COVID-19 vaccine in a massive stock pump-and-dump scheme, saying that both the investors and the hedge fund failed to grapple with the unique issues the case presents.
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July 08, 2024
NFL Seeks Judgment, New Trial After ‘Sunday Ticket’ Classes Awarded $4.7 Billion
LOS ANGELES — The National Football League Inc. (NFL), NFL Enterprises LLC and individual teams filed a motion in a federal court in California for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial approximately one week after a jury found that classes of residential and commercial subscribers to DirecTV LLC’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” proved Sherman Act violations and awarded them more than $4.7 billion in damages.