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

Mealey's Class Actions

April 07, 2025
Judge Handles Exclusion Bids, Denies Summary Judgment In Excessive Fee Case

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A class action over a retirement plan’s record-keeping fees and share classes is progressing toward a bench trial after a North Carolina federal judge granted two of the defendant’s three reliability challenges as to expert opinions and then cited competing expert opinions in denying summary judgment.
April 07, 2025
1 Settlement OK’d In MOVEit Data Breach MDL; Attorney Fees Sought In Another

BOSTON — The day after a Massachusetts federal judge granted final approval to a $2.8 million settlement with a health care billing firm that is one of the defendants in a multidistrict litigation over a 2023 ransomware attack that affected users of the MOVEit file-transfer app, the lead defendant in another component suit in the MDL, which had a $9.95 million settlement preliminarily approved in September, on April 4 filed a motion for attorney fees.
April 07, 2025
Citing ‘Too Late’ Arguments, 2nd Circuit Affirms Residual Annuities Ruling

NEW YORK — Saying in an unpublished April 4 summary order that the trial court correctly applied the law-of-the-case doctrine in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over residual annuities, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld entry of a revised final judgment; the appeal concerned a preretirement mortality discount (PRMD) and interest rate for projecting forward employee contributions.
April 07, 2025
More Than $12M In Attorney Fees, Expenses Awarded After Apple Gift Card Settlement

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California, over objections by Apple Inc. and Apple Value Services LLC (together, Apple), granted approval of $11.65 million in attorney fees and more than $500,000 in expenses sought by the plaintiffs and class counsel as part of a $35 million settlement in a case over an alleged iTunes gift card scam.
April 07, 2025
Pa. Voter Files Class Suit Over Promised Payments For America PAC Petition Referrals

PHILADELPHIA — America PAC, Group America LLC and Elon Musk violated the Pennsylvania law when they failed to fulfill offers of payments to Pennsylvania voters who signed or referred others to sign America PAC’s petition supporting the First and Second amendments to the U.S. Constitution, a Pennsylvania voter and canvasser alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in that state.
April 04, 2025
ERISA Meaningful Benchmark Issue Is Focus Of U.S. High Court Review Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Noting that their unsuccessful petition for en banc rehearing of the 2-1 decision was supported by six amici curiae, a retirement plan sponsor and related petitioners asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ revival of a putative class action concerning retention of a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.
April 04, 2025
Judge Approves $15 Million Settlement Of Cash App Data Breach Class Action

SAN FRANCISCO — Almost 10 months after a California federal judge preliminarily approved a $15 million settlement of a consolidated class action against the owners of Cash App over a pair of data breaches that exposed users’ personally identifiable information (PII) and account data, the judge granted the named plaintiffs’ motion for final approval, settling 16 claims, including negligence, fraud, invasion of privacy and unfair competition.
April 03, 2025
AI Copyright Plaintiffs Ask Judge To Confirm Extension After Discovery Breach

SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs on April 2 asked a federal judge in California to enforce a recent ruling granting more time to respond to a summary judgment motion as result of the violation of a discovery agreement, saying the failure to turn over what the court already recognized as relevant evidence and its broad privilege claims are making responding “burdensome.”
April 04, 2025
Judge Nixes Claims In Case Over Heavy Metals In Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California has granted summary judgment to Trader Joe’s Co. on class claims that its dark chocolate products contain lead and other heavy metals, ruling that information on the presence of heavy metals in chocolate has been “reasonably obtainable, easily discoverable, and available” for many years; therefore, the judge was “not persuaded” that the plaintiffs had created a genuine issue of material fact.
April 04, 2025
Securities Suit Over After-Acquisition Statements Dismissed For Lack Of Scienter

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed a suit against a virtual health care services provider regarding alleged misstatements the company and its executives made after its $18.5 billion merger with another health care company, finding that the investors who brought the suit had not adequately pleaded scienter.
April 03, 2025
Class Allegations, Most Parts Of Claims Survive In ERISA Benefit Statements Case

LOS ANGELES — Resolving two motions filed by the remaining defendant in a pension benefit statements case that is on its second remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a California federal judge on April 2 declined to strike putative class allegations and partly denied dismissal.
April 03, 2025
2nd Circuit Vacates Ruling That ERISA Claims In Pension Row Were Untimely

NEW YORK — Saying in an April 3 nonprecedential summary order that the lower court “was permitted to find that the pension projection statements were incorporated by reference, but it erred in relying on the accuracy of the dates in those statements without providing the parties with the opportunity to submit additional materials,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated dismissal of a joint and survivor annuity (JSA) dispute over allegedly outdated mortality tables.
April 03, 2025
Class Representative Seeks $73M Judgment Against Company For Fake Reviews

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A plaintiff representing a certified class of consumers who claim that they were deceived by a Chinese manufacturer-owned company’s practice of faking reviews on Amazon.com to sell shoddy electronics in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws filed a motion in California federal court for default judgment following the withdrawal from proceedings by the defendant.
April 03, 2025
6th Circuit Says Fracking Operator Underpaid Royalties, Affirms $10M Award

CINCINNATI — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 2 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that awarded royalty owners $10 million against a hydraulic fracturing operator for the underpayment of royalties, ruling that, under the contract, the fracking company cannot deduct the costs of “processing” and “fractionation” from the royalties they pay landowners.
April 03, 2025
Amici Support Auto Insurers In U.S. High Court Dispute Over Class Decertification

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, as well as the Washington Legal Foundation, filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of automobile insurers, challenging a majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ conclusion that a lower court abused its discretion when it decertified a negotiation class because the insureds established that “injury could be calculated on a class-wide basis.”
April 03, 2025
Reversing Dismissal, 9th Circuit Lets ERISA Excessive Fee Plaintiff Try Again

PASADENA, Calif. — Ruling in an unpublished April 2 memorandum disposition that dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to a retirement plan’s fees and funds for lack of standing should have been without prejudice, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.
April 03, 2025
After Bench Trial In ESOP Deal Row, Illinois Federal Judge Rules For Defendants

CHICAGO — Just over two years after the conclusion of a 14-day bench trial in a class action challenging a $265 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal, an Illinois federal judge ruled for the defendants on all remaining counts.
April 03, 2025
Final Approval Of Settlement Of Barclays’ Accidental Securities Sales Suit Granted

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a $19.5 million settlement of a putative class action complaint filed over how Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC (collectively, Barclays) and certain of their executives responded to the accidental sale of unregistered securities.
April 03, 2025
7th Circuit Rejects Challenges To $8M Class Settlement In Chicken Antitrust Case

CHICAGO — Class members in an antitrust case accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken who missed the deadline for excluding themselves and are now part of a more than $8 million settlement with Simmons Foods Inc. and Simmons Prepared Foods Inc. (together, Simmons) failed to show that the settlement can’t cover bid-rigging theories or that the settlement amount is too small, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s final approval of the agreement.
April 03, 2025
Class To High Court: Question On Certification Should Be Dismissed Or Affirmed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A question on whether a class containing uninjured members may be certified should be dismissed as improvidently granted or affirmed, a class of visually impaired consumers argue in their respondent brief filed in a U.S. Supreme Court appeal over the accessibility of kiosks; but if it is considered, the justices should find that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) “requires courts to ask whether there is an administratively feasible way to identify uninjured members and bar them from recovery,” the consumers argue.
April 02, 2025
Veterans Groups File 3 Amicus Briefs In U.S. High Court Veterans’ Pay Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Legal representation and advocacy groups for veterans filed three amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the position of a class of veterans who are arguing that settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests are controlled by the statute that directs secretaries of the various military branches to pay CRSC to eligible veterans and not the Barring Act.
April 02, 2025
Aerospace Parts Maker Granted Extension To Respond To 6 Class Suits Over Explosion

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania issued separate orders in six putative class suits granting an aerospace parts manufacturer an extension in each case to respond to the complaints by individuals and businesses that allege that they were negatively impacted by a Feb. 17 fire and explosion at a suburban Philadelphia plant.
April 02, 2025
Class Says Fracking Companies Conspired To Fix Gas Prices, Violating Antitrust Law

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man filed a putative class action in New Mexico federal court against multiple parties involved in hydraulic fracturing operations, contending that they have violated the Sherman Act and Missouri antitrust law because they engaged in a conspiracy to “coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil, and thereby the price paid by end-users of oil-derivative products, including but not limited to gasoline.”
April 02, 2025
Only WARN Act Claims Survive Summary Judgment In Pandemic Hotel Closure Class Suit

NEW YORK — Former employees of a New York City Four Seasons hotel who were furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic may proceed in their class case only with federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act claims against the defendant that was their employer of record, a federal judge in New York ruled, partially granting and partially denying the defendants’ motions for summary judgment.
April 02, 2025
$4M Class Settlement Gets Initial OK In Lawsuit Over ESOP Deal

PEORIA, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a settlement that would resolve an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) lawsuit on a class basis for $4 million; the development came as briefing remains suspended in an interlocutory appeal concerning whether the plaintiff can pursue planwide relief in a representative capacity given that class certification was denied due to intraclass conflict.