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

Mealey's Class Actions

March 05, 2025
Consolidation Sought In 3 Of 5 Suits Over Philadelphia Suburb Plant Explosion

PHILADELPHIA — Attorneys representing individuals and businesses who allege that they were negatively impacted by a Feb. 17 fire and explosion at a plant in suburban Philadelphia filed two motions in a Pennsylvania court, one seeking consolidation of three out of five class complaints filed over the incident and one seeking to appoint interim class counsel and interim co-liaison counsel.
March 05, 2025
Biometric Privacy Suit Against Adult Dating Website Stayed For Arbitration

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a motion by a processing affiliate for the website Adult Friend Finder (AFF) to enforce a provision in the site’s terms of use (TOU) requiring a site user to arbitrate his putative claim against the affiliate under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) for the purported collection of site users’ facial scans.
March 04, 2025
Judge Dismisses Monopoly Claims Against Apple Over iCloud Storage

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action in which consumers accuse it of monopolizing access to its iCloud data storage service on Apple devices in violation of federal and state antitrust laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL), finding the plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege a violation of federal law, a monopoly or unfair conduct.
March 04, 2025
Former Detainee Opposes Md. County’s High Court Petition In Wage Class, Collective

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari by a Maryland county seeking a ruling on “[w]hether inmates working in furtherance of public works projects for the government charged with their custody and care” are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be denied as there is no split of authority and the case is a poor vehicle, a former detainee argues in his March 3 response that was requested by the U.S. Supreme Court.
March 04, 2025
Rock ’n Play Sleeper MDL $19M Settlement Granted Final Approval

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $19 million class settlement between consumers and Fisher-Price Inc. and its corporate parent, Mattel Inc., in a multidistrict litigation alleging that the safety risks of the now recalled Rock ’n Play Sleeper (RNPS) were not disclosed when the units were being sold in violation of various consumer protection laws.
March 04, 2025
Google, Alphabet Say AI Copyright Claims Lacking, Seek To Strike Class

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Whether plaintiffs satisfactorily registered copyrights, sufficiently detail their claims and could possibly justify injunctive relief in their consolidated action against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. sits with a federal judge in California after briefing on motions to dismiss and strike class claims wrapped up in the artificial intelligence case.
March 03, 2025
Putative Class Action Filed In Colorado Federal Court For Contaminated Eye Drops

DENVER — A woman who alleges that she purchased over-the-counter eye drops that were later recalled after the company discovered that certain products were contaminated with fungus sued the manufacturer in a Colorado federal court, seeking to represent a class of consumers.
March 03, 2025
$21 Million Settlement Of Suit Over Brokerage Firm’s Data Breach Gets Final OK

CHICAGO — The same day that she presided over a fairness hearing for a proposed $21 million settlement of negligence, contractual and statutory claims over a 2020 data breach experienced by Arthur J. Gallagher Co. (AJG), an Illinois federal judge granted final approval to it, dismissing the case with prejudice.
March 03, 2025
Federal Judge Dismisses Investor Claims Over 2023 Norfolk Southern Derailment

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed all claims brought against Norfolk Southern Corp. and certain of its executives by investors following a 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that led to a controlled detonation of toxic chemicals, finding that the railroad company and its employees’ statements about its safety measures and messaging were not misleading and that they did not have an obligation to disclose risks and uncertainties that required disclosure in the offering documents under Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation S-K.
March 03, 2025
$8.35M Global Deal Proposed In ERISA Case Over Alleged Cost-Shifting

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After nearly a decade of litigation, an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over an alleged cost-shifting scheme concerning health plan administrative fees for chiropractic and physical therapy treatment would be resolved in a deal that includes gross amounts of $4.8 million for members of individual and plan classes and a separate $3.55 million for attorney fees and costs under a proposal that the named plaintiff asked a North Carolina federal court to grant preliminary approval.
March 03, 2025
Federal Judge Approves Temple University’s $6.9M Pandemic Closure Settlement

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania issued a final judgment and order granting approval of a $6.9 million settlement that will be paid by Temple University to a class of students who alleged that the school was unjustly enriched and breached its implied contractual duty when it shut its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioned learning to online.
March 03, 2025
Preliminary Approval Of $25M Settlement Granted In Rental Management Pact Case

BUTTE, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana granted preliminary approval of a class settlement between condominium owners and the operator of the ski resort where their units are located that will provide $25 million and prospective relief to end a case over rental management agreements (RMAs).
March 03, 2025
$8.2M Class Settlement Proposed In Suit Over Target Date Funds

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Participants in four defined-contribution pension benefit plans who sued electricity provider PPL Corp. and related defendants under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act over the inclusion of Northern Trust target date funds (TDFs) and other purported mismanagement on Feb. 28 moved in Pennsylvania federal court for preliminary approval of an $8.2 million class settlement.
March 03, 2025
Ukrainians, Others Fleeing Their Countries Bring Immigration Changes Class Suit

BOSTON — A nonprofit and several individuals who fled their home countries due to political instability, persecution and environmental disasters and several citizens of the United States filed a class complaint on Feb. 28 in a federal court in Massachusetts alleging that changes to immigration via President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders (EOs) and a memorandum issued the same by the acting secretary of Homeland Security have dismantled “legally established and Congressionally authorized pathways to the United States.”
February 28, 2025
9th Circuit Reverses, Remands $800,000 Fee Award For $950,000 Class Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court’s approval of $800,000 in attorney fees and costs for a claims-made data breach class settlement that had a redemption value of “at most” about $950,000, but a panel majority approved the underlying settlement with a dissenting judge calling the trial court’s approval “perfunctory.”
February 28, 2025
Class Representative In Oil, Gas Royalty Settlement Opposes Attorney Fee Challenge

DENVER — Parties objecting to the more than $17.3 million in attorney fees awarded as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement have failed to show that final approval was granted in error, the class representative, Chieftain Royalty Co., argues in an appellee brief filed in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
February 27, 2025
Judge Certifies Class Accusing Loan App Operator Of Concealing Fees

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge certified a class of California residents accusing a consumer loan app operator of concealing certain fees while operating as an unlicensed lender in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and California finance laws, denied the app operator’s motion to exclude a plaintiffs’ witness and granted in part the defendant’s motion for summary judgment as to claims regarding its performance fees.
February 26, 2025
Attorneys Get A Third Of $7.1M Settlement Of Class Action Over ESOP Deal

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 25 granted final approval to a $7.1 million class settlement resolving a suit over 2012 and 2013 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deals, awarding the requested 33% attorney fees that total $2,366,666.67 in the case where the plaintiffs said the lodestar based on their counsel’s “reasonable hourly rate” was more than $6.8 million.
February 26, 2025
Class Certification Denied In Moderator Suit Against TikTok For Lack Of Standing

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied a motion for class certification in a putative class action regarding the alleged negligence by TikTok Inc. and its parent company in failing to protect content moderators from harm, finding in part that the plaintiff, a former TikTok moderator, lacks standing for failure to provide evidence showing that “no monitor would remain in the job long enough to pursue a class action.”
February 26, 2025
‘Wholesome’ Claim On High-Sugar Bars Not Puffery, Judge Rules

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a snack maker’s motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit brought against it by a consumer who accuses it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling its fig bar products as healthy and “wholesome” when they in fact contain high levels of sugar, finding that “the word ‘wholesome,’” as used on the defendant’s labels “is not puffery.”
February 26, 2025
Data Location Privacy Class Alleges Violations Of Washington My Health My Data Act

SEATTLE — Mobile applications using the software development kit (SDK) from Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Advertising LLC (together, Amazon) allow for Amazon to harvest location data directly from consumers’ devices without prior notice in violation of consumers’ privacy rights, a Washington woman alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in that state and purported to be the first complaint filed under Washington’s My Health My Data Act (MYMD), which was signed into law in 2023.
February 25, 2025
Louisiana High Court Refuses To Review Ruling In Hurricane Ida Coverage Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court on Feb. 25 denied an insured’s application for writ of certiorari seeking review of a First Circuit Louisiana Court of Appeal panel majority’s holding that a lower court properly interpreted the state Legislature's amendment of Louisiana Revised Statutes Section 22:1892(H) by Act 290 to be a procedural change that applied retroactively and, as a result, eliminated any class action for damages, including bad faith penalties, brought against the state’s insurer of last resort.
February 25, 2025
Putative Class Members Seek Intervention, Stay In Deferred Compensation Row

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arguing ongoing impairment of their right to arbitration, seven former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers moved in North Carolina federal court to intervene and to stay all proceedings in a putative class action in a dispute that the plaintiff argues concerns deferred compensation.
February 25, 2025
Split U.S. High Court: No Attorney Fees For Preliminary Injunctive Relief

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Parties who won preliminary injunctive relief before a case was mooted due to a change in the law are not “‘prevailing part[ies]’” eligible for attorney fees under 42 U.S. Code Section 1988(b) as they have not been “grant[ed] enduring relief on the merits that alters the legal relationship between the parties,” a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 25 in a putative class case over a now-repealed Virginia statute regarding automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for failure to pay certain court fines and fees.
February 25, 2025
Judge Partially Dismisses Claims In UCL Class Suit Over App Cyberbullying

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge partially dismissed a putative class suit against YOLO, a company that designed an anonymous messaging app that allegedly failed to monitor content, purportedly resulting in cyberbullying and the death of one user, finding that the motion to dismiss for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) is granted due to the plaintiffs’ failure to show that they have an inadequate remedy at law.