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Mealey's Class Actions

  • August 22, 2025

    Administrative Stay Dissolved, Order Vacated In Immigrant Removal Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dissolved its June 10 administrative stay of a June 4 order by a trial court that partially granted a preliminary injunction and class certification to immigrants challenging their removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) and transfer to a prison in El Salvador; the mandate was filed 11 days after the appellate panel vacated the trial court’s order after the class members were “released from Salvadoran custody and transferred to Venezuela, where they are not likely to remain in custody.”

  • August 22, 2025

    Judge Tosses Online Privacy Class Suits Against ‘People Search’ Providers

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A federal judge dismissed with prejudice putative class action suits filed by a retired law enforcement officer alleging violations of West Virginia’s Daniel’s Law, which provides a private right of action for disclosure of home addresses or unpublished phone numbers of current or former judicial officials, finding that a certain provision of the statute “regulates speech based on its content” and “cannot survive strict scrutiny” under the U.S. Constitution “because it is not narrowly tailored.”

  • August 22, 2025

    Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Claims Will Proceed Against Homeowners Insurers

    SAN DIEGO — An insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims will proceed against homeowners insurers in a putative class action suit filed by a homeowner who claims that her insurer wrongfully refused to renew her homeowners policy because the insured sufficiently alleged facts in support of the claims, a California federal judge said.

  • August 21, 2025

    Deal Reported In Former Twitter Workers’ $500M Lawsuit For Severance

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a joint Aug. 20 filing citing an unspecified “imminent class-wide settlement agreement,” the parties in an appeal where former Twitter Inc. employees received support from amicus curiae the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in seeking revival of their putative class action for more than $500 million in severance benefits asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to postpone oral argument that is scheduled for Sept. 17.

  • August 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Ruling For Government In MPRA Pension Cuts Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Affirming summary judgment for the government in a class action, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that retirees’ attempt to get federal compensation for cuts made to their vested pension benefits fails because the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) “was not a physical taking and plaintiffs did not prove it was a regulatory taking.”

  • August 21, 2025

    Judge: Pension Trust Must Pay Class Nearly $25M In Early Retirement Row

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Wrapping up a 6-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act case filed by labor union members whose early retirement benefits were stopped or denied because of non-boilermaker work, a Kansas federal judge ordered defendants to pay class members a total of $24,851,056 and to refrain from “acting in a manner that is contrary to” an April 30 summary judgment order.

  • August 20, 2025

    Modified Class Certified In USAID Workers’ Shutdown Suit

    GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland certified a modified class of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who allege that actions by Elon Musk and others in the federal government to shut down the agency violate the U.S. Constitution.

  • August 20, 2025

    Addressing Standing, 2nd Circuit Partly Remands ERISA Row Under Cunningham

    NEW YORK — Mostly affirming dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to retirement plan fees and funds, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals used a precedential opinion “to clarify our standards applicable to the standing of a defined contribution plan plaintiff individually and on behalf of a putative class” and a simultaneous summary order to vacate judgment on two claims and remand for further consideration under the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 17 Cunningham v. Cornell University ruling.

  • August 20, 2025

    Investors’ Fraud Claims Over Ethylene Oxide Statements Are ‘Flawed,’ Company Says

    CINCINNATI — A company that sterilizes medical equipment has filed a brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that it should dismiss the appeal of investors who allege the company committed securities fraud in relation to statements it made about litigation involving a subsidiary of the company over personal injury claims connected to exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), the chemical used in the sterilization process. The company argues that the investors assert the “same flawed arguments” on appeal that they asserted at the lower court.

  • August 20, 2025

    Man Says Otter Notetaker Records, Saves Conversations Without Consent

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California man alleges that Otter.ai Inc. does not obtain prior consent of all participants in a virtual meeting before its Notetaker transcription app is engaged to record a conversation, leveling claims of computer fraud, invasion of privacy and unfair competition against the artificial intelligence (AI) technology firm in California federal court.

  • August 20, 2025

    College Gets Final OK To Settle Data Breach Suit For Up To $3,500 Per Person

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Almost five months after preliminarily approving the settlement of a putative class action over a 2023 data breach experienced by an upstate New York college, a New York federal judge granted final approval to the settlement, which boasts an uncapped settlement with an estimated value of $44,720,782.68, including out-of-pocket expenses, credit monitoring and injunctive relief in the form of enhanced data privacy measures on the school’s part.

  • August 19, 2025

    Genetic Data Privacy Suit Against Porta Potty Firm Survives Dismissal

    CHICAGO — A job applicant’s putative class action against a sanitation company under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) may proceed, an Illinois federal judge ruled, concluding that the plaintiff sufficiently pleaded that interview questions about his family’s medical histories constituted a request for genetic information under the statute.

  • August 19, 2025

    2nd Circuit Upholds Arbitration Denial In NFL Coach’s Race Bias Suit

    NEW YORK — Rulings denying arbitration of a National Football League (NFL) coach’s race bias claims against the Denver Broncos and NFL based on his employment agreement with the New England Patriots and denying reconsideration were proper as the coach’s agreement “provides for arbitration in name only and accordingly lacks the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act (‘FAA’),” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming the trial court’s orders in a putative class suit by three current and former NFL coaches.

  • August 19, 2025

    9th Circuit Reverses ‘Child In Care’ Interpretation In Foster Children Class Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a lower court ruling that interpreted the term “child in care” as used in a class action settlement to exclude two groups of children for whom the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) had legal but not physical custody, finding that the children in the groups have a due process right “to be free from serious abuses even when placed with their biological parents.”

  • August 18, 2025

    Class Responds To Anthropic, Amici’s Attempt At Immediate Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A class of copyright holders told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in opposition to artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC’s petition for an immediate appeal of a class certification ruling that summary judgment in the case left only allegations that Anthropic PBC pirated and retained works en masse and that any claim that a verdict would be a death knell for the company is undercut by an agreement to cap the appellate bond at $5 billion.

  • August 15, 2025

    3rd Circuit Holds Shareholder Can’t Opt Out Of Class Action 3 Years Late

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a pharmaceutical company’s shareholder could not opt out of a settlement of a securities fraud class action more than three years after the class opt-out period ended, finding that the shareholder’s continued separate action against the company did not properly show its intent to opt out of the class.

  • August 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Wage Ruling For Immigration Detainee Class

    SEATTLE — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) after the panel majority ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.

  • August 15, 2025

    Timeclock Seller Prevails On Employer’s Cross-Claims In Illinois Privacy Action

    CHICAGO — A company facing an ongoing class action involving finger-scan timeclocks that it sold has had an employer’s cross-claims against it dismissed with prejudice in an Illinois federal court, where a judge recently found that under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), “the templates at issue in this case constitute biometric information.”

  • August 14, 2025

    7th Circuit Rejects Purchasers’ Opposition To $75M Chicken Antitrust Settlement

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a second ruling this year on a settlement in an antitrust case accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken affirmed the trial court’s final approval of the more than $75 million agreement between direct-purchaser plaintiffs (DPPs) and House of Raeford Farms Inc. and Koch Foods Inc., JCG Foods of Alabama LLC, JCG Foods of Georgia LLC and Koch Meat Co. Inc. (together, Koch).

  • August 13, 2025

    Anthropic, Amici Ask 9th Circuit For Review Of Class, Fair Use Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — A ruling denying summary judgment on claims that Anthropic PBC pirated and kept copyrighted works and a second one certifying a class of potentially impacted copyright holders is replete with individuality issues and notice manageability problems and the rushed class ruling prematurely forces the company to grapple with the possibility of billions of dollars in business-ruining damages, the company and various amici curiae tell a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in seeking immediate appeal.

  • August 13, 2025

    Amici Support GEO Group In High Court Appeal Over Interlocutory Orders

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nevada Hospital Association (NHA) filed one of six amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting arguments by The GEO Group Inc. that a decision concerning its entitlement to derivative sovereign immunity as a federal contractor is important enough to the merits that it should be treated as final and thus appealable.

  • August 13, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Of Class Settlement, Certification Granted In RESPA Suit

    FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California preliminarily granted approval of a class action settlement and conditional class certification in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) case, authorizing class members to receive $875 in cash compensation per affected loan with an estimated gross settlement award totaling $30.5 million.

  • August 13, 2025

    $299,000 Class Deal Wins Final OK In ERISA Row Over Plan’s Tobacco Surcharge

    CHICAGO — Resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over annual $1,152 surcharges imposed on about 431 health plan participants who use tobacco, an Illinois federal judge on Aug. 12 gave final approval to a $299,000 class settlement and made awards in the amounts requested, including $99,666.67 for attorney fees and a $5,000 case contribution award.

  • August 13, 2025

    After Bench Trial, Judge Gives Plan Sponsor Win In ERISA Imprudence Row

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Following a four-day Employee Retirement Income Security Act bench trial in a suit over a retirement plan’s recordkeeping fees and share classes, a North Carolina federal judge on Aug. 12 found not only that the class of more than 55,000 participants didn’t establish any breach of the plan sponsor’s fiduciary duty of prudence but also that the sponsor’s process was prudent.

  • August 13, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Vacates Contempt Ruling In Immigrant Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed an appeal by the federal government for lack of appellate jurisdiction and vacated a trial court’s ruling that probable cause exists to determine that the federal government’s actions in an immigrant removal class case constitute criminal contempt, opining that the government “satisfied the stringent requirements for a writ of mandamus.”