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Mealey's Class Actions

  • April 10, 2026

    Partial Dismissal Granted In Class Suit Over DraftKings ‘Deceptive’ Advertising

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge dismissed in part a putative class action against DraftKings Inc., a gambling company that offers online betting, and related entities, asserting claims for violations of a Pennsylvania consumer protection law, unjust enrichment and intentional misrepresentation related to “deceptive” advertising for certain betting promotions, finding that some of the claims under state law failed because the plaintiffs did not show “ascertainable loss” and the losses asserted were “inherently speculative.”

  • April 10, 2026

    AI Hiring Startup Hit With Data Breach Class Suit After Supply Chain Attack

    SAN FRANCISCO — A New York man filed a class complaint in a federal court in California seeking monetary and equitable relief for a putative class of former contract workers and customers of a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence hiring startup whose data was allegedly stolen due to a supply chain attack.

  • April 10, 2026

    Judge Approves $12.5M Deal To End Stock Drop Suit Against Health Care Company

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a $12.5 million settlement entered into by investors and a health care company and its president to end a suit the investors brought alleging the defendants misled investors about the president’s education and the company’s contracts.

  • April 10, 2026

    4 Settlements Totaling $44.05M OK’d In Home Sellers’ Commissions Conspiracy Case

    ATLANTA — Four real estate brokerages will pay a total of $44.05 million to end home sellers’ putative class claims accusing them of engaging in a nationwide conspiracy with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and other brokerages to artificially inflate broker compensation, according to settlement agreements that were granted final approval by a federal judge in Georgia over two objections, one of which was made by plaintiffs in two similar class suits who accused two of the settling defendants of conducting a “reverse auction.”

  • April 10, 2026

    Judge: Retirees Have Standing To Challenge PRT But Didn’t State Claims

    SEATTLE — Adding to the mixed record in a string of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to pension risk transfers (PRTs), a Washington federal judge granted dismissal of the putative class suit with leave to amend upon concluding that Weyerhaeuser Co. retirees had standing but failed to plausibly state their claims.

  • April 09, 2026

    Judge Finds Banks’ Proxy Statements Over Merger Not Misleading

    WILMINGTON, Del. — In the latest decision in a long-running case brought by shareholders regarding the merger between M&T Bank Corp. and Hudson City Bancorp Inc., a federal judge in Delaware granted summary judgment in favor of the banks and their respective directors, finding that the banks did not provide any misleading information in their joint proxy statement informing shareholders of the merger.

  • April 09, 2026

    Ore. Appeals Panel Reverses Verdict For Wildfire Class Due To Erroneous Instruction

    SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon trial court made a prejudicial error when it instructed a jury in Phase I of a bifurcated trial seeking damages from a power company accused of negligence that caused multiple Oregon wildfires in September 2020 “that it could ‘assume that the evidence at the trial applies to all class members,’” an Oregon appellate panel ruled April 8, reversing the verdicts of millions of dollars for economic and noneconomic damages.

  • April 09, 2026

    3 Universities Dismissed In Student Athletes’ Class, Collective Wage Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed three Division I schools — Sacred Heart University, University of Notre Dame du Lac and Duke University — from a putative class and collective action lawsuit by former student athletes who allege they are employees who are owed wages by their respective schools and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

  • April 08, 2026

    Judge: Allegedly Misleading Statements In Stock Drop Suit Unactionable

    PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that the judge grant in part and deny in part a motion to dismiss investors’ securities fraud case against DICK’s Sporting Goods and certain of its executives regarding allegedly false and misleading statements about the state of its inventory, finding that most of the statements are unactionable.

  • April 08, 2026

    Trustees Win Summary Judgment In Multiemployer Health Plan Class Action

    CHICAGO — Saying in part that “even after ample discovery, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that Defendants’ administration of the Plans caused them harm,” an Illinois federal judge granted summary judgment for the trustees of a nationwide multiemployer health plan on all claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over plan expenses and allocations.

  • April 08, 2026

    2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Solar Panel Manufacturer Stock Drop Suit

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of investors’ putative class action against a manufacturer of solar panels and its officers, directors, former shareholders and underwriters regarding alleged misstatements the company made about the impact of rising steel costs on the company’s business, finding that the investors failed to bring their securities fraud claims with the necessary specificity.

  • April 08, 2026

    9th Circuit Says Homeowners Lack Standing To Sue Anchor Maker, Affirms Sanctions

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a judgment on the pleadings in favor of two companies accused in a long-running putative class suit of selling homeowners defective anchors and said the case should have been dismissed for lack of standing.  The panel split in affirming $85,000 in attorney fees as sanction against the plaintiffs for filing a “baseless” complaint.

  • April 07, 2026

    ERISA Suit Over Health Plan’s Purportedly ‘Dominated’ Option Survives Dismissal

    CHICAGO — A putative class case over allegations that an employer breached its fiduciary duty by offering an option in its self-funded health plan that offers “no financial or medical benefit” compared to cheaper options and failed to inform plan participants of that fact has survived dismissal, with a Chicago federal judge ruling that the plaintiffs have standing and that their claims are plausible.

  • April 06, 2026

    3 Jan. 6, Protesters File Class Suit Alleging Excessive Force By Police

    OCALA, Fla. — Three individuals present at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, during the insurrection filed a putative class complaint against the United States in a federal court in Florida alleging that they were part of “a peaceful crowd” and were physically and emotionally injured by “explosive munitions, chemical agents, and impact projectiles” directed into the crowd by police; they seek more than $18.4 million.

  • April 06, 2026

    Federal Judge Refuses To Reconsider No Coverage Ruling In Suit Brought By Potbelly

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 3 refused to reconsider his ruling last month that granted an employment practices liability insurer’s motion to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shop restaurants, holding that the Washington Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Branson v. Washington Fine Wine & Spirits, LLC “does not materially affect” his finding that there is no coverage owed for an underlying putative class alleging the insured violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act.

  • April 06, 2026

    Stanley Tumbler Buyers Fail To Show Lead Causes ‘Material’ Harm, Judge Says

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on April 3 granted a motion filed by the manufacturer of Stanley-brand tumblers to dismiss an amended putative class action lawsuit against it for violating several states’ consumer protection laws, including California’s unfair competition law (UCL), by failing to disclose the presence of lead in its products, writing that the plaintiffs failed to allege that the use of lead to insulate the tumblers would harm consumers.

  • April 06, 2026

    Catholic Donor Argues Against High Court Review Of Church Autonomy Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for a writ of certiorari posing a church autonomy question in a putative class case accusing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) of fraud related to Peter’s Pence Collection as no circuit split actually exists, the rulings on the issues are correct and the case presents a poor vehicle to decide the question presented, a Catholic donor argues in his April 3 opposition brief.

  • April 02, 2026

    Data Breach Suit Dismissed, But Some Claims Ordered For Arbitration Resolution

    ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge ruled that customers whose personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised in a 2024 data breach sufficiently alleged Article III standing in a consolidated amended class action complaint, but dismissed their claims without prejudice for failure to state a claim, compelled arbitration for two named individuals based on loan-related agreements and denied without prejudice arbitration as to two others due to a factual dispute.

  • April 02, 2026

    Protective Order Sought In Epstein Privacy Violation Suit Against Google, DOJ

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — An alleged victim of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein filed a motion in California federal court seeking a protective order to proceed under a pseudonym in her putative class suit alleging that U.S. Department of Justice violated the Privacy Act by wrongfully disclosing her personally identifiable information and that of other victims of Epstein when releasing files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act and that Google LLC continues to republish that information.

  • April 02, 2026

    After Bench Trial, Defendants Prevail In Class Action Over ESOP Refinancing

    ALBANY, N.Y. — Following a bench trial in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action challenging a 2011 refinancing that employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants alleged improperly benefited the company’s co-presidents, a Georgia federal judge entered judgment for the defendants on the grounds that “the fraud concealment exception does not apply,” so all the claims were untimely.

  • April 02, 2026

    Class Suit Alleges FBI Employees Were Fired For Perceived Political Affiliation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three former Federal Bureau of Investigation employees seek reinstatement in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia in which they allege they were wrongly fired because FBI Director Kashyap P. Patel and Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi “perceived them to be political opponents.”

  • April 02, 2026

    Judge Reduces Attorney Fee Award, Approves Settlement In Google Data Sharing Row

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Deeming the proposed settlement “fair, adequate, and reasonable,” a California federal judge approved a settlement in a consolidated class action lawsuit over Google LLC’s purported data sharing via its real-time bidding (RTB) and granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees, costs and service awards, applying the lodestar method to assess attorney fees due to the “speculative” nature of the plaintiffs’ evidence regarding the success of the injunctive relief sought.

  • April 01, 2026

    Meaning Of Domicile Debated During High Court Birthright Citizenship Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. solicitor general and Cecillia D. Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation debated the meaning and impact of “domicile” before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 1 during oral arguments in a provisionally certified class case challenging a January 2025 executive order (EO) that would end birthright citizenship by requiring at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

  • April 01, 2026

    Defendants Win Summary Judgment In Suit Over ESOP Releveraging Deal

    FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Granting summary judgment for the defendants in a suit over an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) releveraging deal, an Arkansas federal judge ruled in part that the argument that the plan sponsor and company leaders were functional fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act is a “strained” one “unsupported by the facts.”

  • April 01, 2026

    3 More Rulings Buck Dismissal Trend In ERISA Forfeiture Cases

    Case law in the wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits concerning retirement plan use of forfeitures continues to be mixed; although the majority of decisions on dismissal motions continue to favor defendants, including in seven dismissal rulings handed down in the last two months, that same period brought three rulings that allowed cases to continue.