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Mealey's Class Actions

September 12, 2024
Magistrate Addresses Row Over Documents DOL Gave Plaintiffs Challenging ESOP Deal

DENVER — Ruling that a common interest agreement (CIA) does not protect the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from waiving its privileges and protections by sharing investigative materials with plaintiffs challenging an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal, a Colorado federal magistrate judge on Sept. 11 said the plaintiffs gained “access to information they can leverage, use to take shortcuts, and rely upon to circumvent ordinary discovery protocols.”
September 12, 2024
11th Circuit Won’t Rehear ERISA Fees, Funds Ruling Rejecting Burden-Shifting

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc in which 401(k) plan participants argued that the panel ruling “conflicts with Supreme Court precedent, this Court’s precedent, and other circuits’ authoritative decisions” and that “[w]hich party bears the burden on causation, what satisfies that burden, and the standard for inadvertent waiver of all available remedies are questions of exceptional importance.”
September 11, 2024
Judge Finds PFAS Claims Against Drink Maker Exceed Proposition 65

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge said a consumer’s putative class action against a sports drink maker for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes is not barred under the state’s Proposition 65 because her allegations of health risks caused by the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the product exceed those covered by the regulation, but dismissed several of her claims as insufficiently pleaded.
September 11, 2024
After ERISA 401(k) Win, Defendants Seek Awards Totaling $222,275

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Defendants who won on all claims after a bench trial in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over 401(k) fees and funds have asked a California federal court to award them $10,000 in attorney fees from each of the three named plaintiffs and $192,275.32 in attorney fees and expert expenses from class counsel.
September 11, 2024
Penn State Agrees To $17M Class Settlement In Students’ Pandemic Closure Case

PITTSBURGH — Students who accuse The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) of charging money for in-person education and on-campus access and services but failing to deliver them in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic reached a $17 million class settlement with the school and moved for preliminary approval of the deal in a Pennsylvania federal court.
September 10, 2024
Health Care Biller Will Pay $2.8M To Settle Claims Against It In Data Breach MDL

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts in a Sept. 9 order granted preliminary approval of a $2.8 million settlement to be paid by a health care billing company that is one of a number of defendants in a data breach multidistrict litigation (MDL) that was created in the federal court after a ransomware gang stole the personally identifiable information (PII) of nearly two million individuals from hundreds of businesses that use MOVEit software.
September 10, 2024
Class Counsel Get A Third Of $11.8M ERISA Settlement In Retirement Plan Case

BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge granted final approval to an $11.8 million class settlement that the named plaintiff who challenged management of a Maryland health system 403(b) retirement plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act said “provides for average relief of $481 to Class Members,” also overruling the lone objection to awarding $3,933,333.33 for attorney fees.
September 09, 2024
Class Certification Bid Fails In Remanded ERISA Case Over LTC Premium Hikes

BOSTON — On remand after partial revival of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to long-term care (LTC) insurance premium increases, a Massachusetts federal judge declined to certify injunctive relief and damages classes, saying in part that the central dispute “can only be resolved by examining extrinsic evidence that is necessarily individualized in nature.”
September 09, 2024
3rd Circuit Issues 1 Personal Jurisdiction Ruling In 2 Wiretapping Software Cases

PITTSBURGH — A split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a single opinion addressing jurisdiction in two putative class cases involving wiretapping software affirmed dismissal of one lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction and vacated dismissal of the other and remanded for the trial court to apply the traditional test in Ford Motor Co. v. Mont. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct.
September 09, 2024
Judge Certifies Summary Judgment Ruling In ERISA Fees Case For Publication

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge has agreed to certify for publication a ruling in which she granted summary judgment against the plaintiffs on all claims in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over record-keeping fees after excluding their expert but declining to exclude the defendants’ expert.
September 09, 2024
Judge Approves Settlements For More Than $42.66M Combined In Royalty Class Action

WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia has approved two settlements for a combined $42,667,289 between class representatives and hydraulic fracturing operators related to claims that the companies failed to properly calculate and pay royalties on natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) pursuant to the leases held by the members of the class.
September 06, 2024
Magistrate Judge Allows Rebuttal Witness, 2nd Report In COVID-19 Class Suit

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge on Sept. 5 ruled that a rebuttal witness on ventilation systems can testify for state officials facing a class action from a group of inmates in Oregon prison who allege that they were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when state officials failed to protect them from heightened exposure to COVID-19.
September 06, 2024
9th Circuit Stops Efforts To Revive Behavioral Health Benefits Claim In Coverage Row

SAN FRANCISCO — Saying in an unpublished memorandum disposition that it previously “reversed (without remand) both the district court’s class certification order and merits judgment on the denial of benefits claim,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a mandamus petition in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where health insurance plan participants sought reprocessing of nearly 67,000 mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims.
September 06, 2024
Consumer Drops Suit Accusing Arrowhead Water Of Microplastics Contamination

LOS ANGELES — A consumer filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in California federal court weeks after filing a third amended complaint accusing the company that sells Arrowhead-brand bottled water of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by labeling its product as “100% Mountain Spring Water” when it allegedly contains microplastics that may be detrimental to human health.
September 05, 2024
Judge Again Rejects Gaming Company’s Bid To Arbitrate False Advertising Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — After soliciting another round of supplemental briefing on new state law precedent, a California federal judge on Sept. 4 again denied a gaming company and its co-founders’ motion to compel arbitration of putative class claims against them for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by falsely advertising their mobile games as offering live competition, reiterating that the arbitration agreement is unconscionable and unenforceable.
September 05, 2024
Illinois Data Protection Law Covers Nonprescription Eyewear Setting, Court Says

CHICAGO — Someone trying on nonprescription eyewear through an online tool does not qualify as a patient seeking health care, and the provider’s collection of facial scans in that setting falls outside the exclusion on health care data collection in the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), an Illinois appellate court said in answering a certified question.
September 04, 2024
Woman Says Defective Potassium Pill Caused Mother’s Fatal Cardiac Arrest

NEWARK, N.J. — A woman who alleges that her mother died after ingesting defective potassium chloride pills manufactured by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed suit in a New Jersey federal court, seeking to represent a class of consumers whose damages she says total more than $50 million.
September 04, 2024
Class Action: 3M, DuPont Hid PFAS Dangers In Carpet In ‘Concealment Enterprise’

MINNEAPOLIS — Two consumers filed a putative class action in Minnesota federal court against the 3M Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., and DuPont affiliates, contending that they were fully aware of the health risks posed by stain-repellant products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that they made and sold to carpet manufacturers and others without disclosing the toxicity of the products in what the plaintiffs call the “PFAS Concealment Enterprise.”
September 04, 2024
Judge Denies Motion To Deny Class Certification In Moderator Suit Against TikTok

SAN FRANCISCO — Stating that “the Court is confused as to why this motion was filed at all,” a California federal judge denied a motion to deny class certification by TikTok Inc. and its parent company in a putative class action regarding the defendants’ alleged negligence in failing to protect content moderators from harm, finding that the defendants failed to show why excluding from the class those who signed arbitration agreements “should defeat class certification.”
September 04, 2024
8th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of ERISA Excessive Fee Suit On Benchmarks Issue

ST. LOUIS — Repeatedly citing Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co. and ruling that there was “a lack of meaningful benchmarks suggesting that the costs are too high for a plan of its size,” an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a 401(k) plans fees and funds.
September 04, 2024
Dog Supplement Makers Seek Stay To Petition High Court After Class Ruling

PASADENA, Calif. — The makers of Cosequin, a pet supplement, filed a motion in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay the mandate pending filing of a petition for writ of certiorari; the motion comes about a week after the panel issued an amended opinion affirming a trial court’s grant of class certification to consumers who allege that the products they bought were falsely marketed as improving joint health.
September 04, 2024
Collection Agency Opposes Debtor’s High Court Petition On Intangible Harm, Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — No review is necessary of debtor’s petition for a writ of certiorari concerning standing in a lawsuit over the transmission of debtors’ personal data to a third party as there is no circuit split on the issue of what showing of concrete intangible harm is necessary to establish standing, a collection agency argues in its brief in opposition filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
September 04, 2024
‘Sunday Ticket’ Subscribers Appeal Judgment For NFL After $4.7B Verdict Vacated

LOS ANGELES — Residential and commercial subscribers to DirecTV LLC’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in California after a $4.7 billion jury verdict on their Sherman Act claims was vacated by a judge who granted a motion for judgment as a matter of law filed by the National Football League Inc. (NFL), NFL Enterprises LLC and individual teams.
September 04, 2024
Voluntary Dismissal Conditionally Granted In Underfill Class Suit

SAN DIEGO — In a second pass at the motion following remand by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal judge in California conditionally granted voluntary dismissal without prejudice sought by consumers in their putative class complaint alleging underfill of lower calorie ice cream but instructed that the consumers must pay the ice cream company and its CEO more than half of the attorney fees they requested and refile any new case related to the same issues in the same district court and that the case must be assigned to the same judge.
September 03, 2024
Judge: Investors’ Claims Against TikTok’s Content Moderator Survive Dismissal

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida denied a motion from a French telecommunications company that provided content moderation for TikTok Inc. to dismiss a putative class complaint brought against them by investors who claim that the company made false statements to investors about its use of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) images to train moderators, holding that the investors adequately substantiated falsity and scienter to survive dismissal.