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

Mealey's Class Actions

October 15, 2024
New York Times’ Auto Renewal Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $2,375,000 nonreversionary cash settlement to be paid by The New York Times Co. to end a class complaint accusing the newspaper publisher of engaging in an illegal “automatic renewal” scheme on its website and mobile application for The New York Times newspaper, approved the award of attorney fees, costs and expenses of $791,666.66 and approved a class representative incentive award of $5,000; the approval followed additional settlement negotiations after the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed final approval of a settlement that included $1.65 million in cash plus “coupons.”
October 15, 2024
Reconsideration Of Latest Postjudgment Ruling Denied In ERISA Conversion Case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge has denied a motion that she said asked her “to reconsider and reverse virtually every aspect of” a postjudgment ruling for Cigna Corp. and its pension plan (together, Cigna); the motion was filed by the class that earlier achieved some success in a challenge to the plan’s 1998 conversion.
October 15, 2024
Temple University Agrees To $6.9M Class Settlement In Pandemic Closure Suit

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia university has agreed to pay $6.9 million to end a consolidated class complaint by students accusing the school of unjust enrichment and breaching its implied contractual duty to provide in-person education and access to campus services when it shut its doors in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an unopposed motion for preliminary settlement approval filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.
October 14, 2024
Fan’s Suit Over Mets’ Use Of Biometric Identifiers Removed To Federal Court

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The company that owns the New York Mets removed a putative class action over the alleged violation of a New York City biometrics law to federal court, citing jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
October 14, 2024
Appeal And Attorney Fee Bid Are Dropped In ERISA Imprudence Case

SANTA ANA, Calif. — An appeal filed after defendants won on all claims after a bench trial in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over 401(k) fees and funds has been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice pursuant to a stipulation, and the defendants told a California federal court they are withdrawing a fee award request and an application to tax costs.
October 14, 2024
Privacy Claims Over Health Care Provider’s Use Of Facebook Pixel May Proceed

OAKLAND, Calif. — Mostly denying a health care organization’s motion to dismiss putative class privacy claims against it, a California federal judge found that a plaintiff sufficiently alleged most of her claims that the defendant’s use of Facebook Pixel to forward URLs and other information from her use of the company’s website to the social media company violates California law and the state’s constitution.
October 11, 2024
Another ERISA Effective Vindication Ruling Gets Certiorari Petition Treatment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Oct. 10 filing, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participant waived his right to respond to a certiorari petition in which the plan’s trustee urges the U.S. Supreme Court to address what it says is a circuit split on whether to “recognize the availability of individual arbitration for [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] claims.”
October 11, 2024
Judge Makes Tentative Findings In ERISA Row Over Spin-Off, Retirement Benefits

PHILADELPHIA — Following a six-day bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over corporate restructuring that affected early retirement and optional retirement benefits, a Pennsylvania federal judge on Oct. 10 issued tentative findings of fact regarding liability issues and a related procedural order.
October 11, 2024
11th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Short Squeeze Investor Suit Under N.Y. Law

ATLANTA — Saying in an unpublished per curiam opinion that retail investors “failed to show that [securities broker-dealer Apex Clearing Corp.] is liable for its actions under New York law,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of a putative class case that was part of multidistrict litigation over the January 2021 halting of retail investor trading in certain meme stocks.
October 10, 2024
Judge Dismisses PFAS Diaper Class Action, Says Allegations Not Plausibly Alleged

NEW YORK— A federal judge in New York has dismissed a putative class action lawsuit brought by a woman who contended that the maker of diapers falsely advertised that its product was free from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which the plaintiff said induced her to spend more money on the diapers. The judge held that the complaint failed to plausibly allege that the diapers were mislabeled.
October 10, 2024
Judge Largely Denies Bid To Seal Order Certifying Class In Gun Barrel Defect Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion to seal his recent order certifying a class action accusing the manufacturers of Glock handguns of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by failing to warn consumers of an alleged barrel defect, agreeing to seal one sentence but finding that the other disputed information in the ruling was already “discussed in the public hearing.”
October 10, 2024
Wiretap, Privacy Claims Over TikTok’s In-App Browser Largely Survive Dismissal

CHICAGO — Mostly denying a motion to dismiss by TikTok Inc., an Illinois federal judge found that most of the claims over the purported collection of personally identifiable information (PII) by the company’s in-app browser (IAB) were sufficiently pleaded by the named plaintiffs at this stage of a multidistrict litigation against the social media firm.
October 09, 2024
Final Approval Granted To $75M Settlement, Fees In Investor Suit Against Tech Firm

SAN DIEGO — In a securities class action, a California federal judge granted final approval to a $75 million settlement and awarded the plaintiffs’ counsel 23% of the settlement fund for attorney fees, bringing an end to claims brought by investors in Qualcomm Inc. against the company and certain of its executives alleging that the company issued false claims to investors about certain company practices.
October 10, 2024
9th Circuit Unseals Driver’s Brief Challenging GEICO’s ‘Unfair’ COVID-19 Rebates

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unsealed a brief filed by a driver appealing a federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on her class action claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) to GEICO for allegedly unfairly retaining an estimated $238 million in additional premium relief the driver says it owed insureds after the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 10, 2024
Meta Asks High Court To Review Class Certification Ruling In Advertising Fraud Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Meta Platforms Inc. filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming the certification of a damages class in a suit alleging fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment related to Meta’s online advertising services, asserting that review is necessary because “the Ninth Circuit applied a one-sided deference regime that stacks the deck in favor of class certification, in conflict with all other circuits” except the Second Circuit.
October 09, 2024
7th Circuit Determines Showing For Class Certification Under Rule 23(c)(4)

CHICAGO — Certifying a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(c)(4) requires both a showing that “common questions predominate” as to the certified issues and a showing that certification of those issues is “the most practical and efficient way to resolve the litigation,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s decertification of a Rule 23(c)(4) class of workers in a wage-and-hour dispute.
October 09, 2024
$6 Million Settlement Of MDL Over Health Care Firms’ Data Breach Gets Final OK

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Six months after he preliminarily approved a $6 million settlement of a multidistrict litigation over a 2020 data breach experienced by a pediatric medical services provider, a Florida federal judge granted a motion by the plaintiffs for final approval of that settlement, as well as an accompanying motion for attorney fees and costs.
October 09, 2024
NCAA, Conferences’ NIL Agreement With Student-Athletes Preliminarily Approved

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted preliminary approval to an amended settlement agreement in a lawsuit by college athletes who have accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and five conferences of violating the Sherman Act by restricting compensation for the commercial use of their names, images and likenesses; the student-athletes report that the revisions to the NCAA rules will result in an estimated “$20 billion more flowing to student-athletes over the next ten years.”
October 09, 2024
Case Alleging Company Used Meta Tools To Collect Patient Data Moves Forward

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge allowed a proposed class action against a health care system to proceed after finding that the patients sufficiently asserted claims that the company used Meta Platform Inc.’s collection tools to share their health care data.
October 09, 2024
$490M Settlement Between Apple, Investors Over IPhone Sales Gets Final OK

OAKLAND, Calif. — Finding it “fair, adequate, and reasonable,” a federal judge in California granted final approval of a $490 million settlement in a class complaint brought by investors in Apple Inc. who say the company’s CEO issued misleading statements about Apple’s sales of iPhones in China and awarded class counsel $107.8 million, or 22% of the settlement fund, in attorney fees.
October 09, 2024
Labor Union Denied Early Appeal Of Partial Dismissal In Data Breach Suit

NEW YORK — Deeming a labor union’s reading of controlling case law to be “plainly wrong,” a New York federal judge declined to certify for interlocutory appeal his previous ruling that permitted most of the plaintiff union members’ claims related to a 2023 data breach to proceed.
October 08, 2024
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Preliminary Injunction And Attorney Fees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A preliminary injunction is nothing more than “a threshold prediction of the likelihood of success based on a truncated record” and can’t make a plaintiff a prevailing party for the purposes of awarding attorney fees, an attorney representing the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles argued Oct. 8 before the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 08, 2024
E-Cig MDL Plaintiffs Seek Authorization To Distribute $201M To 842K Class Members

SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in a California federal court multidistrict litigation who settled class personal injury and consumer protection claims against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries for approximately $300 million filed a motion asking the court to authorize the distribution of $201 million in settlement funds to satisfy more than 842,000 valid claims.
October 07, 2024
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Jurisdiction After Amended Class Complaint

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ determination that an amended class complaint no longer belonged in federal court after all references to federal law have been eliminated “is an extreme outlier” and “conflicts with the text and structure of [28 U.S. Code] Section 1367 and with more than a century of precedent,” an attorney representing the makers of prescription pet food argued Oct. 7 before the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 07, 2024
Settlement With ‘Landmark’ $10M Recovery Gets Initial OK In Mortality Table Row

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal granted preliminary approval to a class settlement including what retirees said would be a “landmark recovery” of $10 million on Oct. 4; the proposal in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over allegedly outdated mortality tables used to calculate joint and survivor annuity (JSA) benefits in two Citgo Petroleum Corp. pension plans also includes up to $4.75 million for attorney fees, expenses and service awards.