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Class Action
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May 20, 2013
Strine Tells Wal-Mart To Dig Deeper For Mexican Bribery Docs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must conduct a more detailed search for documents requested by an institutional investor seeking information about how the retailer's board handled allegations of bribery by its Mexican affiliate, Delaware Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr. said Monday.
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May 20, 2013
Carnival Wants Suits Over Deadly Cruise Wreck Sent To Italy
Two Florida judges are weighing whether to keep putative class actions filed by survivors of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia in their court or dismiss them for refiling in Italy, which Carnival Corp. argued Monday would be a more appropriate venue.
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May 20, 2013
Pfizer Can't Shake Skelaxin Pay-For-Delay MDL
A federal judge on Monday refused to dismiss multidistrict litigation accusing Pfizer Inc.'s King Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. Inc. of keeping generic versions of the muscle relaxer Skelaxin off the market, finding Rite Aid Corp. and others had plausibly alleged a conspiracy.
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May 20, 2013
Nike, Apple Face False Ad Suit Over Fitness Wristband
Sports apparel retailer Nike Inc. and electronics giant Apple Inc. were hit with a proposed class action Friday that challenges their advertising claims that the Nike Plus FuelBand electronic wristband accurately records each calorie burned by its wearer during physical activity.
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May 20, 2013
Sony Wants Toshiba, HannStar Docs In LCD Cartel Suit
A California federal judge should force Toshiba Corp. and HannStar Display Corp. to produce evidence in a suit rolled into multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing of liquid crystal display panels, two Sony Corp. units said Friday.
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May 20, 2013
Apple, Amazon, Google Can't Nix IP Suit Over Music Licensing
A New York federal judge on Monday refused to toss out a proposed class action against Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and others in a copyright infringement suit claiming the tech companies failed to ensure that the music they make available for downloading is properly licensed.
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May 20, 2013
Sprint Asks High Court To Back Arbitration Bid In Fee Suit
A Sprint Nextel Corp. unit has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if a California appeals court skirted its 2011 AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion decision by rejecting Sprint's bid to compel arbitration in a class action over early termination fees.
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May 20, 2013
Investors Give Libor Antitrust Claims Another Shot
Investors pushed Friday to revive their antitrust claims against Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other top banks accused of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate as part of multidistrict litigation over the rate scandal.
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May 20, 2013
BMC Investor Sues To Block $7B Sale To Bain, Golden Gate
A BMC Software Inc. investor on Friday launched a proposed class action in Texas court, complaining that a planned $7 billion sale of the company to Bain Capital LLC and Golden Gate Capital shortchanges shareholders.
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May 20, 2013
Apple, Amazon Fight Over Confidentiality In E-Book Case
Amazon Inc. told a New York federal court Friday that filings in multidistrict litigation alleging Apple Inc. conspired with publishers to fix e-book prices contained business information that should be confidential, prompting Apple to argue the Amazon information was critical to its defense.
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May 20, 2013
Oil Field Workers Say Superior Energy Stiffed Them On OT
Superior Energy Services Inc. deprived over 1,000 Pennsylvania oil field workers of overtime pay by misclassifying them as exempt from federal and state wage laws, according to a proposed class action filed in federal court Friday.
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May 20, 2013
Calif. Insurer Accused Of Bilking Policyholders
A California man claiming he is being shortchanged on his medical insurance benefits lodged a putative class action in state court accusing Unum Life Insurance Co. of America of denying an annual benefit increase guaranteed in its long-term care policies.
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May 20, 2013
High Court Snubs Nucor's Class Cert. Appeal In Bias Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal from Nucor Corp. of a ruling awarding class certification to black workers for the company’s South Carolina factory, who sued alleging they worked in a hostile environment and faced racial discrimination.
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May 20, 2013
Smithfield Unit Ordered To Pay Workers For Prep Time
A federal judge determined Friday that a class of workers at a pork processing plant owned by a Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary should be compensated for time spent changing into and out of their uniforms, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Alvarez v. IBP Inc.
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May 20, 2013
Latham Blasts Oxbow DQ Bid In Rail Price-Fixing MDL
Latham & Watkins LLP said Friday it should be able to continue representing Union Pacific Railroad Co. in multidistrict price-fixing litigation, slamming Oxbow Carbon & Mineral LLC for allegedly dropping most of its original arguments in a bid to disqualify the firm.
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May 20, 2013
Macy's Security Checks Violate Wage Laws, Suit Says
An ex-Macy's Corporate Services Inc. employee urged a California federal judge Monday to certify a class of 84,000 current and former workers who claim the department store chain required them to submit to off-the-clock loss-control inspections of their belongings, but didn't pay them for that time.
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May 20, 2013
High Court To Review Preemption Of Frequent Flier Suits
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether or not the Airline Deregulation Act preempts breach of contract suits against airlines, granting writ to a proposed class action brought by consumers against a Delta Airlines Inc. subsidiary.
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May 20, 2013
Federal Law Preempts BofA Seating Suit, Judge Says
A California federal judge on Monday tossed a putative class action against Bank of America Corp. over suitable seating for its tellers, finding a California regulation requiring suitable seating in the workplace “offends and frustrates” the intent of the National Banking Act.
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May 20, 2013
Class Cert. Premature In Bogus Starbucks Texts Suit: Judge
A Florida federal judge said Friday that it was "extremely premature" to certify a class of consumers who allege that marketing firm Acquinity Interactive LLC used bogus text messages promising free Starbucks Corp. drinks to trick consumers into forking over their personal information.
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May 20, 2013
Crate & Barrel Must Face Privacy Suit Over Recorded Calls
A California federal judge Thursday declined to dismiss a proposed class suit alleging the furniture store Crate & Barrel unlawfully recorded customer phone calls, saying she was skeptical that the California Legislature intended to exempt customer service calls from state privacy laws.
Expert Analysis
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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5 Overlooked Reasons To Be Class Rep In An Antitrust Suit
In many circumstances in antitrust litigation, standing up as a class representative may be an effective way to protect the company’s interests while assuring that it and other victims of anti-competitive behavior receive the monetary recovery they deserve, say Kellie Lerner and Ryan Marth of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Recent Trends In M&A And Corporate Fiduciary Litigation
In 2012, shareholders challenged 93 percent of all merger and acquisition transactions with a value greater than $100 million and 96 percent of M&A transactions with a value greater than $500 million. In other words, it almost is inevitable nowadays that litigation will follow a merger or going private announcement — with an average of about five lawsuits per transaction, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Libor Litigation Must Overcome Significant Obstacles
When U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a consolidated, multidistrict batch of antitrust and racketeering suits in Manhattan earlier this spring, she suggested plaintiffs seeking to recover from banking giants at the heart of the interest rate-fixing scandal might have better luck with securities fraud claims. But those plaintiffs will need to be lucky indeed. Two recent developments show that obstacles are inherent and, perhaps, insurmountable, say attorneys with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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Tips For Your Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan Policy
Now that investigations have been initiated by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the SEC into possible abuses by corporate executives of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, the private securities bar inevitably will follow suit and file litigation. Nevertheless, these plans continue to be an effective defense against allegations of insider trading, say attorneys with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
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What Sponsors Must Know About Litigation On Church Plans
Recently, two firms have filed class actions against three Catholic Church-affiliated health care facilities, claiming that their pension plans should be subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. These cases could have a profound effect on all church plan sponsors, regardless of whether they have previously obtained favorable church plan rulings, say attorneys with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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A Model For Facing Meritless Derivative Suits In Pa.
The decision by the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in In re H.J. Heinz Co. Derivative and Class Action Litigation represents a faithful application of the American Law Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance, which were formally adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the landmark decision Cuker v. Mikalauskas, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.
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Horses Are Off The Shelves, But Litigation Will Continue
Regulators, food distributors and lawyers are scrambling to determine the legal and reputational consequences of the still-growing horse meat scandal that recently hit Europe. Amid the recalls, finger-pointing and consumer outrage, one thing remains certain: You will have time to bet on many Derby winners before this scandal is fully resolved, say attorneys with Cozen O'Connor.
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Sui Generis At Supreme Court
Not since Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933 have we seen a Supreme Court so imbalanced that it would throw its own power away as it did in Twombly, Iqbal and Concepcion, or devalue its own authority through matters of little interest, simply for the benefit of large American corporations, says Fred Isquith of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.