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Mealey's Class Actions

  • May 02, 2025

    Appellant Urges 9th Circuit To Revive Putative Class ERISA Forfeiture Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A much-watched attempt to revive a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions has commenced, with the appellant filing his opening brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 1.

  • May 02, 2025

    ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

    Class settlements below $5 million have been finalized or proposed in 25 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between late January and late April.

  • May 02, 2025

    Federal Judge Certifies Immigrant Removal Class, Bars Alien Enemies Act Use

    BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on May 1 certified a class of noncitizens in custody in the Southern District of Texas who are subject to removal from the country under a presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the federal government “from detaining transferring, or removing” the class members under the AEA.

  • May 02, 2025

    Investment Firm Says Shale Producers Conspired To Fix Oil Prices, Violated Laws

    CHICAGO — An investment firm has filed a putative class action against multiple oil companies in Illinois federal court alleging that they violated antitrust law and the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by engaging in a conspiracy to coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production through fixing the price of oil and crude oil futures contracts.

  • May 02, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Channel- Stuffing Suit Against Driver Safety Technology Provider

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed a putative securities class action brought by investors alleging that an advanced driver-assistance systems technology company and its executives made misleading statements about the company’s minimum-order contracts that the investors claimed artificially inflated the price of the company’s stock, finding that the investors failed to allege that the company made any material misstatements that would support scheme liability.

  • May 02, 2025

    11th Circuit Sets Argument In Appeal Involving ERISA Exhaustion Precedent

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set oral argument for May 13 in a dispute where appellants seek the overturn of longstanding circuit precedent concerning exhaustion of administrative remedies in Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits.

  • May 01, 2025

    Deal Reported In ERISA Forfeiture Case That Survived Dismissal

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — The parties in a putative class case in which key Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims regarding the use of forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan sponsor’s required contributions survived dismissal have notified a California federal court that they have reached an unspecified proposed settlement.

  • May 01, 2025

    Wash. Noncitizen Resident Granted Preliminary Injunction In Bond Denial Class Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — The lead plaintiff in a putative class lawsuit accusing federal officials of denying bond requests by him and others being held at the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) was granted a preliminary injunction by a federal judge in Washington who directed that the man be provided a bond hearing within 14 days, ordered that the hearing be recorded and enjoined the defendants “from denying bond . . . on the basis that he is detained pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2).”

  • May 01, 2025

    Judge: Student-Athletes’ NIL Sherman Act Class Suit Is Untimely, Barred

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed with prejudice a names, images and likenesses (NIL) putative class complaint filed by 16 former student-athletes who accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association, its conferences and a partner of profiting off the players without obtaining their consent and without compensating them in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

  • April 30, 2025

    Class Certification Granted In Stock Loss Suit Over ‘Sham’ Wells Fargo Interviews

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted class certification to a group of shareholders in their suit against Wells Fargo & Co. and certain of its executives after news of the company’s practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices led to a drop in stock value, finding that the shareholders satisfied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s class certification requirements.

  • April 30, 2025

    Citing Wit, Judge Adds Subclass In ERISA Suit Seeking Reprocessing

    SAN FRANCISCO — In an amended order repeatedly citing an August 2023 Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in a similar case, a California federal judge modified the class definition to add a subclass in a case seeking reprocessing of mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims, denying a competing motion for decertification.

  • April 30, 2025

    News Organization, Workers Agree To $4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $4.5 million settlement to end a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act class case brought by workers against JAF Communications Inc. after they were terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger.

  • April 30, 2025

    U.S. High Court Justices Hear Arguments On Potentially Uninjured Class Members

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys representing Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp), a class of visually impaired consumers and the United States as amicus curiae supporting neither party debated before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 29 whether class certification is appropriate where the class contains members who may have no injury under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 29, 2025

    Class Suit Over Passport Gender Policy Amended After Stay Partially Granted

    BOSTON — An amended class complaint challenging a January executive order (EO) and its implementation that removed the option to designate “X” on passports for those individuals who do not identify as female or male or who wish to keep a specified gender off their passport was filed in a federal court in Massachusetts one week after a judge in that court partially granted a motion to stay agency action and for preliminary injunction.

  • April 29, 2025

    $2.4 Million Settlement Of Anesthesia Firms’ Data Breach Gets Final Approval

    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The same day that a New York federal judge presided over a fairness hearing for a $2.4 million settlement of a data breach suit against an anesthesia provider management company, he granted final approval of the agreement, disposing of putative class negligence and consumer protection violation claims against the firm and its affiliates in an April 28 order.

  • April 29, 2025

    Wedding Planning Website Accused Of Selling Vendors Deceptive ‘Leads’

    LOS ANGELES — A group of vendors that provide wedding-related services on April 28 filed a putative class complaint in California federal court against the operator of wedding planning website “The Knot,” accusing it of fraudulent inducement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for deceiving them into paying thousands of dollars for access to its “lead-generating” service, which either did not produce leads or generated mostly fake leads.

  • April 29, 2025

    Plastic Microwave, Freezer Bags Leach Plastics Into Food, Consumer Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer filed a putative class action in California federal court accusing the manufacturer of “Ziploc” bags of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by deceptively marketing its products for use with food heating and storage as safe when they in fact can leach microplastics into the food of users.

  • April 29, 2025

    Government Seeks Stay Of Injunction In Class Suit Over Parole Grant Terminations

    BOSTON — A federal judge’s preliminary injunction in a class case over the federal government’s en masse rescission of temporary parole grants for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela seeking humanitarian relief “improperly overrode” the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “exercise of discretionary authority,” the federal government argues in a reply in support of an emergency motion for stay filed April 28 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • April 29, 2025

    As 6th Circuit Mulls Rehearing 1 VPPA Suit, High Court Extends Briefing In Another

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a 60-day extension for a man to submit his response to a petition for certiorari pertaining to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in light of his pending rehearing motion in a very similar VPPA lawsuit on appeal in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • April 29, 2025

    Government Claims 2023 Immigrant Separation Pact Allows Legal Service Changes

    SAN DIEGO — A class settlement agreement approved in 2023 that ended claims by immigrants who sued the U.S. government after being separated from their children permits the government to change its method of providing legal services, the federal government argues in an opposition filed in a federal court in California to a motion by the class to enforce the agreement’s provision of legal services.

  • April 29, 2025

    U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Veterans’ Pay In Appeal Of Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 heard arguments from counsel representing veterans and the United States in a class dispute over the application of the Barring Act to settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests.

  • April 28, 2025

    Final Approval Of NIL Student-Athletes Case Delayed For Modifications

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California delayed final approval of a names, images and likenesses (NIL) class settlement that student-athletes have said will result in “$20 billion more flowing to student-athletes over the next ten years” to allow for the parties in the case “to attempt the modify the settlement agreement so that members of the Injunctive Relief Settlement Class will not be harmed by the immediate implementation of the roster limits provisions.”

  • April 28, 2025

    U.S. High Court Skips 2nd ERISA Prohibited Transaction Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an April 28 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a ruling that the petitioners said pertained to whether “a routine, arm’s-length agreement for plan services” can be a prohibited transaction under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; the denial follows a unanimous April 17 reversal the high court issued in a different ERISA prohibited transaction case.

  • April 28, 2025

    Ga. Federal Judge Approves Company’s Class Settlement For PFAS In Drinking Water

    ROME, Ga. —  A specialty chemical manufacturer with admitted involvement in contaminating groundwater in northwest Georgia with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will pay $1 million in class benefits, establish a temporary drinking water fund and pay attorney fees and costs to a group of water subscribers and ratepayers through a partial class action settlement that was granted final approval by a federal judge.

  • April 25, 2025

    Judge OKs Adding Some Claims, Including Forfeiture Ones, In Fiduciary Duty Suit

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Partly granting plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a second amended complaint in their putative class action over management of defined-contribution retirement plans, a Michigan federal judge cited McManus v. Clorox Co. in allowing them to add new claims concerning the common practice of using forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan sponsor’s required contributions.