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

Mealey's Class Actions

September 26, 2025
$8.25M Class Deal Ends ERISA Recordkeeping Case After Release Adjustments

BOSTON — Following last-minute adjustments suggested by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and an independent fiduciary, a Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 25 granted final approval to an $8.25 million class settlement that resolved an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s allegedly excessive recordkeeping fees.
September 25, 2025
Reese’s ‘Pumpkin’ Class Action Dismissed For Lack Of Article III Standing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge has dismissed without prejudice a putative class action complaint alleging that Reese’s Halloween-themed peanut butter cups are misleading because the candies don’t have the carved “eyes” and “teeth” that the package depicted, finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege a concrete injury.
September 25, 2025
A 2nd Pension Risk Transfer Case Is Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

ALBANY, N.Y. — Nearly six months after the first two rulings on dismissal motions in a much-watched recent set of putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) that retirees allege increase the possibility that they won’t get all of their promised benefits because of factors including offshore captive reinsurance, a New York federal judge issued the third ruling on Sept. 24, granting dismissal without prejudice for failure “to plausibly allege any injury-in-fact sufficient to establish standing.”
September 25, 2025
Florida Health System Granted Sovereign Immunity In Class Suit Over Data Sharing

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Florida health care provider that is a political subdivision of the state is entitled to sovereign immunity from putative class claims by a patient who alleged that patients’ privacy rights were violated when their medical information was transmitted to Facebook, a federal judge in Florida ruled Sept. 24.
September 25, 2025
ERISA Complaints Target Health Plans For Offering Allegedly ‘Dominated’ Option

Two sets of plaintiffs represented by the same counsel have filed similar putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class complaints against sponsors and administrators of self-funded health plans set up on a preferred provider organization (PPO) basis, alleging in part that they “have breached their fiduciary duty of prudence by assembling a menu of PPO options where there is no financial benefit to selecting” one option.
September 25, 2025
Judge Finds Pension Fund Didn’t Allege Stock-Drop Losses Caused By Misstatements

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California dismissed a pension fund’s class action complaint against a biopharmaceutical company and certain of its executives after the company’s stock price dropped when a collaborating company ended their collaboration agreement, finding that while it alleged sufficient facts to satisfy falsity and scienter requirements under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the pension fund did not sufficiently allege that its losses were caused by the company’s alleged misstatements.
September 24, 2025
Stay Granted For Mediation Of Class Suit Over Aerospace Parts Maker Explosion

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Sept. 23 granted a joint motion to stay pending mediation multiple putative class cases by individuals and businesses who allege that they were negatively impacted by a February 2025 fire and explosion at a suburban Philadelphia aerospace parts plant.
September 24, 2025
Claims Over Website’s Sharing ED Data With Google, Meta Lack Support, Judge Finds

SAN FRANCISCO — Three men who claimed that an erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment website improperly shared their protected health information (PHI) with Google LLC and Meta Platforms Inc. failed to demonstrate that they did not consent to this sharing by agreeing to terms in the operative version of the website operator’s privacy policy, a California federal judge ruled Sept. 23.
September 24, 2025
U.S. As Amicus Argues Derivative Sovereign Immunity Is Defense, Not Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States filed a motion to participate in oral argument and an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a detainee class which argues GEO Group Inc. has failed to show that a ruling against it when it sought to assert a defense under Yearsley v. W.A. Ross Construction Co. is immediately appealable.
September 24, 2025
Judge Approves $300,000 Settlement In Securities Action Over False Statements

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $300,000 settlement in a securities class action brought by investors against an aerospace-based communication network product company and two of its executives that alleged that the company provided materially false and misleading statements about its production yields and their impact on the company’s revenue growth.
September 24, 2025
Fracking Operator: Plaintiffs’ Experts Fail Standard Under Rule Of Evidence 702

PITTSBURGH — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed two reply briefs in Pennsylvania federal court seeking to exclude plaintiffs’ witnesses in a royalty dispute, arguing that neither expert meets the standard for admissibility under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. With regard to one of the experts, Barry Pulliam, the company insists that “given his admittedly questionable expertise,” the plaintiffs’ “attempt to slip Mr. Pulliam’s Count III opinions in the back door through hypotheticals fails.”
September 24, 2025
Judge Talks Attorney Fees Justification In Granting Final OK To $7.9M ERISA Deal

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Devoting several pages to explaining why he overruled the lone objection to awarding a third of the $7.9 million class settlement for attorney fees, a Connecticut federal judge granted final approval to the deal resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning alleged underperformance that the plaintiff claimed was caused by a now-bankrupt hedge fund management company directing all the assets of its 401(k) plan into proprietary hedge and mutual funds that used “alternative” investment strategies.
September 23, 2025
Negligence, Contract Claims Over Organ Donation Firm’s Data Exposure May Proceed

RICHMOND, Va. — An organ donor whose personally identifiable information (PII) was potentially exposed in an unencrypted state for 16 years adequately alleged negligence and breach of contract claims against the donor administration organization, a Virginia federal judge concluded, mostly denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
September 22, 2025
J&J, Amicus Warn Of ‘Problematic’ Talc Securities Class Ruling

PHILADELPHIA — The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) in a Sept. 19 amicus curiae brief in support of a petition for rehearing warns the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that its ruling holding Johnson & Johnson liable for new “signals” about existing facts threatens the ability to rebut assumptions about the integrity of market pricing with widespread fallout. Earlier, Johnson & Johnson and certain executives told the court in their petition that the divided opinion will have a “problematic” influence in district court cases involving billions of dollars.
September 22, 2025
Minors Sue Disney Over Data Collection On Videos For Children

LOS ANGELES — Three minors filed a putative class action in California state court accusing two Disney companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by failing to designate certain YouTube videos as “for kids” and collecting information about those viewers, which was also the subject of a recent $10 million settlement by Disney with the Federal Trade Commission.
September 19, 2025
Final Approval Given To $20 Million Global Settlement Of Fortra Data Breach MDL

MIAMI — Five months after a Florida federal judge preliminarily approved a $20 million global settlement of a multidistrict litigation over a 2023 data breach experienced by users of a file-transfer program, he granted final approval to the settlement, thus resolving all remaining claims against software firm Fortra LLC, its customers and their clients by class members who claim that their personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised in the cyberattack.
September 18, 2025
Settlement Of Over $20.5M Wins Final OK In Medical Benefits For Retirees Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Noting that the claims relied “on evidence of oral misrepresentations and a lack of written plan amendment purporting to terminate the at-issue retiree medical benefits,” a California federal magistrate judge granted final approval to a $20,545,000 settlement under which the average gross recovery for members of the opt-out settlement class is estimated at $30,710.01.
September 18, 2025
Detainee Class: Derivative Sovereign Immunity Ruling Not Immediately Appealable

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The GEO Group Inc. has failed to show that a ruling against it when it sought to assert a defense under Yearsley v. W.A. Ross Construction Co. in a class complaint by detainees is immediately appealable, the class tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its respondent brief.
September 18, 2025
1st Circuit Vacates Stay Of Parole Termination For Certain Noncitizens

BOSTON — Noncitizens who brought a class complaint challenging changes made to immigration policies via executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump immediately after his January inauguration have failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims, and the risk of irreparable harm to that class “cannot, by itself, support a stay,” the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, vacating an April order that granted temporary relief; that April order was stayed in May by a divided U.S. Supreme Court.
September 18, 2025
Meta Denied Posttrial JMOL, Decertification Motions In Period App Privacy Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Rejecting an attempt by Meta Platforms Inc. “to overturn just about everything related to the verdict” in a trial over its purported eavesdropping and data collection from an ovulation-tracking app in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), a California federal judge denied the social media operator’s motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) and to decertify the class of app users.
September 17, 2025
4th Circuit Will Consider Standing Issue In ERISA Pension Risk Transfer Case

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to allow an interlocutory appeal of a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched recent string of Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) where, among other things, retirees allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes annuity providers riskier.
September 17, 2025
Data Breach Suit Against Casino Mostly Survives Dismissal

LAS VEGAS — The operator of a casino that was hit by a data breach in 2024 saw its motion to dismiss putative class privacy, negligence and unfair competition claims mostly denied by a Nevada federal judge, who found that a group of customers and former employees adequately alleged most of their claims and supported them with assertions of cognizable injuries.
September 17, 2025
Judge Dismisses Putative Class Over Alleged Faulty Genetic Testing For Embryos

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge found that a group of consumers alleging that they would not have purchased preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) if they had known of its failure rates lacked standing for failing to state an injury and dismissed the putative class complaint without prejudice.
September 16, 2025
6th Circuit Upholds No Standing Ruling In Contaminated Peanut Butter Class Case

CINCINNATI — Consumers who brought putative class claims after peanut butter products were voluntarily recalled following an investigation into a Salmonella outbreak failed to show injury in fact and failed to raise an alternate claim of “adulterated” products before the trial court, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming a trial court’s dismissal in an unpublished opinion.
September 16, 2025
Pension Funds Fail To Plead Falsity Regarding Airplane Part Defects

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut dismissed pension funds’ securities fraud class action against an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation and certain of its officers and directors, finding the pension funds did not adequately plead falsity or scienter regarding statements made about a powdered metal defect in airplane engine parts the company manufactured.