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

Mealey's Class Actions

September 02, 2025
$332M Deal Would End Residual Annuities Class Action Filed Under ERISA

NEW YORK — A long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities would be resolved under a proposed $332 million settlement that the 1,177-member class of retirees partly unveiled Aug. 29 in a New York federal court.
September 02, 2025
3rd Circuit: NFL Player’s Attorney Gets Costs, No Fees After Concussion Settlement

PHILADELPHIA — A retired National Football League (NFL) player’s former counsel is entitled to costs only, not fees, for its efforts in representing the players in a now-settled concussion injury multidistrict litigation, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a special master’s recommendation that was adopted by a trial court judge.
September 02, 2025
Split 6th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Class Suit Over College’s Rape Response

CINCINNATI — Two female college students who brought a putative class complaint against their school over the way in which their reports of being raped by other students were handled failed to show disparate treatment, a divided Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the case.
September 02, 2025
Split 2nd Circuit: Investors Alleged Actionable Misstatements Against Peloton

NEW YORK — A split panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that investors plausibly alleged Peloton Interactive Inc. and its executives stated two actionable material misstatements, vacating in part a lower court’s dismissal of the investors’ stock-drop suit against the company and executives.
September 02, 2025
Judge On Remand: Benefits Never Vested In Life Insurance Termination Case

WHEELING, W.V. — On remand from a split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, a West Virginia federal judge conducted a two-day bench trial in the class action that unsuccessfully challenged termination of retiree life insurance coverage, then ruled that the benefits “never vested during the relevant period” and entered judgment in favor of the defendants on what had been the sole remaining claim.
September 02, 2025
Judge Approves $3.1M Deli Meat Class Settlement, $1.03M In Attorney Fees

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A New York federal judge granted final approval of a $3.1 million class settlement in a Boar’s Head lunch meat listeria contamination case and approved a motion for $1.03 million in class counsel fees for six plaintiff law firms.
August 29, 2025
8th Circuit Reverses Dismissal, Summary Judgment Rulings For BNSF In EEOC Suit

OMAHA, Neb. — A trial court judge erred in granting partial dismissal and summary judgment to a railway accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of creating a hostile work environment for a female employee as well as a class of similarly situated female workers, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Aug. 28, opining that a heightened pleading standard was applied in error when dismissing the claims of the class of women and that genuine issues of material fact should have prevented the summary judgment ruling.
August 29, 2025
$2.8B Provider Class Settlement With Blue Cross Insurers Wins Final Approval

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Attorneys for an opt-out health care provider class were granted their requested $657,160,000 for fees and $102,059,478.49 for expenses in a $2.8 billion settlement that also provides “extraordinary injunctive relief,” an Alabama federal judge said in granting final approval to the deal in a multidistrict antitrustcase against the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and its member plans (collectively, BCBSA or the Blues).
August 29, 2025
$8.5M Settlement OK’d In Worker’s Suit Alleging Calif. Wage-And-Hour Violations

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California granted final approval of an $8.5 million class and representative settlement, ending wage-and-hour claims brought by one employee under California law against an engineering conglomerate accused of failing to provide meal and rest breaks, overtime and minimum wages and expenses.
August 28, 2025
Defendants, Claims Partially Dismissed In 2 Class Suits Over America PAC Payments

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania partially granted motions to dismiss in two putative class lawsuits over allegations that offers of payments to Pennsylvania and other swing state voters who signed or referred others to sign America PAC’s petition supporting the First and Second amendments to the U.S. Constitution went unpaid.
August 28, 2025
Majority Reverses Class Certification In Suit Challenging Auto Insurer’s Practices

RICHMOND, Va. — A majority of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that a lower federal court abused its discretion in certifying a class in a lawsuit alleging that an insurer improperly decreased the compensation for totaled vehicles, ruling that common questions do not predominate because the claims are “essentially individualized claims requiring mini trials as to each.”
August 27, 2025
11th Circuit: Lump-Sum Payments Shortchanged Top Hat Plan Participants

ATLANTA — Affirming summary judgment and remedies rulings for a class of nearly 200 executives who participated in so-called “top hat” plans, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 26 agreed with the lower court that the 2013 lump-sum payments at issue violated the plan terms because they “‘adversely affected’ the ‘accrued benefit’ of at least some participants.”
August 27, 2025
Citing No ‘Exceptional Circumstances,’ Judge Denies Appeal In Online Consent Suit

TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington federal judge denied a motion for interlocutory appeal of the court’s prior order denying a motion to strike class allegations in a putative class action suit over alleged wrongful use of individuals’ names absent consent against ZoomInfo Technologies LLC, a company that provides a database with information about businesses, finding that ZoomInfo failed to establish “exceptional circumstances” that would merit interlocutory review.
August 27, 2025
Anthropic, Authors Reach Agreement On AI Copyright Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic PBC and authors told a federal judge in California on Aug. 26 that they reached an agreement in principle resolving claims that the company pirated copyrighted works during the process of obtaining material to train its artificial intelligence.
August 27, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Motion To Compel Denial In Online Retail Class Arbitration Row

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s order denying a motion to compel arbitration by Lands’ End Inc. in a consumer’s putative class suit alleging violations of multiple California consumer protection laws regarding Lands’ End’s purported false advertising about pricing on its website, finding that contrary to Lands’ End’s claims that its website’s terms of use, including an arbitration provision, bar the suit, the District Court did not err in its determination “that the hyperlink to the Terms of Use was broken” at the time of the plaintiff’s purchase.
August 27, 2025
2 Class Settlements Totaling $60 Million Get Final OK In Church Plan Suit

JACKSON, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge has granted final approval to class settlements initially grossing $60 million before interest in multidistrict litigation over a religious denomination’s retirement plan, also awarding attorney fees of a third of that amount and a $20,000 service award to each of the 10 named plaintiffs; claims against numerous nonsettling defendants remain.
August 27, 2025
Judge Dismisses Civil Rights Claims In Privacy Suit Over Educational Software

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge found no jurisdiction over one defendant, dismissing it from a putative class action alleging improper collection of students’ personal information via an educational software platform, and also dismissed claims brought against other defendants under federal civil rights law.
August 26, 2025
Illinois Panel Reverses Class Certification In Pepperidge Farm BIPA Case

CHICAGO — A trial court must “make explicit findings as to whether any possible conflict of interest” exists as to class counsel in an Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) case brought against Pepperidge Farm Inc. by an employee, an Illinois appellate panel ruled Aug. 25, reversing class certification after the sole named plaintiff’s daughter’s firm was permitted to remain as class counsel.
August 26, 2025
BIPA Suit Against Coinbase Stayed Pending 7th Circuit Ruling In Parallel Suit

CHICAGO — Granting a motion by Coinbase Inc., an Illinois federal judge stayed a putative class action accusing the cryptocurrency exchange operator of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by using photos in its user authentication process, with the judge concluding that the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ upcoming ruling in another case pertaining to user authentication using biometric identifiers is likely to affect the issues in the present case.
August 26, 2025
Putative Class Suit Over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Partially Dismissed, Transferred

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution due process claim as moot in a putative class suit over access to legal counsel by detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” and granted a motion by the Florida defendants to transfer the case from the Southern District to the Middle District.
August 25, 2025
J&J, Talc Plaintiffs Debate Attempt To Strike Medical Monitoring Class

TRENTON, N.J. — Plaintiffs representing genital talc users in a New Jersey suit seeking a medical monitoring class and various Johnson & Johnson entities have briefed a motion to strike the claims and whether varying state laws, causation standards and individual situations made handling the claims as a class impossible.
August 25, 2025
Split N.C. High Court Vacates Class Certification In Sales Promotion Suit

RALEIGH, N.C. — A split North Carolina Supreme Court on Aug. 22 vacated class certification in a long-running case by a consumer who alleges that an illegal sales promotion under North Carolina law was used when he purchased his home water treatment system; the majority ruled that while consumers from both North and South Carolina were included in the class, the claims by the residents of South Carolina would arise under that state’s law where inducement is an element, unlike in North Carolina, and inducement creates “individualized fact questions.”
August 25, 2025
Plaintiffs Suing Therapy App For Privacy Violations May Proceed Anonymously

SAN FRANCISCO — The anonymity of putative class plaintiffs accusing online therapy company BetterHelp Inc. of violating privacy laws by selling their personal data to third parties in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) does not require dismissal, a California federal judge ruled in denying the company’s motion to dismiss, citing the nature of the plaintiffs’ privacy protection claims.
August 25, 2025
Federal Judge: Fraud, Breach Of Contract Claims Survive In Suit Over Musk PAC

AUSTIN, Texas — Granting dismissal only as to a claim the plaintiff agreed to drop, a Texas federal judge allowed fraud and breach of contract claims against Elon Musk and political action committee America PAC to proceed under “the lost benefit of the bargain theory of standing” in a putative class action concerning personally identifiable information (PII) provided to sign an online petition in the run-up to the November 2024 election.
August 25, 2025
ERISA Forfeiture Developments Include 2 More Rulings Denying Dismissal

Just over two years after a wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions were filed, the case law is developing rapidly; although the majority of dismissal motions have been granted, federal judges in North Carolina and Florida recently denied dismissal in putative class cases filed against Bank of America Corp. (BOA) and NextEra Energy Inc.