“Plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit brought over Subway’s ‘footlong’ sandwiches have decided to abandon efforts to pursue the litigation,” two months after a Seventh Circuit panel scorchingly criticized a proposed settlement (“utterly worthless… no better than a racket.”) [Jessica Karmasek, Legal NewsLine; our earlier coverage]
Posts Tagged ‘class actions’
Liability roundup
- “Baseball rule” win for Yankees at appeals court: “Court Rules Against Fan in New York State Foul-Ball Case” [Zach Spedden, Ballpark Digest]
- More on the downfall of the $417 million baby powder verdict against Johnson & Johnson [Steven Boranian/Drug & Device Law, Robert H. Wright/WLF, earlier]
- Dear SCOTUS: certification of a class action should be based on admissible evidence [Andrew Grossman, Ilya Shapiro, and Meggan DeWitt on Cato cert amicus brief in Taylor Farms v. Pena]
- What could make the Florida hurricane season even costlier in this year of Irma? Giving contractors legal authority to take over claims under assignment of benefits (AOBs) [Nicole Friedman and Leslie Scism, WSJ]
- “NY’s Scaffold Law Could Add $300 Million Needlessly To The Cost of the Gateway Rail Tunnel Project” [Common Good] Letter: law hinders Habitat for Humanity [Albany Times-Union] More: editorial, Utica Observer-Dispatch;
- C’mon, New Jersey courts, get Daubert and scientific evidence screening right, it’s important considering how many pharmaceutical cases you see [Andis Robeznieks, AMA Wire; Devin Griffin/Drug & Device Law]
Waivers of class actions against employers
The Supreme Court will resolve a circuit court split on whether employment agreements under which workers agree to “arbitrate disputes with their employers individually, rather than bringing class-action lawsuits collectively with their co-workers, are valid….In an unusual twist, the administration will face off against an independent agency of the federal government, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).” [Lawrence Hurley and Robert Iafolla, Reuters, earlier here, here, here, and arbitration generally] Monday was oral argument on the trio of Murphy Oil, Ernst & Young, and Epic Systems [Amy Howe, transcript]
Class action roundup
- “The entire panoply of extreme cy pres abuse is present”: Google privacy class action [James Beck; Ted Frank petition for rehearing]
- Settlement administrator greatly overestimated claims in TCPA suit against Rita’s Italian Ice, judge orders reallocation of money to class [P.J. D’Annunzio, Legal Intelligencer]
- “U.S. Judges Could Learn From U.K. Court’s Rejection Of MasterCard Class Action” [Daniel Fisher]
- Revisiting a failed 1978 proposal to replace class action with hybrid public/private enforcement [David Freeman Engstrom, U. Penn. L. Rev. via CL&P]
- David Marcus (Arizona), “History of the Modern Class Action, Part II” covering 1981-1994 [forthcoming Fordham L.Rev., I turn up in footnote 360 and a couple of others; Part I is here]
- Medical monitoring class actions, once seen as wave of future. have not done well [John Sullivan, Drug & Device Law]
Food roundup
- Why manufacturers often push for the government to define food terms like “natural” [Peter Van Doren, Cato]
- The curse of Prohibition: how government nearly killed the cocktail [Peter Suderman]
- “Judge tosses class action suits over ‘100 percent grated Parmesan cheese’ label” [ABA Journal] “Food Court Follies: Fraud Suits Fall Apart after Plaintiffs’ Candid Admissions During Discovery” [Glenn Lammi, WLF] “Will a class-action suit really benefit those who bought Starburst [candies] expecting eight-percent fewer calories?” [Baylen Linnekin]
- Farmers are good at replenishing their flying livestock: “How Capitalism Saved the Bees” [Shawn Regan]
- “Menu labeling rules have not proven to have a significant effect on the amount of calories people consume” [Charles Hughes, Economics21 on FDA decision to proceed]
- More reactions to the Seventh Circuit’s caustic ruling (“no better than a racket”) on the Subway footlong settlement [George Leef, Cory Andrews, earlier]
Home improvement chains sued over 4 x 4 lumber
4 x 4 lumber isn’t really four by four in dimensions, and if that comes as news to you, you might be a class action plaintiff [Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/USA Today Network]
Supreme Court roundup
- DoJ reverses Obama predecessors’ stance on whether NLRA rights to collective action bar individual-arbitration clauses in employment contracts [BNA via Indisputably; consolidated trio of Murphy Oil, Ernst & Young, Epic Systems Corp. cases] Ninth Circuit OKs California end-run around Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on workplace arbitration class actions, time for review [WLF on Bloomingdales, Inc. v. Vitolo; update on cert denial: Deborah LaFetra, PLF]
- Roberts joins liberals to hold 5-3 that cities can sue alleging Fair Housing Act violations; damages theories are to be constrained, though [Josh Blackman, SCOTUSBlog roundup on Bank of America v. Miami, earlier here and here]
- How much deference should appellate courts give district courts in ruling on subpoenas issued by EEOC? [Ross Runkel and Federalist Society podcast with Karen Harned on McLane Co. v. EEOC]
- Court unanimously disallows stratagem by which class action lawyers voluntarily dismiss individual claim so as to secure immediate appeal of certification denial [Howard Wasserman, James Freije on Microsoft v. Baker]
- Chevron used racketeering law to fend off giant foreign judgment in Ecuador saga, losing side would like Supreme Court relief from that [Paul Barrett, Business Week on Donziger v. Chevron] Update Monday morning: Court will not hear;
- “To Be Liable for Fraud, You Have to Have Actually Defrauded Someone” [Ilya Shapiro and Thomas Berry on Cato cert amicus in SGE Management v. Torres]
Sugar in Jelly Bellies? Who knew?
In a lawsuit seeking class action status in California state court, Jessica Gomez alleges that Jelly Belly’s “Sport Beans,” which are touted as containing electrolytes and vitamins, “contain more sugar than she thought,” and that the ingredient list resorted to the euphemism “evaporated cane juice” to describe the sweetener. [John O’Brien and Sara McCleary, Legal Newsline]
Class action: Box set of “all” James Bond films didn’t have all of them
A class action seeks money because a movie compendium whose promotional literature described it as containing “All of the Bond films gathered for the first time in this one-of-a-kind box set” lacked the 1967 David Niven spoof version of Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again. The latter is sometimes denied canonical status by Bond-film buffs even though it stars Sean Connery, having been made by a screenwriter who had worked with Ian Fleming “to create the Thunderball story and was given the green light by a London court to make his own film after claiming co-authorship of the characters and elements.” MGM responds that a reasonable consumer would not have been misled because the box set package and its promotion list the films it includes. [Ashley Cullins, Hollywood Reporter]
Podcast on FICALA, the class action reform bill
Andrew Grossman (Baker & Hostetler), longtime friend of this site, and Howard Erichson of Fordham spoke last month to a Federalist Society online audience on pending class action reform proposals, resulting in this podcast. Description:
On Saturday, March 11 the House passed the Fairness in Class Litigation Act by a vote of 220-201. The stated purpose of the Act is to “(1) assure fair and prompt recoveries for class members and multidistrict litigation plaintiffs; (2) diminish abuses in class action and mass tort litigation; and (3) restore the intent of the framers…by ensuring Federal court consideration of interstate controversies of national importance consistent with diversity jurisdiction principles” (H.R.985, 2017).
The Bill amends the federal judicial code’s standards for the certification of class action. For example, the bill requires that proposed class members to show that they suffered the same type and degree of injury. The bill also limits the amount and timing of attorney’s fees in a class action. Attorney’s cannot be paid more than the class members, and they must be paid after the class members receive payment….