Coca-Cola, Pepsico and other buyers of high-fructose corn syrup got $531 million in the largest in a series of settlements arising from charges of price-fixing against Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant, and its competitors. So by the logic of bounty-hunting, it was only fair for plaintiff’s counsel to pocket a quarter of the sum. (Andy Kravetz, Peoria Journal-Star, Oct. 15; “Archer Daniels Midland to Pay $400M”, AP/Forbes, Jun. 17; account of case at class action firm of Kaplan Fox, Jul. 19).
Posts Tagged ‘class actions’
Update: judge OKs obstructed-view class action
Updating our Feb. 11-12, 2002 report: “A judge has approved a class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Madison Square Garden for allegedly selling seats with obstructed views of Michael Jackson’s 30th anniversary concert three years ago. The judge said the suit potentially covers 7,840 ticket buyers ‘who received no advance notice that their seats were inadequate for viewing purposes.'” (“Judge gives go-ahead to suit against Ticketmaster, Madison Square Garden”, AP/CourtTV, Oct. 7).
Lockmaker class actions
Following revelations that some Kryptonite bicycle locks can be easily picked, the maker has offered to replace all of the locks with new ones free from the flaw. This has however not mollified class action lawyers who’ve been rushing to sue the firm. “What if people don’t want a Kryptonite lock anymore?,” asks Darrell Palmer, one of two lawyers who filed would-be class actions in San Diego County Superior Court. Company spokeswoman Donna Tocci said that the newly revealed security issue “is not just a Kryptonite concern. Anything with a tubular cylinder — vending machines, soda machines, ignition systems, coin-operated laundry and other security products — could be a concern.” And indeed, lawyers pursuing intended class actions (and s. 17200 actions in California) have been suing other makers of U-locks as well, including Master Lock. (Pam Smith, “Plaintiffs Firms Lock Onto Kryptonite”, The Recorder, Sept. 28).
Tobacco class action update
Plaintiffs defending the insane $10.1 billion class action judgment (Feb. 8; Mar. 24, 2003) have retained as co-counsel a law firm associated with a Republican Illinois Supreme Court justice in an effort to have him disqualified from the case. (Paul Hampel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Smaller court may hear tobacco case in Madison County”, Oct. 3; Ameet Sachdev, “Philip Morris seeks removal of law firm”, Chicago Tribune, Sep. 1 (no longer online)). The Edwardsville Intelligencer (in a strange story whose math seems to be wrong in other particulars) reports that Madison County has received a $1.7 million windfall in interest from Philip Morris from the bond (Apr. 4, 2003) it posted to appeal that judgment. (Steve Horrell, “County is cashing in”, Oct. 8).
The Seattle Times has a retrospective look back at the comprehensive tobacco settlement (Feb. 28 and links therein) negotiated in large part by Washington state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, and notes the irony that it forced the state to ally itself with Philip Morris to protest the amount of the bond (see also Apr. 30, 2003). (Andrew Garber, “Tobacco settlement Gregoire negotiated not popular with all”, Oct. 4). But the bad news for Altria shareholders, states hoping to continue receiving tobacco funds, and the ability of Americans to conduct business is that plaintiffs continue to pile on with similarly meritless class action lawsuits, waiting to find the combination of judges who dislike tobacco companies enough to expand class action law rather than rule in their favor. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will bring dozens of these lawsuits, and need win only one multi-billion dollar judgment to become the new owners of the enterprise. The Massachusetts Supreme Court recently signed off on a class action against Philip Morris, and lower courts in Missouri and Ohio have followed suit. (AP, Sep. 17; Theo Emery, AP, Aug. 16).
Coors shareholder? Operators are standing by
“A New York-based class-action law firm is trolling the Internet for Coors shareholders concerned that they will be financially hurt by the company’s proposed marriage to Molson.” Manhattan attorneys Ronen Sarraf and Joseph Gentile posted a message on a Yahoo financial urging “upset Coors shareholders to send their grievance to an e-mail address. The message goes on to say: ‘An attorney will get in touch with you.'” The message boards “can be a good place to win business, [Sarraf] said. … ‘As for intensifying any dislike the public has against lawyers, there is very little one can do about that'”. (Tom McGhee, “Lawyers on Net seek investors worried by deal”, Denver Post, Jul. 27)(via Colorado Civil Justice League).
Calif. anti-Microsoft lawyers to get $112M, not $270M
Townsend and Townsend and Crew and its cohorts are getting only a vast pile of money, not a super-extra-vast pile, for purporting to represent a huge class of California consumers in what Judge Paul Alvarado acknowledged was the not-particularly-risky Golden State car in the Microsoft litigation train. (Brenda Sandburg, “Judge Slashes Fees in Microsoft Class Action”, The Recorder, Sept. 14). For our earlier coverage, see Mar. 31 and May 12 (California cases) and Jan. 11, Jul. 9 and Jul. 25 (fees in MS antitrust suits generally).
New at Point of Law
Dozens of new posts at our sister site, including: plagiarism on the Harvard Law faculty; bill to revive Rule 11 sanctions for meritless litigation moving through House; more coverage of a lawyer’s attempt to collect “referral fee” of more than $140,000 from Illinois widow; Steve Bainbridge on attorney campaign donations and scoundrel Joe Kennedy; a sonnet on scientific evidence; class action fees in the InfoSpace and Ameritech cases, plus a paper on coupon settlements and an in-production Madison County movie; in praise of the Michigan Supreme Court; big fees in the really old days; public environmental suits, including the one on global warming; and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus urges philanthropists to support legal reform.
For employment-law buffs, there are new posts on legal protection for messages on employee T-shirts, California and federal overtime regulations, and the Wal-Mart class action. For those who follow product liability there’s coverage of fen-phen fraud arrests, firearms liability and asbestos bankruptcies. Plus election-year politics, including Jim Copland, Ted Frank and more. Shouldn’t you bookmark it today?
Update: James Blair Down case
More developments in the Madison County case (Mar. 25, etc.) that Prof. Lester Brickman called “the most abusive class-action settlement of the decade, if not the century.” “Circuit Judge Phillip J. Kardis approved on Thursday a plan to notify potential claimants in the suit against Canadian con man James Blair Down.” However, New York attorney Jody Pope, representing objectors, says class members are not receiving proper notification of their right to make claims. The case involves prominent plaintiff’s firms Ness Motley (now Motley Rice) and Korein Tillery. (Paul Hampel, “Suit against con man nears settlement”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 9).
CD price fixing settlement, cont’d
Ted Frank reported Aug. 23 on the Compact Disc Antitrust Litigation Settlement, in which music distributors and retailers agreed to donate 5.5 million CDs to libraries, valued at 20% below retail, as part of the rationalization for a multi-million-dollar payment of fees to plaintiff’s counsel. Now the Washington Post has more details about how the musical selections — by and large, unpopular stuff that had been sitting unsaleable in warehouses — were stuffed randomly into boxes for shipping, so that libraries wound up getting large multiples of CD titles they would not have greatly coveted in the first place (Karin Brulliard, “An Influx of Outmoded CDs”, Washington Post, Sept. 6). Alex Tabarrok also comments (Sept. 6). Coming up next: will Newsday and other newspapers plagued by circulation scandals agree to make it up by shipping libraries bundles of week-old papers?
CD Price Fixing settlement
Attorneys’ fees for the Compact Disc Antitrust Litigation Settlement were based in part on the idea that there would be $75.7 million in “non-cash consideration”–charitable donations of 5.5 million CDs, valued at 20% below “suggested retail price.” The CDs have started to arrive at local libraries, and SiliconValley.com, compiling local news reports, is finding that the $75.7 million figure is generous, given the nature of the CDs being distributed, which include such titles as “Martha Stewart Living: Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween”, “Music from the HBO Original Movie BoyCott”, and “John Lithgow Singin’ In The Bathtub.” North Carolina libraries got 1,300 copies of country-rocker Clay Davidson’s “Unconditional”; a Washington state school district reportedly got a similar number of Whitney Houston singles of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Michigan finds that the only Elvis available is not Presley or Costello, but Crespo. “There’s nothing here you would want to buy even for $1.99,” a Virginia librarian complained. (John Paczkowski, Aug. 4 (sixth item) (via Postrel); Tonya Shipley, “Library looks to positive side of free CDs”, Zanesville Times Recorder, Aug. 3; Sam Hodges, “Libraries: CD deal more headache than hit”, Charlotte Observer, Jul. 30; Robert Snell, “Martha? Yanni?”, Flint Journal, Aug. 22; AP, Aug. 2; Fred Carroll, “Lots of CDs, but who’ll listen?”, Hampton Roads Daily Press, Aug. 19; dozens of other local articles). The only reason for this fiction was to rationalize a multi-million-dollar payment to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, a payment that may well exceed the actual (as opposed to settlement-named) value of the free CDs.