A comprehensive settlement of Roundup herbicide litigation is marching through the Missouri courts and scheduled to be finalized within the next three months. There will be a flurry of media reports soon, emanating chiefly from the companies and the compensated class counsel who recommend the proposed deal. This settlement is extremely disturbing to many affected […]
Category Archives: Class Actions
In Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union, decided today, the Fourth Circuit clarified both the procedure and substantive standards that govern when defendants ask a court to deny class certification before discovery. Oliver was a putative class action challenging Navy Federal’s underwriting process for loan applicants as racially discriminatory. Navy Federal moved to dismiss under Rule […]
After James Healy sued Milliman, a company that sells reports containing consumer’s medical histories to third-party insurers, alleging that the reports were inaccurate and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the district court certified a class of consumers who were the subjects of inaccurate reports. Milliman moved for partial summary judgment on the grounds that […]
David Eliiot claims Humana called him numerous times despite not being a Humana customer, and after he informed Humana that it had the wrong number. He brought a class action alleging this violated the TCPA. Humana opposed class certification on the grounds that whether individuals had actually consented to repeated calls was not ascertainable on […]
Just after Thanksgiving last week, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion reversing a district court’s certification of a class in one of several actions brought by a consumer against Folgers and consolidated by the JPML. In the action on appeal, the consumer had alleged that representations on coffee containers featured misrepresentations about the number of […]
Several consumers filed California state law class actions against Kimberly-Clark in federal district court, alleging that they were misled into believing that Kleenex Germ Removal wet wipes contained germicides, not just soaps. The district court dismissed the non-California plaintiffs’ claims for lack of personal jurisdiction, and dismissed the remaining claims with prejudice on the grounds that […]
That’s a possibility raised by Alan Kaplinsky in his analysis of the Supreme Court’s universal injunction case, Trump v. CASA, at Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor Blog. Because CASA will make it harder for consumer financial service companies to seek injunctions against CFPB regs, etc., Mr. Kaplinsky suggests they may resort to class actions, though […]
In Pickett v. City of Cleveland, the defendant appealed the district court’s certification of a class of Black homeowners or residents who had been obligated to pay certain debts to a water utility that were secured by their property, pursuant to both Rule 23(b)(2) and Rule 23(b)(3). A panel of the Sixth Circuit unanimously affirmed the […]
In an opinion issued today, the en banc Ninth Circuit held that Shopify, an e-commerce platform, could be sued in California based on allegations that it had installed tracking software on a California consumer’s device. The court concluded that personal jurisdiction could be exercised constitutionally, as Shopify’s conduct was expressly aimed “at California through its extraction, maintenance, […]
The Sixth Circuit today vacated a district court’s certification of 10 classes relating to claims about Nissan’s automatic electronic braking systems. The court first held that the district court had inadequately considered commonality and predominance. It then went onto address a question that has divided the circuits over the past decade- whether expert testimony considered […]