Recently, in a split decision, the Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court’s incentive award to the named plaintiff in a class action alleging willful violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. In doing so, it may have rung the death knell on class action incentive awards in that Circuit. Dickenson v. NPAS Solutions, No. 18-12344 … Continue Reading
Last month, the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc affirmed, by an 8–3 vote, a nationwide class settlement of a multidistrict litigation against automakers Kia and Hyundai over alleged misrepresentations regarding certain vehicles’ fuel efficiency. In re Hyundai and Kia Fuel Economy Litigation, 15-56014 (9th Cir. 2019). The en banc decision overturned the controversial decision last … Continue Reading
By Lawrence Weinstein, Daniel Werb and Tiffany Woo on Posted in Class Actions
On January 20, 2016, the Supreme Court held in Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez, 136 S. Ct. 663, 672, 193 L. Ed. 2d 571 (2016) that an unaccepted pre-certification settlement offer of complete relief in a putative class action, made to an individual plaintiff, does not moot that plaintiff’s claims. As discussed in our previous coverage of … Continue Reading
By Lawrence Weinstein and James Unger on Posted in Class Actions
Recently, a New York court held that a putative class action defendant’s depositing of funds sufficient to cover the full amount of a plaintiff’s individual claims does not moot the plaintiff’s case and therefore cannot be used as a vehicle to defeat the individual plaintiff’s attempt certify a class. This was the first attempt by … Continue Reading
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, a putative class action case, that an unaccepted pre-certification settlement offer to the named plaintiff does not moot either the plaintiff’s claim or that of the supposed class. The case involved a claim under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and was decided on … Continue Reading
Last year, in Gomez v. Campbell-Ewald Co., No. 13-55486, 2014 WL 4654478 (9th Cir. Sept. 19, 2014), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that offers of complete relief made to individual plaintiffs under Fed. R. Civ. P. 68 do not moot either individual or class claims. This holding mirrors decisions by … Continue Reading
StarKist Co. recently agreed in principle to a $12 million settlement with a putative class of plaintiffs concerning alleged under-filling of tuna fish cans. But agreeing on the dollar figure seems to have been the easy part; the parties in this bitterly-fought case have become embroiled in motion practice about the allocation of that $12 … Continue Reading
Early this year, Anheuser-Busch settled a class suit filed against it by two Miami residents who alleged that the company was deceptively advertising Kirin beer as imported from Japan, when in fact it is brewed in the United States using domestic ingredients. The plaintiffs, Lady J. Suarez and Gustavo E. Oliva, claimed they had each … Continue Reading
Two recent false advertising class action settlements illustrate some of the myriad ways to structure settlements, and also reflect the real risks of these lawsuits when early-stage efforts to dismiss them are unsuccessful. In Reid et al. v. Unilever United States, Inc., No. 12-C-06058 (E.D. Ill.), plaintiffs sought to recover from economic and personal injuries … Continue Reading
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