Week Adjourned Archive
Week Adjourned: 1.29.10
January 29th, 2010. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Citizen of your Wallet? It seems that no amount of bad PR or more importantly, federal regulations, are effective deterrents against bad business practices by banks. This week, a potential class action lawsuit was filed against Citizens Bank alleging that customers have been unfairly charged overdraft fees. Sound familiar? It should. This is just one in a spate of similar lawsuits involving overdraft fees—including a class action against Bank Atlantic, in November 2009.
In this particular lawsuit, Citizens Bank could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars it allegedly unlawfully charged its customers by manipulating debit transaction postings to generate overdraft fees. In other words, CB seemingly put its customers into debt deliberately so it could charge overdraft fees. You do that to enough customers and presto—you’re rich—possibly even rich enough to afford those six figure senior management bonuses.
And the kicker? The fees were imposed under the guise of an ‘overdraft protection plan’ that the lawsuit alleges customers were not allowed to opt out of. I guess the epitaph to this could be—they don’t have your back—they have your wallet.
Top Settlements
If you Leave me Now, You’ll Pay an Early Termination Fee… (ok, so I’m not a lyricist) Keeping on the theme of
Week Adjourned: 1.22.10
January 22nd, 2010. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Killing Me Softly with his Song…killing me softly… Sorry. Just lost in time there…along with this one. I don’t know if this is the longest class action filed in recent history—but it certainly does cover a significant period of time—36 years, if my math is correct. It was filed against The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (”VALIC”) who’ve allegedly been up to no good for the period between January 1, 1974 and January 8, 2010. 1974? Now that’s a blast from the past. There was no public internet in 1974…people bought records—not CDs…Remember Disco? The Joker? Ok. I’ll stop there.
So what’s the beef? Bottom line, “According to the complaint, class members were harmed by entering into expensive annuity contracts that were redundant and unnecessary.” Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that, like, “VALIC agents failed to disclose that the tax deferral feature of the deferred annuity was redundant and unnecessary for Class members…and that these materially false and misleading statements and omissions fraudulently induced purchases of the deferred annuities because they give the impression that the product provides the key tax deferral benefit sought by investors, when, in fact, tax deferral is not a reason for qualified plan investors to purchase the product because any investment funding a qualified plain is already tax deferred.”
Suffice to say, people were sold investment products that they didn’t need. I guess some things really don’t change with time.
Top Settlements
The Now Network gets the Now Settlement. Finally. On Thursday, a federal judge approved a $17.5 million settlement in the class action against Sprint Nextel. Chalk one up to consumers! The lawsuit arose over the flat
Week Adjourned: 1.15.10
January 15th, 2010. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
New meaning to Baggage Claim? Delta Airlines and AirTran Airways got hit with a class action lawsuit this week, for nickel and diming passengers on baggage fees. You know—the extra money you have to pay to check your luggage that contains all the stuff you can no longer take on board in your carry-on luggage…
Bottom line—the suit alleges price fixing by the two airlines. “The suit accuses the two carriers of colluding to charge fliers a $15 first checked baggage fee. The complaint claims the two carriers agreed to charge the baggage fee in highly competitive markets because neither could risk losing business by charging the fee on their own.”
Given that there are tens of thousands of us who fly across the US every day—I think the potential class of plaintiffs submitting a claim could be huge on this one—makes you wonder if you’d actually get $15 back, which is what the lawsuit is seeking…
Sterling Performance? Employees at Sterling Savings Bank, a Spokane, Washington-based institution, got wise to their employers and filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the bank and its holding company, Sterling
Week Adjourned: 12.18.09
December 18th, 2009. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Coulda Used Employee Directory Assistance? Seems the masters of directory assistance could’ve used some help with their own employee directory—or at least with how they classified certain employees. So, they finally called “overtime” on unpaid overtime at AT&T and its subsidiaries BellSouth Telecommunications Co, and Pacific Bell Telephone Co. The telecom giant got hit with a couple of class action lawsuits this week, alleging that they withheld as much as $1 billion in overtime wages from 5,000 plus first level managers who worked for PacBell in the states where BellSouth does business.
Although most of us can likely guess what the charges are, just for the record AT&T allegedly violated the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as well as California State Laws by deliberately misclassifying thousands (yes, thousands) of level one managers as being exempt from overtime wages. Yeah, that would probably save shareholders a bundle. Other allegations include not paying for meal and rest breaks—how predictable.
So, who’s eligible? There are two classes:
1) The “Off-the-clock” class consists of “All First Level (or Level One Managers) employed by BellSouth from December 2006 and thereafter who were assigned technicians as direct reports
Week Adjourned: 12.11.09
December 11th, 2009. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
You Know the Drill…? Apparently not if you’re one of the shareholders who allege, among other things that when Canadian Superior Energy drilled off the shores of Trinidad (the “Intrepid” Block 5(c)) their execs didn’t disclose that the discovered reserves were below the economic threshold for development. Canadian Superior Energy, Inc. got hit with a securities class action this week. The allegations? That certain of Canadian Superior’s former executives violated federal securities laws.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of anyone who purchased the common stock of (NYSE Amex: SNG) between January 14, 2008 and February 17, 2009, inclusive. If you have this stock as part of an employee shareholder package—you may also be eligible for the class action under something known s ERISA…
Top Settlements
This Land is Your Land, but… The US government has announced that it will pay (or pay back?)
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