Posts Tagged ‘ Week Adjourned ’
Monday Minute: Legal News, Lawsuits & Settlements You Might’ve Missed
April 16th, 2012. By AbiK
Kick off the week with Monday Minute—legal news headlines from the past week that you might’ve missed including our weekly Asbestos News column and Week Adjourned—the weekly wrap of top class action lawsuits and settlements.
Find these legal news highlights in the video clip below: Asbestos News Now; class action lawsuit updates for Groupon, Muscle Milk, GameStop and Lay’s Potato Chips as well as updates on Medtronic and J&J Risperdal litigation; what happened at PetSmart that left one dog dead; it’s deja vu: new McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuits; and, in honor of tax day, information on the latest tax scams.
Week Adjourned: 10.21.11
October 21st, 2011. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Sex discrimination—still? Really? Yup—and this time the company doing the dirty was owned by a woman—Ruth U. Fertel. However, she passed away in 2002, and it looks like things have regressed since then. And the company is….Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Four former and current employees filed a sex discrimination class action alleging they were discriminated against for pay and promotions.
The women’s jobs ranged from national sales manager to bartender, and they brought the suit in October 2010. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has now granted the Ruth’s Chris Steak House discrimination suit plaintiffs the right to add class action claims to the lawsuit.
The women also allege that they suffered sexual advances in the work environment at the steak house chain, including physical groping, sexual innuendo and retaliation against those who complained or reported sexual harassment. Hey—the meat’s on the plate boys…
Top Settlements
Who says the little guy can’t win? A $160k settlement has been awarded to a former employee of retail giant Target, ending his discrimination lawsuit against the company. Jeremy Schott, who filed the lawsuit, took medical leave in 2004 due to his experiencing a seizure. He was 29 years old at the time. In his lawsuit, he alleged that when he returned to work his weekly hours had been reduced from 17 to eight. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Target on Schott’s behalf, alleging a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Target’s counsel contended that Schott’s work hours were decreased because of poor performance and a lack of motivation. The parties agreed to settle for $160,000. As part of the settlement Target has agreed to designate an ADA coordinator and implement a policy regarding reasonable accommodations.
Defective Pool Slide Settlement. This is very sad… The widower and child of a young woman who died as a result of a defective inflatable pool slide purchased from Toys “R” Us have been awarded a $20.6 million settlement this week by the judge hearing the personal injury lawsuit.
The accident that took Robin Aleo’s life happened five years ago, when she was just 29 years old. She had an 18-month old daughter at the time. Aleo was at a pool party at a relative’s home when she decided to go down the six foot Banzai Falls slide head first. When she neared the bottom the slide suddenly bottomed out and Aleo hit her head on the edge of the pool, breaking her neck and sending her to hospital unable to breathe on her own and paralyzed. She died at the hospital the following day.
According to a report in the EagleTribune, Aleo is the second person to have allegedly been paralyzed by an incident involving the Banzai Falls slide. According to court records, more than 4,000 of the slides were sold nationwide, without having been tested to see if it met federal safety standards.
Ok – That’s it for this week. See you at the bar.
Week Adjourned: 10.15.11
October 15th, 2011. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Well, Hello…Something fruity is going on here—or not as the case may be… A proposed consumer fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against General Mills alleging the company misled consumers about the nutritional and health qualities of its fruit snacks, specifically Fruit Roll Ups, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, as well as other similar products.
The lawsuit claims that between October 15, 2005 to the present (the “class period”) General Mills engaged in a widespread marketing campaign to mislead consumers about the nutritional and health qualities of its Fruit Snacks. Specifically, the suit states, “Defendant made misleading statements that its Products were nutritious, healthful to consume, and better than similar fruit snacks.”
The suit further states “In fact, Defendant’s Fruit Snacks contained trans fat, added sugars, and artificial food dyes; lacked significant amounts of real, natural fruit; and had no dietary fiber. Thus, although the Products were marketed as being healthful and nutritious for children and adults alike, selling these Fruit Snacks was little better than giving candy to children.” Umm…Maybe suitable for Halloween treats?
Top Settlements
Did your internal capacitor prematurely fail? No—I mean the one in your TV! On October 3, 2011, preliminary approval was granted to a proposed defective product class action settlement with Philips Electronics North America Corporation (“Philips”).
The settlement proposes to resolve lawsuits that allege certain Philips and Magnavox televisions suffer from a defect that causes internal components (called capacitors) to prematurely fail, resulting in the televisions becoming inoperable. The proposed settlement would entitle qualifying settlement class members, who purchased new or received as a gift new one of the Philips or Magnavox plasma televisions with the model numbers listed below, to monetary benefits or vouchers.
The model numbers of the Philips and Magnavox plasma televisions included in the proposed class action settlement are:
50PF9830A/37 42PF9630A/37
50PF9731D/37 42PF7321D/37
50PF9631D/37 42PF7320A/37
50PF9630A/37 42PF7220A/37
50PF9431D/37 42PF5321D/37
50PF7321D/37 50MF231D/37
50PF7320A/37 50PF7220A/37
In addition, only those television sets with a serial number reflecting a manufacturing date between November 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006 qualify for participation in this settlement.
The Court has scheduled a hearing in December to determine whether to grant final approval to the settlement.
To be eligible to receive the benefits made available pursuant to this settlement, class members must submit to the claims administrator a claim form that is postmarked by February 28, 2012.
To obtain additional information about the settlement, to determine whether your television qualifies, or to obtain a claim form, you can visit the settlement website at PhilipsPlasmaTVsettlement.com. You can also contact the settlement administrator by calling (855) 477-4407, or by writing to Philips Plasma TV Settlement, c/o Dahl, Inc., P.O. Box 2061, Faribault, MN 55021.
Service gratuity not quite included? This one’s for anyone who ever worked in the service industry and had their tips withheld—and I’m sure there’s no shortage of you out there… A $7 million settlement has been reached by current and past employees of the Cranwell Resort, Spa, & Golf Club in Lenox, ending an employee class-action lawsuit that alleged the resort’s management illegally withheld the workers tips.
If the settlement receives final court approval, approximately 700 food, beverage, and spa employees who worked at the upmarket Berkshire resort between 2001 and 2011 will share in the money. A final settlement hearing is scheduled for November 2011. This is the second of two lawsuits, filed over four years ago, claimed that the employees were not paid the full service charges that were added to hotel bills, which is against state law.
Ok—That’s it for this week. See you at the bar—where I will be repairing my personal, internal capacitor.
Week Adjourned: 8.12.11
August 12th, 2011. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Latest Book Club? Apple, and some the publishing industry’s biggest names got hit with a nationwide antitrust class-action lawsuit this week, over allegations that they conspired to fix prices in electronic books (e-books)–at least that’s the short version.
According to published info, Apple Inc., HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of News Corporation, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC, and Simon & Schuster Inc., a subsidiary of CBS, colluded to increase prices for popular e-book titles to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing. Nice!
Here’s the skinny: the publishers believed that Amazon’s enormously popular Kindle e-reader device and the company’s discounted pricing for e-books would increase the adoption of e-books, and feared Amazon’s discounted pricing structure would permanently set consumer expectations for lower prices, even for other e-reader devices.
So, according to the lawsuit, the five publishing houses forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new agency model, in which publishers set prices and extinguished competition so that retailers such as Amazon could no longer offer lower prices for e-books. That’s anti-free market for sure!
If Amazon attempted to sell e-books below the publisher-set levels, the publishers would simply deny Amazon access to the title, the lawsuit states. The defendant publishers control 85 percent of the most popular fiction and non-fiction titles. Lawyers for the plaintiffs note that while Amazon derived profit from the sale of its Kindle and related accessories, likely allowing the company to discount e-books, Apple was steadfast in maintaining the 70/30 revenue split it demanded with its App Store.
Still with me? Read on…
While free market forces would dictate that e-books would be cheaper than the hard-copy counterparts, considering lower production and distribution costs, the complaint shows that as a result of the agency model and alleged collusion, many e-books are more expensive than their hard-copy counterparts.
As a result of the pricing conspiracy, prices of e-books have exploded, jumping as much as 50 percent. When an e-book version of a best-seller costs close to—or even more than—its hard-copy counterpart, it doesn’t take a forensic economist to see that this is evidence of market manipulation, lawyers for the plaintiffs note. For example, “The Kite Runner” costs $12.99 as an e-book and only $8.82 as a paperback.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that because no publisher could unilaterally raise prices without losing sales, they coordinated their activities, with the help of Apple, in an effort to slow the growth of Amazon’s e-book market and to increase their profit margin on each e-book sold.
The lawsuit claims Apple and the publishers are in violation of a variety of federal and state antitrust laws, the Sherman Act, the Cartwright Act, and the Unfair Competition Act.
Once approved, the lawsuit would represent any purchaser of an e-book published by a major publisher after the adoption of the agency model by that publisher.
Does this affect you?
Top Settlements
Pharma Sales Reps Score One—in Overtime. Well now—here’s a great big slice of sunshine for all those hardworking pharmaceutical representatives. Schering Plough’s reps have won a complete victory in Federal Court in a nationwide collective lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime pay at the mandatory rate of time and one half. The federal class action was filed on behalf of all pharma reps who worked for SP during the last three years, anywhere in the United States.
No numbers have been made public as yet—but the press release states “The amount to be distributed to the class will be determined by the Court, but will likely include double damages for the violation.”
Apparently, the US Department of Labor recognizes that pharmaceutical reps are not exempt from overtime pay, and that the precedent for the class claim was set in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found earlier this year that Novartis pharma reps were entitled to overtime compensation on the same grounds alleged against Schering Plough.
The US Supreme Court refused to hear the drug companies’ appeals. Saving tax payer dollars—always a good thing. The Second Circuit issued a similar ruling in a case brought by pharma reps against Schering Plough, as have district courts in Connecticut, Illinois, Florida and Texas in cases against Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbott, and Auxilum Pharmaceuticals. However, this ruling is the first of its kind as it found that pharma sales reps are not exempt under any of the parts of the exemption. Schering had to prove all the parts of the exemption, but it lost on all points.
Congratulations!
$5 Million Drunk Driving Accident Judgment. I wonder how many people are affected by drunk drivers? This guy certainly was. Twenty-two year old Dwight Grant—he was 22 in 2007 at the time of the incident—sustained brain damage as a result of an accident caused by a drunk driver. He was recently awarded $5 million in settlement of his personal injury lawsuit.
Apparently, he was a passenger in stopped vehicle when the vehicle was struck by Mathew Lyons who was being chased by the police. After hitting the car Grant was in, Lyons fled the scene.
Grant suffered fractures to his face and skull, which resulted in his sustaining brain damage, specifically, damage to his frontal lobe. This damage, Grant alleged, caused him a seizure disorder that now requires constant care.
The parties ultimately agreed to a $5 million final judgment.
OK. That’s it for this week. See you at the Bar—I’m taking a taxi.
Week Adjourned: 7.1.11
July 1st, 2011. By LucyC
Top Class Actions
Best Buy BOLO a NO-GO. Best Buy got hit this week with another potential class action—another discrimination lawsuit—but this time it’s all about you —the customer…
The nation’s largest electronics retailer is facing alleged discrimination in in the form of customer racial and ethnic profiling. Ah, make that widespread racial and ethnic customer profiling in the District of Columbia and Virginia. The lawsuit was brought by an Arab American Muslim manager, Todd Abed, who was fired for protesting the practice, known internally as “BOLO”. Abed accuses Best Buy of terminating his 13-year career with the company because he objected to his district office’s “Be On the Look Out” policy (BOLO).
So, the allegations go that under BOLO, Best Buy employees circulated e-mails among all managers in the region containing images and descriptions of customers suspected of theft, intended to be posted in their respective stores. According to the lawsuit, the images and descriptions circulated under BOLO consistently involved racial and ethnic minorities who had done nothing to merit suspicion, accompanied by racially-tinged descriptions such as “bearded Middle Eastern guy who looked shady” or “black ghetto guy.” Really?
Abed, a supervisor in charge of loss prevention (read ” theft”), claims he refused to post the discriminatory emails. When this refusal became known to the district staff, they twice denied Abed promotions to General Manager—despite his being the most qualified applicant—and directed Abed’s new General Manager to trump up a reason to terminate him, according to the complaint.
The new General Manager, in turn, allegedly told Abed he would create a “paper trail” to have him fired, taunted his religion, sabotaged performance evaluations, placed him under a pretextual disciplinary “Action Plan,” and ultimately terminated him for allegedly poor performance.
The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages and attorneys’ fees and costs. Most importantly, Abed seeks a court order permanently ending Best Buy’s customer profiling practices, which he believes continue to this day.
Top Settlements
Pond Drowning Case Settled. This is very sad. The family of a small boy who drowned in a pond while trying to save his younger brother who had also fallen in the pond, has been awarded a $30.7M settlement. The family had filed a premises liability lawsuit.
The story is devastating. Apparently, in 2001, Andrew Kennedy, who was just 11 years old at the time, tried to save his 10-year old brother James who had fallen through an ice-covered pond. Andrew drowned and James suffered severe brain damage. Andrew’s twin brother, Christopher Kennedy, claimed emotional and psychological trauma from witnessing the incident. And the parents alleged that the property owner, Lakes of the Four Seasons Property Owners Association Inc., did not have warning signs in place notifying the public of the dangers, nor did they try to restrict access to the pond. The family also claimed that Four Seasons failed to provide safety devices nearby. A cautionary tale…but at what price?
AON Account Specialists Settlement. And for all those ‘misclassified’ AON employees—justice at last. Los Angeles Superior Court judge gave final approval this week to a $10.5 million settlement of the employees overtime class action.
The story here is that California Account Specialists, whose work involves assisting Account Managers in providing insurance brokerage services to Aon’s clients, were misclassified by the defendant as exempt administrative employees. So the California Account Specialists filed a lawsuit—way back in 2007. And wouldn’t you know it, as the case was preparing for trial, the parties were able to reach a settlement. The settlement covers 534 class members, and best guess is they could have their money within 60 days.
OK. That’s it for this week. See you at the Bar.
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