LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION

Birmingham, AL In an ERISA lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama, participants in the Compass SmartInvestor 401(k) Plan claim that Plan fiduciaries failed in their legal duty to act prudently for the benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries. The Plan offered only one poorly performing short-term bond investment option and failed to monitor the investment performance of higher cost funds, ostensibly selected to produce higher yields.
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Oakland, CA A former Payless Car Rental Inc. employee has asked a California court to grant class action status to a lawsuit that focuses on meal break waivers that were allegedly illegal under California labor employment law. Judge Michael Markman seemed doubtful, but set the next hearing date for November 5. A denial of class action status would likely put an end to the lawsuit, at least with regard to classes of plaintiffs not certified.
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Los Angeles, CA: Former Emmy-winning producer Stanley Wilson filed an employee discrimination lawsuit against CNN, as a violation of California labor law, back in 2014 and the case has wound up in the California Supreme Court, partially overturning a previous court decision allowing CNN to wield California’s anti-SLAPP statute to dismiss Wilson’s lawsuit.
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Denton, MT: A Montana farmer recently filed a Monsanto glyphosate lawsuit claiming its herbicide Roundup he used since 1982 caused his Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In a similar case filed in France, a French court found Monsanto guilty of poisoning a farmer and in June the first Australian legal action was filed against Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018.
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New Brunswick, NJ: Johnson & Johnson presented scientific literature during the latest asbestos talc trial on August 9 indicating a “weak link” between peritoneal mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, challenging testimony of pathologist John Maddox and the four plaintiffs who have been diagnosed with this form of cancer. All four were exposed to asbestos in J&J baby powder when they were babies, which allegedly caused their terminal cancer. Babies are even more susceptible to the risks of asbestos exposure because their cells are still developing and because they breathe faster, increasing the amount of asbestos they might breathe in, plaintiff’s attorney Moshe Maimon told the jury.
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Buffalo, NY: Many reports of adverse side events associated with gadolinium contrast dye, along with recent data showing that gadolinium deposits in the brain and other organs have spurred researchers to find imaging approaches that don’t need gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs).
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Washington, DC It was buried on page 70 of Ford Motor Co.’s March 31 SEC Form 10-Q, just before the last of many charts. The bland and reassuring words with which Ford disclosed a Department of Justice criminal investigation into Ford fuel economy representations belies the potential importance of that investigation to Ford class action lawsuits that now target both the Ford Ranger and F-150 truck models.
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