Consumer Fraud Legal News Articles & Interviews

Kansas City, MO On September 24 in Lipari-Williams v. Missouri Gaming Co., the District Court for the Western District of Missouri put off a decision about whether to grant class action certification to a group of casino workers who allege that they were overcharged for their health coverage based on their tobacco use. Their wage and benefit plan lawsuit alleges that the premium surcharge assessed under Argosy Riverside Casino’s insurance plan did not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The court granted certification to workers who brought wage claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri state law but held off on the ERISA claims.

Miami, FL  On August17, three former participants in the Baptist Health South Florida, Inc. 403(b) Employee Retirement Plan (BHSF Plan) sued plan fiduciaries for breaching their duty of loyalty and prudence to participants and beneficiaries by paying “astronomical” management fees. The named plaintiffs in the ERISA lawsuit seek to represent more than 23,500 current and former participants.

Santa Clara, CA Patients treated at ER, sometimes for minor issues, say they aren’t told their insurance is out-of-network and that emergency room fees, including certain tests and procedures, will wind up costing them thousands and thousands of dollars.

Los Angeles, CA On July 9, Tim Alders, formerly an Executive Recruiter for YUM Brands Inc. and Taco Bell Corp. filed an ERISA lawsuit alleging that the fast-food conglomerates deprived him of pension and other benefits by deliberately misclassifying him as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. Tim Alders v. YUM, Inc. is neither a standard-issue misclassification lawsuit (many of which are brought by hourly-wage workers, cheated of California wage protections) or a variation of now-familiar ERISA fiduciary breach action. Rather, it is creative combination of the two. The lawsuit makes painfully clear how much long-term contractors (even the well-paid ones) lose when they are paid as casual workers.

  

San Francisco, CA Monsanto has been hit with another lawsuit claiming its Roundup product causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers. Plaintiff Michael Langford of Sacramento was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2007 and later developed other cancers. Langford’s Monsanto lawsuit filed in late June comes on the heels of a claim also filed in June. An Ohio resident filed suit in Delaware Superior Court claiming her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was also the result of many years’ exposure to Roundup in the care of her home garden.

Wilmington, DE M.P. Moon will have another chance to persuade a Delaware federal court that DuPont and its corporate predecessors and successors cheated him and similarly situated retirees of thousands of dollars in pension benefits. His ERISA lawsuit describes years of misinformation, followed by internal procedural rules that protected DuPont from the necessity of correcting its own error.

Arley, AL Catrina arrived at the hospital emergency room bent over in pain--three days later she was sent home after having her gallbladder removed. The surgery went well--until the bills arrived. Particularly galling was a CT Scan charge about three times more than the national average cost--a typical example of ER overcharges. (Granted, scans are typically more expensive when ordered in an ER.) Her total bill rings in at 86,381.04.

New York, NY Jander v. Retirement Plans Committee of IBM, a long-running employee stock ownership lawsuit, settled on April 2, 2021 for $4.75 million. The attorneys who represented the retirement plan participants have now requested $1.4 million in fees for the latest Supreme Court phase of the case. In deciding whether to approve the fee, the Southern District of New York will consider the time and effort the lawyers expended.

Santa Clara, CA Although the “No Surprises Act” will be in effect January 1, 2022, the first regulations are slated for July 2021. If all goes according to plan, patients to emergency rooms will no longer be hit with outrageous ER overcharges or receive surprise bills in the mail, mainly due to out of network treatment.

Kalamazoo, MI On May 6, Susan Gleason and Candi Gabrielse filed a class action ERISA lawsuit against Bronson Healthcare Group Inc. in the Western District of Michigan. Gleason v. Bronson Healthcare is an example of increasingly distinctive subtype of breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits that focus on the relative cost and performance of two Fidelity investment funds, both of which were part of the Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc. 403(b) Tax Sheltered Matching Plan.