San Francisco, CA: A federal judge in California has ruled that Safeway must pay about $30 million in damages to named plaintiff Michael Rodman and class members. Safeway has been found liable in a breach of contract consumer fraud class action lawsuit brought by Rodman and fellow customers who allege the grocery chain overcharged for groceries purchased for delivery: it has promised price parity with store bought merchandise.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar held that $30 million is roughly the sum of what Safeway made by concealing markup prices for groceries delivered to class members from April 2010 to December 2012.
However, Judge Tigar ruled that Safeway was not liable for customers who used its delivery service prior to 2006 when the service was run by a third-party vendor.
"Class members are entitled to recover the aggregate amount of the difference between the prices charged during the class period for items purchased in the online store as compared to the price customers would have been charged for those items in the physical store from which they were selected and delivered,"Judge Tigar ruled.
The case is Rodman v. Safeway Inc., case number 3:11-cv-03003, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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Don't know if this is related or not but I've tried other agencies to no avail. My home owners insurance was without a notice to me raised from approx. $1,100.00/year to $2,800.00/year. They based it on a claim I was forced to submit because my warranted wash machine water level switch malfunctioned and caused water damage to the house. At first the Sears technician called in a claim with there insurance company after viewing the damage and discovered that the switch malfunction is what caused the flooding. 19 days later I was told by them that is was not there problem and that I had to call my home owners insurance to repair the house. I was unaware that my insurance would go up substantially after being forced to file this claim to repair the damage. This was a warranted product, I had no fault in causing this product to malfunction. It turned out that the CPU that houses the switch was a refurbished CPU unknown to me. This CPU had been changed 3 times prior to this mishap, it's up to 4 times now and I just I can't believe insurance company's can do this when the fault was not mine. My mortgage has gone up so much to compensate the increased insurance coverage that I am forced to sell my house. I am a retired veteran and I have a fixed income and my $1,992.00 mortgage is just too much for my tight budget. How can company's get away with this? I tried changing company's but I was told I was stuck in this company's grips for at least 3 - 5 years, hence, selling the house. Is it legal for them to increase my insurance without notifying me prior to the increase, especially when it was increased substantially higher than what I was paying? I only found out when the bank notified me that my escrow was I think $2,800 in the negative. There has to be some kind policy somewhere that protects consumers such as me. I feel as if I am being punished for the damage that happened, like I purposely flooded my house. It's not fair. I have been contacting consumer lawyers who stated that there is nothing I can do, how is this? I am innocent. If there is some recourse you know of I can take please let me know.
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