Top Lawsuits
You Can Ring My Bell-ell-ell…Not. Unsolicited calls—you know the ones—your phone rings—you answer—silence on the other end then a click and some automated message comes on. And now these people are targeting folks through their cell phones. Well, one company at least may be getting its come-up-ance.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Chase Auto Finance Corp and its parent company, J.P. Morgan Chase, NA on behalf of all persons in the United States who, since 2007, received non-emergency, autodialed calls from Chase Auto Finance on their cell phones, despite the lack of their prior consent.
Now that’s ringing my bell!
According to the complaint Chase Auto Finance and JP Morgan Chase violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) by using automatic dialing systems to contact cell phone users about vehicle debts without their prior consent.
Ms. Eichner, the woman who filed the suit, alleges that she was repeatedly contacted in the last 12 months on her cell phone about a relative’s car loan for which she had no responsibility. The plaintiff never consented to those calls, nor did she provide the companies with her telephone number. Go get ’em!
Top Settlements
A Bittersweet ‘Conclusion’. A $2.5 million settlement has been reached between the estate of Rebecca Riley, and Tufts Medical Center psychiatrist Dr. Kayok Kifuji. Rebecca Riley died at the age of 4 from an overdose of clonidine prescribed by Dr. Kifuji. Her parents, Michael and Carolyn Riley were convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree murder respectively. Kifuji ‘s prescribing of the medications caused widespread outrage for her role with the family and the case revived a nationwide controversy over whether such drugs should be prescribed for children as young as Rebecca.
Rebecca Riley, who died on December 13, 2006, was prescribed clonidine—a high blood pressure medication that can be used as a sedative in children—for ADHD, and Depakote for bipolar disorder.
The settlement will reportedly go into trusts for Rebecca’s older brother and sister, for education and other expenses.
Popular, Inc Ain’t so Popular After All. A settlement was announced this week stating that Popular and other named defendants have entered into two memoranda of understanding in connection with the settlement of five putative securities class actions.
The five class actions were previously consolidated into two separate actions: a securities class action captioned Hoff v. Popular, Inc., et al. and an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class action entitled In re Popular, Inc. ERISA Litigation.
Under the terms of the first memorandum of understanding, which related to the consolidated securities class action, subject to certain customary conditions, including court approval of a final settlement agreement, in consideration for the full settlement and release of all defendants, the amount of $37.5 million will be paid by or on behalf of the defendants (of which management expects approximately $30 million will be covered by insurance). The parties intend to file a stipulation of settlement and joint motion for preliminary approval within 45 days of the execution of the memorandum of understanding.
Under the terms of the second memorandum of understanding, which related to the ERISA class action, subject to certain customary conditions, including court approval of a final settlement agreement, in consideration for the full settlement and release of all defendants, the amount of $8.2 million will be paid by or on behalf of the defendants (all of which management expects will be covered by insurance). The parties intend to file a joint request to approve the settlement.
At this point, the settlement agreements are not final and are subject to a number of future events, including approval of the settlements by the relevant courts. There can be no assurances that the settlements will be finalized or as to the timing of the payments described above.
Ok—That’s it for this week. See you at the Bar.
