LucyC | Class Action News Blog

Week Adjourned: 8.28.09

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Time for a little self-monitoring? CardioNet got hit with a securities class action lawsuit this week. What did they do? Well, the complaint charges that the company and some of its directors got a little carried away with their revenue projections for 2009, 2010 and 2011, particularly in light of the fact that the reimbursement rates for their MCOT services was under review by payors, and were likely to be reduced, not increased. FYI—CardioNet “provides ambulatory, continuous and real-time outpatient management solutions for the monitoring of clinical information on an individual’s health.” suitcase

Bottom line, if you or anyone you know purchased CardioNet common stock between April 30, 2009 and June 30, 2009, inclusive, you may be eligible to join the suit as a plaintiff.

Top Settlements

Will that be cash or credit? That’s what folks eligible for the Expedia settlement are asking themselves. It’s been all over the media, all week, and Abi blogged about it: Expedia has entered into a proposed $123.4 million settlement agreement in an effort to mitigate the damage caused by a class action alleging it shouldn’t have been bundling taxes and services fees onto the cost of vacations purchased through the site.

Basically, the suit alleged that Expedia, in charging its customers a “Tax Recovery Charge” and a “Service Fee,” during the period from January 10, 2001 through June 11, 2008 (i) committed deceptive or unfair practices in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”), and (ii) breached its contractual obligations from February 18, 2003 through December 11, 2006.

If approved, the settlement will provide for the distribution to Class Members of $123.4 million in cash payments and Expedia Settlement Credit that can be used for hotel reservations and “package” reservations that include hotel reservations.

That’s a wrap—see you at the Bar.

Week Adjourned: 8.21.09

So much for the dog days of summer…it was a busy week.

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[Pay]check is not in the mail? It seems every week a major brand is in the news for some alleged type of labor or wages violation. This week it’s UPS. The global courier company is facing a potential class action lawsuit over all ups-legal-env egations that it withheld as much as $100 million in overtime wages from its account managers.

The suit alleges that UPS is in violation of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California’s wage and hour laws. The suit also alleges that UPS does not provide employees with mandatory meal periods and rest breaks and fails to keep adequate records of the hours the employees work. Who said management had it good? I would think that unpaid management overtime is a silent epidemic.

Vanishing home equity? Have you checked your home equity line of credit lately? Maybe you should. Michael Hickman of Illinois did, and got quite a nasty shock. Hickman alleges that he had Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 8.21.09”

Week Adjourned: 8.7.09

rosecoloredglasses What a week for securities class actions!

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Too much of a positive outlook? Seems this telecom company had to take off the rose-colored glasses. Comtech got hit with a class action lawsuit this week, alleging that certain of the company’s officers and directors violated federal securities laws by producing overly positive statements regarding the company’s revenue, and future earnings prospects. Apparently the mobile communications business could be doing better. The class period for the suit is between September 17, 2008 and March 9, 2009, inclusive, and anyone who purchased common stock in the company during that time could be eligible.

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Wal-born is Wal-dead? If Wal-born isn’t protecting you from the cold or flu, then perhaps a free flu shot will. Walgreens has agreed to reimburse consumers who purchased Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 8.7.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.31.09

orwells-paperback-1984 Another busy week…

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“A startling view of life in…2009?” If only the Amazon Kindle had been around when I went to school! A 17-year old has filed a lawsuit against Amazon claiming the company rendered his homework useless when it went into this Kindle and deleted the digital version of George Orwell’s 1984 (gotta love the irony there).

Justin D. Gawronski , the 17-year old, alleges that Amazon never indicated to its customers that it had the ability to remotely delete content from Kindles and iPhones. The suit further alleges that this information is relevant to customers when making a decision about whether or not to purchase a Kindle. If this all sounds very familiar—well, that’s because it is. Amazon was hit with a similar class action 2 weeks ago when it originally deleted Orwell’s classics, alleging trespass.

Apparently Gawronski’s notes for his homework assignment on 1984 were not only stored in the Kindle, they were linked to specific passages in the book. When the book was deleted his notes became worthless. Uhmm. I wonder if this precedent could be applied to income tax documents…

“Wiiilllllmmmaa…!!!!” No, it wasn’t Fred Flintstone calling, but regardless, seems Hartford Insurance may not have heeded the call when policy holders’ filed claims after Hurricane Wilma. Hartford is being sued for not reimbursing its policy holders who made claims as a result of damage caused by the hurricane—unless those customers actually replaced the damaged item(s). Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.31.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.24.09

bacon Another busy week at the bar!

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The fast food industry came under fire this week in a big way with two class actions filed, one against Denny’s alleging the restaurant chain conceals the amount of sodium in its menu items from its customers, and another against McDonald’s in Illinois over alleged hepatitis A virus (HAV) contamination.

Grand Salty Slam? The crux of the Denny’s class action is salt—hundreds, if not thousands of milligrams over the daily recommended intake is being consumed by unsuspecting customers on a daily basis. This is, apparently, putting people who dine at Denny’s on say Moons Over My Hammy or the Super Bird turkey sandwich at greater risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than those who don’t frequent the restaurant. So a consumer watchdog group has filed a class action to force Denny’s to disclose the salt content of their menu items. So much for ignorance is bliss. Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.24.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.17.09

glasscracked So much for the lazy days of summer—it’s been a busy week!

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Kindle cracking up? Unfortunately that’s not in a “ha-ha” kind of way. An unhappy customer in Seattle filed a federal class action lawsuit against online bookseller Amazon, this week, over his cracking Kindle.

A Kindle, for those of us technophobes, is an electronic book reader, and has proved tremendously popular for a variety of reasons. Mathew Giese is a convert, he bought a Kindle 2 in February, and a protective cover for it. After 3 months of use his Kindle started to crack in the areas where the cover was attached. The cracks grew worse until one day the screen froze and the Kindle seemingly stopped working.

When Geise contacted Amazon to make warranty claim, he was told by a company representative that Amazon would cover the cost of the frozen screen, but not the cracks, as the warranty apparently doesn’t include damage made by the protective cover. To make a long story short, Mr. Giese was told that the repairs would cost $200. Yes, you read that correctly. And did I mention that you can get a new Kindle 2 for $299? Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.17.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.10.09

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Manulife meets its Waterloo? Ok, lousy play on words—and not everyone knows Manulife is based out of Waterloo, ON (city motto: stability). But, indeed, a class action lawsuit was filed this week on behalf investors who purchased the securities of Manulife Financial Corporation between March 28, 2008 and June 22, 2009. Manulife is considered a “safe bet” as an investment tool, and is among the top insurance companies in the world, largely due to its risk management strategies. But this time, they may not have followed their own investment guidelines.

The complaint alleges that contrary to the Company’s own risk management strategy, Manulife applied no material hedging strategy to manage risk particularly during an economic downturn (hmm, could the book at right have come in handy? just asking). The complaint further alleges that notwithstanding its risk management strategy Manulife built up a massive stock portfolio, which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.10.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.3.09

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Whiz-through security fizzes out? As if air travel wasn’t fraught with enough obstacles, delays, and frustrations frequent flyers last Monday found themselves SOL at Clear Airport Security Kiosks across the country. The problem? They’d closed their doors, gone out of business, shut down. See ya bye.

Clear operated the Registered Traveler program in 20 airports, serving a reported 260,000 customers. The company pre-screened frequent fliers taking fingerprints, iris scans and credit information, which it then gave to the US Transportation Security Administration, in order to fast track people through the security line-ups.

So, Verified Identity Pass, the parent company of airport security provider Clear, was hit with a class action lawsuit over reimbursement of its US$199 annual fee, by one very disgruntled customer. Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.3.09”

Week Adjourned: 6.26.09

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Quiet Company…loud ex-employees? Seems some former Northwestern Mutual (NML) employees missed the “Shhhh!” memo when they worked there. The Milwaukee-based life insurance giant has been slapped with a $200 million class action lawsuit by former employees who allege NML violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California’s overtime and minimum wage laws. Their complaint also states that NML “intentionally and repeatedly” misclassified sales employees as independent contractors: independent contractors are exempt from federal and state wage and hour laws, while full-time employees are not.

Any of this sound familiar? It should. NML was sued on similar allegations in Pennsylvania in 2008. That time around NML won the lawsuit, which resulted in their being able to maintain their financial representatives as ‘independent contractors.’ According to media reports, NML has about 7,000 “financial representatives nationwide.” Be interesting to see if history does repeat itself here.

Fill ‘er kinda up? If you’ve been running out of gas sooner than expected—and I’m referring to propane here, check your cylinder. If it’s from Blue Rhino and AmeriGas, you might be interested to know that they are facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that they reduced the amount of propane provided in tanks sold as ‘full’ without telling their customers. Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 6.26.09”