Week Adjourned - Part 38

Week Adjourned: 11.12.10

Top Class Actions

More Foreclosure Fraud. It seems that between Chinese drywall and questionable foreclosures, Florida homeowners just can’t catch a break. A class action lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of tens of thousands of homeowners in the Sunshine State, who have allegedly been suffered as a result of GMAC’s use of fraudulent affidavits and other documents in foreclosure proceedings.

It seems that GMAC employees admitted in sworn testimony to signing whatever was put in front of them in foreclosure cases, regardless of the accuracy of those documents, without personal knowledge of the truth of what they are signing, without reviewing the underlying documents to determine whether the documents are accurate, and often not even in the presence of a notary.

Geoffrey Huber, one of the plaintiffs, said he discovered a “robo-signed” affidavit had been filed in foreclosure proceedings on the house he owns in Florida. “I don’t know how they thought they legally could get away with this.” Maybe because very few people ever check the fine print? Seems like a good time to start.

The Complaint alleges that the defects in virtually every foreclosure case filed in the last several years are not mere “technicalities,” nor just “sloppy paperwork.” Indeed, one of the lead plaintiffs in this case alleges that he was not actually in default at the time GMAC initiated foreclosure proceedings.

The lawsuit is seeking damages based on claims GMAC’s actions violated the homeowners’ Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 11.12.10”

Week Adjourned: 11.5.10

Top Class Actions

What’s Blowing in During that Blow-out? Well, the makers and distributors of Brazilian Blowout could be in for a thorough waxing. A class action lawsuit was filed against the hair-straightening folks this week, alleging Brazilian Blowout violated California consumer laws by falsely advertising that the Brazilian Blowout hair straightening product is formaldehyde-free.

According to testing by the Canadian government and Oregon OHSA, this is absolutely not the case. Their testing has shown Brazilian Blowout products contain between 6% and 12% formaldehyde. Yikes! California and federal regulations require disclosure when formaldehyde content exceeds 0.1%. And in Canada formaldehyde is permitted in cosmetics at less than 0.2 percent when used as a preservative. FYI—formaldehyde is a known irritant, sensitizer, and is linked to cancer in humans when inhaled chronically over a long period of time. No doubt this stuff could do a good deal more than straighten your hair. Just reading about it is enough to turn it grey!

The lawsuit claims that because consumers were unaware of the high formaldehyde content in BB, they were deprived of the opportunity to make a meaningful decision about the products they were purchasing and using on their bodies, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs said.

I think the future is in wigs.

Top Settlements

Car Accident Victim Awarded $10M. It might seem like a lot of money—but it’s a huge loss. A Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 11.5.10”

Week Adjourned: 10.29.10

Top Class Actions

What’s the word de jour? Foreclosure—actually—make that Foreclosure Class Actions. This week saw several foreclosure lawsuits filed against big banks. Possibly the most recent, was filed against BAC Home Loans Servicing, which is a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, and successor in interest to Countrywide Home Loans Servicing; Deutsche Bank National Trust Company; and U.S. Bank National Association. The suit was filed on behalf of all those property owners who lost title to their property in foreclosure proceedings based on false and perjurious affidavits filed by the banks and their servicing companies.

Perjurious affidavits? What the heck are those, you ask? Well like everything, foreclosure is a business—a business that seemingly works on volume. Apparently, the banks have been hiring so-called “robo signers” or “affidavit slaves”—employees who literally sign hundreds of foreclosure documents a day, according to the Wall Street Journal, without carefully reviewing their contents. The Washington Post recently ran a story on a man who has signed as many as 10,000 foreclosure documents in one month.

Back to the lawsuit. The BAC suit alleges that the defendant banks obtained wrongful foreclosures by abusing the court process and submitting affidavits that were false, even though sworn to under penalty of perjury, as the basis for obtaining foreclosure judgments. They seek to restore title to the property owners.

Another foreclosure class action filed this week also named the omnipresent Bank of America (BoFA) as a defendant, not surprising since BoFA reportedly holds one in five mortgages in the Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.29.10”

Week Adjourned: 10.15.10

Top Class Actions

Equality? What equality! Where’s Gloria? A gender discrimination lawsuit was filed against Citigroup this week, brought by five former directors and analysts and one current employee.

Interestingly, Bloomberg crunched the numbers and found out that Citigroup’s female finance managers, which include bank tellers as well as executives, earned 63.9 cents for every dollar of income men earned in 2000, based on median salaries. Bloomberg analyzed Government Accountability Office (GAO) statistics to produce its report. And, they also found that in 2007, the last year for which data are available, that figure was down—incredibly—58.8 cents. Not only is that number utterly depressing, but it’s going in the wrong direction!

The suit, filed on behalf of women at job levels from analyst to managing director, alleges that Citigroup is an “outdated boys club” and claims “systematic and pervasive discrimination and retaliation” in decisions involving compensation, promotion and termination.

Top Settlements

Beat Finally Does Go On… Finally—unbelievably, a settlement of the lawsuits against Medtronic over defective Sprint Fidelis leads.

The leads were recalled three years ago in 2007, due to the alleged defect that made the Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.15.10”

Week Adjourned: 10.8.10

Top Class Actions

“It’s Not Turbo Lag, it’s Foreplay”. Well, that’s what the t-shirts say, but clearly the makers of the ultimate driving machine—BMW—and their drivers must think foreplay’s a bad thing. BMW got hit with a national class action this week over high pressure fuel pumps (HPFP) and turbo chargers.

The allegations in the case concern certain BMW’s produced between 2007 and 2010, and focus on two design defects.

First, the suit claims that BMW’s new fuel injection system that supposedly incorporates a new ‘state of the art’ fuel pump actually malfunctions at an alarmingly high rate. As a result, many BMW owners have had to repeatedly replace their fuel pumps, sometimes within 1,000 miles of vehicle ownership.

The second problem relates to the BMW turbo chargers. Specifically, the complaint alleges that owners of the affected vehicles were told that BMW’s new engine had eliminated ‘turbo lag.’ ‘Turbo lag’ is the delay between the time that the driver of a vehicle presses the accelerator and the time that turbo chargers on the engine essentially ‘kick in’ to provide added power to the engine.

However, shortly after the vehicles were released, BMW began to receive complaints from Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.8.10”

Week Adjourned: 10.1.10

Top Class Actions

Beetle Juice? Abbott—the makers of Similac infant formula–which was recalled this week due to the presence of small winged insects in the formula—and Sam’s East doing business as Sam’s Club—are facing a proposed federal class action lawsuit over the whole mess.

The products, in case you missed the recall, apparently may contain additional nutrients in the form of a ‘small common beetle.’ Nice. And while the FDA seems to think that no real harm can come from this, they do warn that infants who consume the contaminated formula could experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and refusal to eat as a result of small insect parts irritating the GI tract. And every parent wants their child to experience that.

So, Kathleen A. Brandner filed the suit individually and on behalf of her minor child alleging that the defendants unfairly and deceptively promoted the product as having safe ingredients for infant consumption when the ingredients may cause health problems including diarrhea. And, the suit also alleges that Abbott failed to properly exert quality control measures to ensure that the formula was safe for consumption and that it did not contain beetle particles. You think?

How Generous of DePuy…Not. A national class action lawsuit was filed against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc this week, this one also stemming from a recall on August 24, 2010, of its Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.1.10”

Week Adjourned: 9.24.10

Top Class Actions

Don’t Put that Mortgage in Reverse. If there’s any possible way to make a buck off consumers, you better believe the banks will figure it out. It seems there’s just no end to the stuff they get up to. Case in point, a Seattle mortgage lender, The Seattle Mortgage Co, a unit of Seattle Bank, is being sued in California over alleged illegal lending practices.

Here’s the deal, the suit focuses on fees paid to brokers and charges levelled against borrowers in reverse mortgage transactions.

FYI—a reverse mortgage, also known as a home equity conversion mortgage, is available only to people over the age of 62 years, and is heavily regulated by the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—but maybe not heavily enough.

While it is the intent of the regulation to ensure that mortgage brokers provide their customers with the best financial advice based on the customer’s needs, it is possible that the brokers may have been influenced by the fees they receive from the banks selling the loan products. In other words, it may have been in the brokers’ and bank’s best interests for your grandmother to take out a reverse mortgage—but not necessarily hers.

The class is estimated to affect as many as 7,800 seniors, and if the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, reimbursement of costs and damages may total as much as $56 million, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs has said. And that’s just one state. Similar practices may be going in on other states… but that remains to be seen.

Top Settlements

Payday Loan Violations Get Settled. And then there’s the pay day cash advance market… Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.24.10”

Week Adjourned: 9.17.10

Top Class Actions

Wright County Wrong Eggs. A class action lawsuit was filed this week against Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. This is the not so small footnote to the largest recall of contaminated eggs in recent history.

In fact, the lawyers who filed the class action believe that there may be as many as 76,000 class members, given that a recently enacted Egg Safety Rule states that for every case reported there may be 38 cases that go unreported. The FDA reports that at least 550 million eggs have been recalled so far. That’s a lot of scrambled eggs!

Wondering if you could be a class member? You qualify, apparently, if you purchased eggs from Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms from April 9, 2010 (Julian date 99) to August 21, 2010 (Julian date 230). Part of what the lawsuit is seeking is reimbursement for the purchasers.

But, the lawsuit also seeks recoveries on behalf of all consumers who died or were injured from salmonella enteriditis contaminated eggs. According to the press release, “The FDA reports that the salmonella infected eggs has sickened nearly 2,000 people… Infections from salmonella enteriditis can spread into the bloodstream, then to other areas of the body, such as the bone marrow or the meningeal linings of the brain. The infections can lead to severe and fatal injuries, including endocarditis. In addition, class members who recovered from salmonellosis may later develop recurring joint pain, reactive arthritis, and Reiter’s syndrome.”

Better check those eggs!

Top Settlements

Kodak Moment? Eastman Kodak has finally reached a settlement in the race discrimination class action brought against it by African American employees.

The settlement also reportedly resolves race discrimination claims made in a related case, Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.17.10”

Week Adjourned: 9.10.10

Top Class Actions

Veterans PTSD. An announcement was issued this week, about an extension of time for veterans to join or opt in to a class action lawsuit over Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Given that tens of thousands of troops deployed to Iraq are ending their tours, the timing of this couldn’t be better.

The lawsuit that was brought on behalf of veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force and were found by a Physical Evaluation Board (“PEB”) to be unfit for continued service due, at least in part, to the individual’s PTSD, were assigned a disability rating for PTSD of less than 50%, and, as a result, were released, separated, retired, or discharged from active duty on or after December 17, 2002 and before October 14, 2008 (regardless whether such release, separation, retirement, or discharge resulted in the individual’s placement on the Temporary Disability Retirement List), has been extended to November 10, 2010, according to an Order entered by federal Judge George W. Miller.

Under the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims, the Court has reportedly allowed the class action lawsuit to be a class action on behalf of the following individuals who choose to opt in:

All individuals who (a) served on active duty in the U.S. Army, Navy,Marine Corps, or Air Force, (b) were found by a Physical Evaluation Board to be unfit for continued service due, Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.10.10”

Week Adjourned: 9.3.10

Top Class Actions

Dishonorable Disbursements? Prudential Financial is facing a potential class action brought by the families of six dead soldiers who allege that the life insurance company is profiteering from the deceased soldiers’ policies with various bookkeeping maneuvers. Specifically, the suit accuses the company of misrepresenting the way beneficiaries could collect lump-sum payouts, and that the company profits from this. Read on.

The lawsuit was filed by parents of soldiers who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, El Salvador and after returning to the U.S. They live in Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Maryland, and Texas. They are claiming that Prudential holds the money in a $200 billion general account which earns five percent to six percent in interest, and that beneficiaries claims are only paid into an “Alliance” account when a beneficiary requests it. The company then pays the claim out at the lower interest rate keeping the difference in interest earned. One attorney for the plaintiffs estimates that the lost interest could amount to as much as $20,000 to $30,000 for families who let the money sit in Prudential’s accounts. That’s certainly worth pursuing.

If the suit is granted class action status, tens of thousands of beneficiaries who received payments under group life insurance policies for military members and veterans created by Congress and administered by Prudential may be affected.

Top Settlements

Frown Lines for Allergan. Big news on the pharmaceutical front this week. Allergan Therapeutic Inc—you may have heard of them—they make Botox—has agreed to plead Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.3.10”