Week Adjourned - Part 41

Week Adjourned: 3.26.10

Top Class Actions

One Percent Solution? Wasn’t it about this time last year when the big bank bailouts were front page news? You know, billions of tax payers’ dollars forked over to some of the biggest lending institutions in the country to help stave off complete economic obliteration stemming from bad lending practices and resulting mortgage foreclosures?

Well, sadly, and the cynic in me says predictably, it seems the bailout bucks may not be reaching their intended destination. Washington homeowners are suing Bank of America claiming the lending giant is intentionally withholding government funds intended to save homeowners from foreclosure.

The lawsuit claims that Bank of America systematically slows or thwarts Washington homeowners’ access to Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds by ignoring homeowners’ requests to make reasonable mortgage adjustments or other alternative solutions that would prevent homes from being foreclosed.

FYI—Bank of America accepted more than $25 billion in government bailout money financed by taxpayer dollars purposely to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Apparently, one in eight Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 3.26.10”

Week Adjourned: 3.19.10

Top Class Actions

Hey eBay, maybe try Email? eBay’s in trouble this week—facing a class action brought by a deaf woman in Missouri on allegations that the online auction site is discriminatory regarding its telephone registration system.

What?

Apparently, Melissa J. Earll of Nevada, MO, tried multiple times to register to sell items on the site but couldn’t because the company requires sellers to verify their identities via telephone using PINs (short for pain in (@##$)). Despite Ms. Earll’s numerous attempts to explain her hearing issue to the company over email and online chat support asking for an alternate method to authorize her account, eBay reportedly refused to accommodate her.

Now, you can’t blame eBay for requiring security, and rest assured they would likely be sued if they didn’t have any in place. But really, the phone?

It strikes me that there are a couple of interesting assumptions here, the first and obvious one being that everyone should be able to use the phone—to hear instructions—and the second is that you’ll be able to understand those instructions when you hear them—and that has nothing to do with how well you can hear. What about people with cognitive dysfunction?

Ms. Earll’s lawsuit is being filed on behalf of all deaf or hard-of-hearing persons who have been prevented from registering as sellers with eBay as a result of this phone registration policy.

Chantix, Champix, Schmampix…call it what you will but… After years of witnessing Chantix lawsuits get filed in the Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 3.19.10”

Week Adjourned: 3.12.10

Top Class Actions

Net Taxes Paid? Well, seems like they shouldn’t a been. AT&T is facing a class action lawsuit—and no you’re not experiencing dÃ©jÃ vu—this lawsuit is over allegations that the Internet access fees the company charges its smart phone customers is in violation of the law.

Apparently, the boffins that make law up on the hill had a flash of wisdom years ago, and made it illegal for taxes to be collected on internet access service. Of course, there were no such things as smart phones when the Internet Tax Freedom Act came into being in 1998. Nevertheless, it has been updated several times and suffice to say is good until 2014.

Apparently, the suit states that AT&T’s Internet access tax is listed as a separate line item on monthly bills. Naughty, naughty. Actually, really naughty—one media report states that “AT&T says in a court filing that 40 class-action suits have been filed in 37 separate districts.”

If you had to pay tax for internet access on top of all the other charges tacked on to your phone package, would you bother with the service?

Top Settlements

Dying to lose weight? Be careful what you wish for. Very sadly, a young woman who signed up to shed the extra pounds through LA Weight Loss Centers Inc, subsequently died from liver failure as a result of taking some diet supplements that had not been tested or regulated by the FDA, but were apparently recommended by the ‘professionals’ at LA WLC.

Pamela Hoppe’s sister brought a lawsuit against LA WLC on behalf of Pamela’s estate. The suit was settled out of court for $700,000, half of which will be split between Pamela’s two surviving children.

Freight Co. Older and Wiser Now, Too? This case reminds me of that wonderful film “Up in The Air”…the story line part…not George Clooney, sadly. Mr. Donald Wayne Smith was laid off by his employer, Central Freight Lines Inc, after 45 years of service. He was a dockworker, and 62 years old at the time he was laid off. That should have made finding another job a piece of cake…Not.

And so, Mr. Smith sued his ex-employer alleging age discrimination. In his suit, Mr. Smith alleged that during his last months of employment he received a disproportionate number of disciplinary write-ups and that the company changed its layoff guidelines. Ummm.

And he claimed that new guidelines were introduced that exempted part-time and supervisory employees, to ensure he was laid off while younger workers with worse work records remained employed.

But wait—Central Freight was just cutting costs—it was a legitimate business decision they argued. Wouldn’t it cost the company less in the long run to keep their experienced employees on who don’t make mistakes—or likely make fewer mistakes?

Well, anyway, unlike Up in the Air, this story has a happy ending. Mr. Smith won his suit and was awarded $257,500.

That’s it for this week—see you at the Bar!

Week Adjourned: 3.5.10

Top Class Actions

New Wash Setting: Extra Sure Beyond Any Doubt Clean. What would you do if your washing machine took eight hours to do one load? Just to put that in perspective, you could to fly to Europe in the same time it would take to wash your sheets—depending on where you live. Ummm…doing the laundry or flying to Paris—that’s a tough one.

But you could only fly to Paris if you could trust that your washer would do the job properly in your absence, and Ms. Riva, who filed a class action against Sears recently, was not feeling the love.

No doubt.

Among the litany of problems both she and her machine were experiencing on washday—or would that be wash week—were a high-pitched squeaking noise, the machine stopping mid-cycle for no apparent reason, and then displaying the rather cryptic message, in washing machine secret code, “F1 or F51″—your guess is as good as anybody’s as to what that means.

Ms. Riva paid $1000 roughly for her new washer in 2006, and Sears issued a recall of the instrument panel in that particular model some time after that. But she didn’t find out about the recall until after she’d paid to have the panel replaced, by Sears, who didn’t mention the recall, but charged her for the replacement because the washer was no longer under warranty.

You know, I’d be suing too. If she wins, maybe she can take a trip to Paris and do her laundry.

Top Settlements

Medical Malpractice in the News… This is a rather tragic cautionary tale about a 47-year old woman who Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 3.5.10”

Week Adjourned: 2.27.10

Top Class Actions

Lacking Phone Smarts at Verizon. For those of us who do not have ‘smart phones’ but are getting dinged for data service, you may be interested to know that Verizon got hit with a class action this week over this very issue.

According to the press release on the lawsuit, Verizon charged $1.99 at a time for data service people were not using—or should that be could not use. So the lawsuit is seeking to reimburse folks who got dinged. There’s no doubt about it, at the rate we use our cell phones, $1.99 could certainly add up. But this suit also begs the larger question—do you know if your phone is smart? (mine certainly isn’t!)

Top Settlements

Lawsuit Stops Bouncing Around. A 30-year old man from Chicago who was chronically injured on a mini-trampoline when he was in the eighth grade, has finally received justice in the form of a $14.7 million settlement.

Ryan Murray, who is quadriplegic as a result of the accident, sued the Chicago Board of Education. After several years of wrangling—you can sue a government entity—no you can’t—yes you can if the action that led to the injury was intentional… a decision was finally reached: Yes—he could sue and he would have his day in court.

Fortunately, however, Mr. Murray will actually be able to get on with his life as the whole thing has been settled—out of court. Talk about stalling tactics.

Nothing Like Paying a Premium. Boy, does it pay to have insurance. Remember Moneygram? No? MoneyGram International was the subject of a securities class action in May of last year, over allegations that it committed securities fraud stemming from $1.6 billion in losses it suffered on subprime and other risky asset-backed securities in 2007 and 2008.

I can see how this would have gotten lost in the noise of all the other similar lawsuits last year…Anyway, I digress.

The lawsuit was settled this week for a cool $80 million—$60 million of which will be paid by its insurance company to the shareholders who took the losses. While this is nowhere near the value of the assets lost, the deal certainly puts the importance of insurance in a entirely new light…

Reports in the media state that the three directors of Moneygram who were on the board when everything went sideways, remain in their seats but will not seek re-election. That’s big of them.

I wonder how many of these types of settlements insurance companies can afford to pay out on…

That’s it for this week—see you at the Bar!

Week Adjourned: 2.19.10

Top Class Actions

The Internet’s A-Buzz. Over Google Buzz—specifically a class action lawsuit filed by a Harvard Law student, Eva Hibnick, who is alleging that her contacts and contact information were made public by Google when it introduced Buzz, without her authorization.

Here, here I say. I also logged onto my email the morning Google Buzz was launched to find a list of my contacts displayed by the new social networking program. What? Who asked you to do that—was my first thought. It was completely inappropriate—not to mention unnecessary.

As Ms. Hibnick so appropriately put it—she was “shocked to learn that my email contacts may have been shared with others without my knowledge or consent. I signed up for a private email service, not a social networking site.”

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Google from continuing to operate Buzz without appropriate internet privacy safeguards and it seeks damages, including statutory damages of $100 per day per user.

Enjoin, by the way—in legal terms—means to direct, require, command, or admonish. Personally, I favor command.

Top Settlements

Apropos for Black History Month… History was made on Thursday—when a settlement over a long- Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 2.19.10”

Week Adjourned: 2.12.10

Top Class Actions

Community Fights Cancer Cluster. What would you do if your neighborhood got the tag line ‘cancer cluster’? Well, several families living in West Palm Beach have filed a potential class action lawsuit against Pratt & Whitney over that very issue. Unfortunately, as the term denotes, the ramifications are serious and affect more than just property values—which is what the class action is about. As many as 10,000 homeowners who live near the Pratt & Whitney plant in The Acreage, Florida could be affected.

According to the complaint, on February 1, 2010 the Palm Beach County Health department confirmed that The Acreage has a cancer cluster—a higher than normal rate of brain tumors among children in The Acreage area, which is located very near the Pratt & Whitney plant.

The source of the illness and the resulting reduction in property values is—you guessed it—toxic chemicals—no surprise there. And it’s quite a list of poisons including oil, sodium cyanide, thorium dispersed nickel, construction debris, unknown solid waste (keyword: unknown), solvents, solvent sludges, asbestos, fuel, paints, pesticide and herbicide residue, benzontrite, mercury, and commercial laboratory chemicals.

Oh—let’s not forget the 1,4-dioxane, also among the contaminants on site, which the US Department of Health Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 2.12.10”

Week Adjourned: 2.5.10

Top Class Actions

Toyota: “Moving Forward” Alright. This week is really the week of the Toyota class action. I have to be honest—I’ve lost count as to the number of lawsuits that have been filed, but I did see a report today that put the number at 29, and counting. That may just be some kind of world record.

At the heart of the issue is the now infamous sticking gas pedals. (It puts a whole new spin on the expression ‘give it some gas’—and certainly creates a little irony for Toyota’s tagline: moving forward.)

Of course, it’s not really funny, given that hundreds if not thousands or possibly millions of people will be at the very least inconvenienced by the recalls, now totalling some eight million cars—but it will also affect people’s livelihoods, and at worst there are reports of injuries.

In the highly unlikely event you’ve not heard about this issue, you can find more out all the recalls here.

Overdoing the Overdraft thing. Again. Yet another overdraft fees lawsuit was filed this week, this time the accused party is Fifth Third Bank. The lead plaintiffs in this lawsuit allege that they were illegally charged overdraft fees for purchases made on the ATM and debit cards, even when they had enough funds in their accounts to pay Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 2.5.10”

Week Adjourned: 1.29.10

Top Class Actions

Citizen of your Wallet? It seems that no amount of bad PR or more importantly, federal regulations, are effective deterrents against bad business practices by banks. This week, a potential class action lawsuit was filed against Citizens Bank alleging that customers have been unfairly charged overdraft fees. Sound familiar? It should. This is just one in a spate of similar lawsuits involving overdraft fees—including a class action against Bank Atlantic, in November 2009.

In this particular lawsuit, Citizens Bank could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars it allegedly unlawfully charged its customers by manipulating debit transaction postings to generate overdraft fees. In other words, CB seemingly put its customers into debt deliberately so it could charge overdraft fees. You do that to enough customers and presto—you’re rich—possibly even rich enough to afford those six figure senior management bonuses.

And the kicker? The fees were imposed under the guise of an ‘overdraft protection plan’ that the lawsuit alleges customers were not allowed to opt out of. I guess the epitaph to this could be—they don’t have your back—they have your wallet.

Top Settlements

If you Leave me Now, You’ll Pay an Early Termination Fee… (ok, so I’m not a lyricist) Keeping on the theme of Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 1.29.10”

Week Adjourned: 1.22.10

Top Class Actions

Killing Me Softly with his Song…killing me softly… Sorry. Just lost in time there…along with this one. I don’t know if this is the longest class action filed in recent history—but it certainly does cover a significant period of time—36 years, if my math is correct. It was filed against The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (“VALIC”) who’ve allegedly been up to no good for the period between January 1, 1974 and January 8, 2010. 1974? Now that’s a blast from the past. There was no public internet in 1974…people bought records—not CDs…Remember Disco? The Joker? Ok. I’ll stop there.

So what’s the beef? Bottom line, “According to the complaint, class members were harmed by entering into expensive annuity contracts that were redundant and unnecessary.” Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that, like, “VALIC agents failed to disclose that the tax deferral feature of the deferred annuity was redundant and unnecessary for Class members…and that these materially false and misleading statements and omissions fraudulently induced purchases of the deferred annuities because they give the impression that the product provides the key tax deferral benefit sought by investors, when, in fact, tax deferral is not a reason for qualified plan investors to purchase the product because any investment funding a qualified plain is already tax deferred.”

Suffice to say, people were sold investment products that they didn’t need. I guess some things really don’t change with time.

Top Settlements

The Now Network gets the Now Settlement. Finally. On Thursday, a federal judge approved a $17.5 million settlement in the class action against Sprint Nextel. Chalk one up to consumers! The lawsuit arose over the flat Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 1.22.10”