Week Adjourned - Part 43

Week Adjourned: 10.16.09

Top Class Actions…Some biggies this week!

If it sounds too good to be true…Cash4Gold got hit with a class action lawsuit this week. The allegations include fraud and making misleading statements…

For example, Cash4Gold and its parent company Green Bullion Financial Services, claim to have an ironclad 12-day return policy, however the suit alleges that they often melt the gold they get before the period has elapsed. And Cash4Gold is also quite fond of blaming the US postal service for losing jewelry, the suit claims, when in fact the company has received the jewelry and may already have melted it down. The lawsuit contains a laundry list of allegations around false and misleading claims, makes interesting reading… Maybe their slogan should read “Cash4Gold for Us….”

What do you get when you partner with a company called “Danger”? Some T-Mobile Sidekick folks have unfortunately found out. T-Mobile and Microsoft were also slapped with a class action this week, alleging that they lost “most all the contacts, appointments, photos and other data stored by as many as one million users of the popular T-Mobile Sidekick line of mobile phones.” Ouch.

Apparently, the T-Mobile Sidekick data service went down in early October, after which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.16.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.9.09

Top Class Actions

Giving new meaning to Renaissance architecture? Hundreds more people in Florida may be onboard with a new Chinese Drywall class action filed this week. The suit names Coastal Condominiums and Precision Drywall as defendants, and alleges that the toxic drywall used in the construction of Renaissance Commons (at right) is emitting toxic gases into people’s homes.

During the Florida building boom hundreds of millions of pounds of drywall was shipped to ports around the United States from China. While 25 states have reported issues, problems were first noted in Florida, likely because the defective drywall seems to react strongly in humid conditions.

Apparently, some 600 Floridians in 30 counties have reported symptoms such as irritated eyes, bloody noses, rashes and insomnia. This certainly puts a new twist on that old expression— ‘there’s no place like home…’

Mario Aliano is one pissed off beer drinker (bad pun, I know). In fact he’s so angry Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.9.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.02.09

Some elderly folks wondered if it really is so great to be in Florida It was a busy week for settlements…

Top Settlements

Cloudy Day for the Sunshine State? About 8,500 elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients have been awarded a settlement of $27 million in their class action against the state of Florida.

The lawsuit, filed in 2008, alleged that the state’s Medicaid program forced the plaintiffs into nursing homes, by making it almost impossible to get funding for home or community-based care. Is this what is meant by “proactive health care?”

The lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Florida violated principles of the Olmstead decision, the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which indicated that the unjustified institutional isolation of people with disabilities is a form of unlawful discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And they won. I should think so!

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Right Settlement. A college student who was injured in 2007, when Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.02.09”

Week Adjourned: 9.25.09

Top Class Actions

Behavioral Healthcare Behaving Badly? So, another securities class action to report this week, this one centers on Psychiatric Solutions Inc, a company that provides inpatient behavioral healthcare services. Great—they’re in the behaviour business…that’s encouraging…The suit alleges that the folks running the company— directors and officers—failed to disclose problems regarding safeguards and controls for some of its operations, and that the company directors and certain of its officers flogged stock on the back of “materially false and misleading” statements about their financial health.

While this class action obviously affects people who bought Psychiatric Solutions stock, did you know that if you are an employee and have been issued stock or stock options in this company—you may be eligible as a plaintiff in this class action under Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)?

Top Settlements

Say it isn’t True, True. Another dating story gone wrong—only this time it’s the dating site that’s to blame—not the date. TrueBeginnings LLC, the owner and operator of the True.com Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.25.09”

Week Adjourned: 9.18.09

Top Class Actions

Forgot their Dutch lessons? Perhaps the folks at Wachovia didn’t spring for a trip to Holland to learn how to run an auction. So if you bought Wachovia stock between March 19, 2003 and February 13, 2008 you may be interested to know that Wachovia Corporation was served with a potential class action this week. What did they do? Well, the complaint alleges that throughout the above mentioned period (the class period), Wachovia Securities and A.G. Edwards “engaged in deceptive and manipulative tactics directed at ARS investors to create the appearance of a functioning auction market.” That doesn’t sound good, never mind legal.

If you own this stock you may want to follow this one.

Top Settlements

DanActivate that Settlement! Dannon has been ordered to pay up in a class action settlement alleging misleading advertising about its Activia and DanActive yogurt products. You mean pro-biotic yogurt can’t cure everything that ails you? Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.18.09”

Week Adjourned: 9.11.09

Top Class Actions

White collar lies? Another bank is facing a securities class action this week. This time it’s Pacific Capital Bancorp. The suit alleges that PCB and certain of its senior executive officers issued materially false and misleading statements and/or concealed material information relating to the Company’s reserves for losses on its loan portfolio, which, you guessed it, is in violation of the law. How unusual.

If you have some of this stock in your portfolio or stashed away for retirement, check out when you purchased it. The class period for this case is between April 30 2009 and July 30 2009 (was anybody buying stock then?)

Top Settlements

Who says you can’t sue the government? More than 53,000 drivers in the Fargo, North Dakota area would argue, reasonably, that you can, and you can win… I love it… Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.11.09”

Week Adjourned: 9.4.09

Some SunTrust HELOC customers found themselves minus a line of credit It was a big class action week on the home front…

Top Class Actions

Sun Trust HELOC: Now you see it, now you don’t? A potential class action suit was filed this week against Sun Trust Bank over allegations that the financial company decreased, froze or terminated thousands of Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) in ways that may have violated its contractual obligations to its clients.

In a nutshell, HELOC loans provides credit up to a stated maximum amount within a certain term, the loan collateral being the borrower’s equity in his or her home.

One 82-year old lady had secured a HELOC of $500,000 against her home, only to have it Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 9.4.09”

Week Adjourned: 8.28.09

Top Class Actions

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.

Top Class Actions

[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”