Month: October 2012

Week Adjourned: 10.26.12 – Avon, Nurses & Aides, LoJack, Morgan Keegan

The weekly wrap on top class action lawsuits and settlements for the week of October 26, 2012. Highlights include Avon’s Anew line, Maxim Healthcare worker unpaid overtime, LoJack wage and hour settlement and Morgan Keegan proposed securities fraud settlement.

Top Class Action Lawsuits

Company for Women? Not for this woman—and many others sure to be in her ‘class’. Avon Inc., the cosmetics company of door-to-door fame, is facing a potential consumer fraud class action lawsuit over anti-aging claims of its Anew skin care line. The Avon Anew class action includes such would-be miracle creams as Anew Clinical Advanced Wrinkle Corrector, Anew Reversalist Night Renewal Cream, Anew Reversalist Renewal Serum and Anew Clinical Thermafirm Face Lifting Cream products.

And the woman who’s at the lead of all this? That would be Lorena Trujillo, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, who alleges Avon earned “handsome profits” by misleading consumers into believing Anew anti-aging products can boost collagen production, recreate fresh skin and fortify damaged tissue, offering “at-home answers” to “procedures found in a dermatologist’s office.” Tall order, for sure, but hey—who wouldn’t want to believe it?

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to Avon regarding these anti-aging products, indicating that they have been misrepresented to consumers. In the warning, the FDA demanded that Avon revise certain advertising claims about the products, including the suggestion that they can change the structure or function of the body (hello, collagen production?) which would classify them as drugs under FDA regulations and require FDA approval. Therefore, Avon’s Anew anti-aging products “are not generally recognized among qualified experts as safe and effective,” the FDA said.

The Avon Anew class action lawsuit seeks to represent all U.S. consumers who purchased Anew Clinical Advanced Wrinkle Corrector, Anew Reversalist Night Renewal Cream, Anew Reversalist Renewal Serum and Anew Clinical Thermafirm Face Lifting Cream products based on Avon’s allegedly misleading advertising claims about these products.

The Lawsuit is Lorena Trujillo v. Avon Products, Inc., Case No. 12-9084, California Central District Court. Trujillo is represented by the law firm Baron & Budd.

Unpaid Overtime in Overtime Already! An overtime class action lawsuit has been filed against Maxim Healthcare Services Inc, by Jasmine Lawrence, who was employed as a Home Health Aide by the defendant until October 2012.

In the Maxim Healthcare class action lawsuit, Lawrence alleges that Maxim Healthcare Services Inc, violated, and continues to violate, the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (OMFWSA) because of its willful failure to compensate her and the class members at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for work performed in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. Lawrence claims she regularly worked over 70 hours per week while employed by Maxim Healthcare and the majority of her time was spent performing general housekeeping duties as opposed to patient care.

Lawrence also alleges that she and the members of the putative class who are employed by the Defendant in Ohio are “employees” within the meaning of the OMFWSA.

Lawrence, the lead plaintiff in the employment class action, seeks to bring her claim for violation of the Fair labor Standards Act (FLSA) as a nation-wide collective action, and as a statewide class action based for violation of the OMFWSA.

Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc, is a Maryland corporation which, through hundreds of office locations nationwide, provides in-home personal care, management and/or treatment of a variety of conditions by nurses, therapists, medical social workers, and home health aides. Lawrence and the class are represented by Ben Stewart of Stewart Law PLLC.

Top Settlements

Time to Pay Up–Finally. LoJack agreed a class action settlement agreement this week, ending, hopefully, two California wage-and-hour class action lawsuits. The LoJack settlement, which is subject to final approval, stipulates that LoJack will pay up to $8.1 million, including plaintiffs’ attorneys’ potential fees and costs, to resolve all remaining California state class action claims.

As previously disclosed, in the related California federal wage-and-hour case,  the Company paid the class action plaintiffs $115,000 in 2011 to settle the federal claims. During 2011, the Company also recorded a $1.1 million accrual with respect to plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fee application in the federal case. In early August 2012, the federal court awarded plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs of $900,518 related to those claims. Although the Company filed a notice of appeal with respect to the attorneys’ fee award in the federal case, the Company has agreed to waive that appeal as part of this settlement.

The LoJack settlement agreement involves no admission of wrongdoing, liability or violation of the law by the Company. In addition, the agreement bars the named plaintiffs in the California state class action from pursuing further claims against the Company.

The Company expects the Court to issue a decision shortly regarding preliminary approval of the proposed settlement. Should the Court grant preliminary approval, California class members would be sent a notice of the settlement and given the opportunity to decide whether to participate. LoJack could pay less than $8.1 million in settlement of the state court case depending on the level of participation by class members in the settlement. Following the notice period, the parties may move for final approval of the settlement. LoJack anticipates that the Court would be in a position to rule on final approval of the proposed settlement by the first or second quarter of 2013. LoJack does not anticipate paying any portion of the settlement of the California state case until the Court has granted final approval.

And this Round’s on Them! Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. has agreed to pay $62 million as part of a preliminary settlement of a securities class action involving more than 10,000 nationwide clients. The Commercial Appeal has reported the terms of the settlement won’t force the investment firm to admit any wrongdoing resulting from the 2008 meltdown of its mutual funds. Of course. Accidents happen…we all know that.

The lead plaintiff in this class action lawsuit is a Texas hedge fund which claimed a $2.1 million investment in Morgan Keegan’s closed-end mutual funds.

The Morgan Keegan settlement remains to be approved by a federal judge, and if approved, will leave one more class action outstanding against the investment firm, this one related to conventional mutual funds.

And on that note—I’ll see you at the bar. Have a great weekend!

Week Adjourned: 10.19.12 – Healthcare Workers, Madden NFL, Chantix

The weekly wrap on top class action lawsuits and settlements for the week ending October 19, 2012. This week’s top stories include Healthcare workers at Maxim Healthcare, Electronic Arts and NFL Madden games and the first Chantix settlement.

Top Class Action Lawsuits

Overworked and Underpaid on Overtime. An overtime class action lawsuit has been filed against Maxim Healthcare Services Inc, by Jas

mine Lawrence, who was employed as a Home Health Aide by the defendant until October 2012.

In the unpaid overtime lawsuit, Lawrence alleges that Maxim Healthcare Services Inc, violated, and continues to violate, the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (OMFWSA) because of its willful failure to compensate her and the class members at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for work performed in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. Lawrence claims she regularly worked over 70 hours per week while employed by Maxim Healthcare and the majority of her time was spent performing general housekeeping duties as opposed to patient care.

Lawrence also alleges that she and the members of the putative class who are employed by the Defendant in Ohio are “employees” within the meaning of the OMFWSA.

Lawrence, the lead plaintiff in the employment class action, seeks to bring her claim for violation of the Fair labor Standards Act (FLSA)  as a nation-wide collective action, and as a statewide class action based for violation of the OMFWSA.

Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc, is a Maryland corporation which, through hundreds of office locations nationwide, provides in-home personal care, management and/or treatment of a variety of conditions by nurses, therapists, medical social workers, and home health aides. Lawrence and the class are represented by Ben Stewart of Stewart Law PLLC.

Top Settlements

And it’s a Touchdown! The Plaintiffs score a proposed $27 million settlement that’s been reached in a class action lawsuit pending against Electronic Arts. The Electronic Arts settlement, if approved, will apply to anyone who purchased a new copy of an EA Madden NFL, NCAA Football or Arena Football video game between 2005 and 2012 and is an eligible class member.

The backstory—in case you missed it—The Electronic Arts video game antitrust lawsuit was filed in 2008 entitled Pecover v. Electronic Arts, Inc., and alleged that EA violated antitrust and consumer protection lawsuits by holding exclusive license agreements with the NFL, NCAA and AFL to market branded football software. The lawsuit further alleged that the arrangement shut out competitors, enabling EA to charge 70 percent more for “Madden NFL.”

And the skinny on the proposed deal: Class Members of the EA football game class action settlement include all U.S. consumers who bought a new copy of an Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football video game for Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, PC, or Wii, with a release date of January 1, 2005 to June 21, 2012.

If approved by the court at the February 7, 2013 Final Fairness Hearing, Settlement Class Members who submit timely and valid claim forms will receive the following CASH benefits:

If you are an eligible Settlement Class Member, your share of the net proceeds of the Settlement will be based upon the number of video game titles you purchased new, as well as the number of Settlement Class Members who submit valid claims.

Valid claims for the purchase of Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football video games for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC, or GameCube platforms (“Sixth Generation Purchasers”) will be valued at $6.79 per new game purchased, up to a total of eight units ($54.32).

Valid claims for the purchase of Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football video games for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Wii platforms (“Seventh Generation Purchasers”) will be valued at $1.95 per new game purchased, up to a total of eight units ($15.60).

The only way to receive cash benefits from the EA antitrust settlement is to submit a Claim Form either online at EASportsLitigation.com or postmarked no later than March 5, 2013.

Let’s hope this settlement levels the playing field…

Here’s a Bittersweet Ending… A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against Pfizer and its anti-smoking drug Chantix. The Pfizer Chantix settlement, the details of which remain confidential, was reached just prior to the case going to trial.

The lawsuit was brought by the widow of Mark Alan Whitely, from Minnesota, who allegedly killed himself in November 2007 as a result of taking the controversial drug. The lawsuit alleged that Pfizer failed to sufficiently warn that Chantix could increase the risk of suicide.

FYI—in July 2009, the FDA announced an update to Chantix (known generically as varenicline) warnings, alerting patients to the risk of serious mental health events linked to use of the smoking cessation drug. Pfizer, maker of Chantix, was required to put a Boxed Warning on the Chantix label, highlighting the risk of depressed mood, hostility and suicidal thoughts when using the medication. When the FDA made its announcement in 2009, it had received 98 crude reports of completed suicide associated with Chantix (a crude report means the FDA had not examined each report in depth to ensure there were no duplicates). It had a further 188 crude reports of suicide attempts.

The Whitely lawsuit is reportedly the first of some 2,500 Chantix cases that have been combined in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Alabama for pretrial evidence-gathering and the first trials.

The consolidated cases are In re Chantix (Varenicline) Products Liability Litigation MDL 2092, 09-cv-2039 U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama (Florence). The consolidated cases are In re Chantix (Varenicline) Products Liability Litigation MDL 2092, 09-cv-2039 U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama (Florence).

And on that note—I’ll see you at the bar. Have a great weekend!

Week Adjourned: 10.12.12 – Meningitis, Nexium, Strip Club Dancers

The weekly wrap of top class action lawsuits and settlements for the week ending October 12, 2012. Top stories include the Meningitis Outbreak, Nexium and Exotic Dancers.

Top Class Action Lawsuits

Outbreak Turning into a Rash?—of lawsuits, that is. The first in what could be a string of fungal meningitis class actions was filed on Thursday against New England Compounding Pharmacy—the maker of the steroid injections suspected to be the cause of the multi-state meningitis  outbreak.

The meningitis outbreak class action lawsuit entitled Barbe Puro v. New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 12-2605, was filed in federal court in Minnesota.

According to the lawsuit, the victim, Barbe Puro, of Savage, MN, experienced headaches and nausea after receiving the steroid shots. Puro claims she suffered “bodily harm, emotional distress, and other personal injuries” after she received the steroid injection on September 17.

The contaminated steroid injections were recalled on September 26 by Framingham, MA based compounding pharmacy, New England Compounding Center (NECC). As many as 14,000 individuals may have received the tainted injections which were distributed to medical facilities across 23 states. To date, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported 14 deaths associated with the contaminated steroid.

The meningitis lawsuit proposes a class comprised of Minnesota residents who may have received tainted steroid injections since June of this year. According to the CDC, so far there have been three cases of fungal meningitis reported in Minnesota  connected to the contaminated steroid injections.

Top Settlements

This might Help your Heartburn…A proposed settlement has been reached in a consumer fraud class action lawsuit against AstraZeneca alleging deceptive marketing practices around their anti-heartburn medication Nexium.

In the Nexium lawsuit, entitled Commonwealth Care Alliance v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals L.P., Docket No. 05-0269, the plaintiffs allege Astra Zeneca violated a Massachusetts state law by deceptively marketing the drug Nexium as superior to another drug, Prilosec or its generic version, omeprazole.

The lawsuit asks the Court to order AstraZeneca to pay restitution to purchasers for amounts they allegedly overpaid, to award money damages, or to grant other relief.

The terms of the proposed Nexium consumer fraud class action settlement have not been disclosed. However, the Court has certified a class of individuals and entities that purchased Nexium in Massachusetts (the“Class”). The Court has not made any finding or reached any conclusion as to whether AstraZeneca is liable to the Class.

You are a member of the Class if you have purchased Nexiumin Massachusetts since March 2001. If you purchased Nexium since March 2001 in Massachusetts, you may be eligible to receive money or benefits from the Lawsuit, if any are recovered. For more information on the status of this settlement visit massachusettsnexiumlitigation.com.

Good News at the Poles…I love this one. A $12.9 million settlement has been approved by a federal judge ending a three year long employment class action brought by exotic dancers who alleged the strip clubs they worked for denied them benefits by classifying the dancers as independent contractors.

The strip club dancer lawsuit alleged that the owners of the nightclubs, located in California, Kentucky, Idaho, Texas, Nevada and Florida, helped themselves to over half of the dancers’ tips, penalized them for not selling enough drinks to customers and made the dancers pay stage fees for dancing. The Spearmint Rhino nightclub is among the defendants.

Under the terms of the strip club settlement, the clubs will treat dancers as employees, partners or shareholders in their businesses, and in California, dancers will no longer have to cough up pay-to-perform fees. Dancers who do not make a written claim to the fund will not be paid; any remaining funds will go back to the strip clubs. The dancers who were named plaintiffs in the class action will receive incentive fees for the time and “professional and personal risk” they incurred by being named in the lawsuit.

And on that note—I’ll see you at the bar (no, not the strip joint). Have a great weekend!

Week Adjourned: 10.5.12 – Suave Haircare, Discover Card, Bank of America

The weekly wrap of top class action lawsuits and settlements for the week ending October 5, 2012. Top stories include Suave haircare, Discover credit card and Bank of America.

Top Class Action Lawsuits

Will Sauve/Unilever Smooth their Way out of This? Unilever, the parent company of Suave, got hit with a defective product class action lawsuit this week over allegations its now defunct Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion 30-Day Smoothing Kit actually ruins your hair. I guess you can’t smooth what you don’t have!

The Suave class action lawsuit was filed by 14 women who all allege they suffered permanent hair damage as a result of using the product. Tonja Millet, one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, claims the product melted her hair, made it sticky and impossible to comb. Now, that doesn’t really jive with the product advertising, which one Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion 30-Day Smoothing Kit commercial reportedly claimed “…transforms frizzy, unmanageable hair into hair that’s sleeker and easier to style.”

After using the product, Millet said it kinked her hair instead of straightening it. When she called the product’s consumer hotline to complain, she was told that she had likely used the Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion 30-Day Smoothing Kit incorrectly. (Ummm. Should it be on the market in that case?) When she went to her salon a few days later, Millet’s stylist told her that her hair had been chemically melted. As a result, Millet had 10 inches cut off her hair. Talk about a “bad hair day.”

Unilever pulled the Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion 30-Day Smoothing Kit from stores after receiving a greater than expected number of complaints. (What was the expected number?) The kit has since been discontinued. But apparently the story ain’t over.

Top Settlements

Were you “Discovered?” Did you buy into what you thought were free credit card services promoted by Discover Bank between December 1, 2007 and August 31, 2011? If so, you may be interested to learn that the bank has agreed to pay $200 million to settle consumer fraud allegations brought by federal investigators concerning credit card add-ons that consumers were led to believe were free.

After a one year investigation into the telemarketing and sales tactics used by Discover agents, federal investigators found that consumers were misled credit (otherwise known as consumer fraud) into paying for credit card services including credit score tracking, payment protection, identity theft protection and wallet protection.

The $200 million Discover credit card settlement is in addition to a class action lawsuit settlement of $10.5 million agreed last year by Discover, and a $2 million settlement agreed this year with the Minnesota Attorney General, both of which alleged deceptive marketing practices.

Eligibility for refund would include customers who were charged for one or more of these products between December 1, 2007 and August 31, 2011, and based on the products they purchased and how long they held them. Customers will reportedly be notified directly by Discover Bank.

Additionally, all consumers will receive at least 90 days’ worth of fees paid, minus any refunds they have already received. As many as two million customers will receive full refunds of all of the fees they paid.

In addition to the $200 million refund to consumers, Discover will pay a $14 million civil penalty.

To find out more about the settlement, visit the Discover Card Product Settlement at consumerfinance.gov/pressreleases/discover-consent-order/

Boffo BoFA Settlement.  And the big story this week—Bank of America Corp (BoFA) has reached a preliminary settlement in a securities class action lawsuit, which will see BoFA shelling out $2.43 billion to end claims it was not forthcoming with financial information about Merrill Lynch & Co to the banks shareholders, prior to BoFA buying the securities house. (Just what does compel banks to tell the truth—or does that responsibility fall solely to the people who bring lawsuits against them? I digress.)

The BoFA settlement backstory, short version: BoFA agreed to buy Merrill Lynch in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, however it tried to scrap the deal just weeks after signing but was unsuccessful. Merrill Lynch generated more than US$15 billion of losses and its executives agreed to award employees up to US$5.8 billion of bonuses, according to a report by Reuters.

In December 2008, BoFA’s shareholders approved the Merrill Lynch deal, but once the merger was complete, there was a dramatic drop in BoFA share value, and investors subsequently sued, alleging Merrill’s losses and bonuses should have been disclosed before the vote.

And on that note—I’ll see you at the bar. Have a great weekend!