Author: LucyC

Week Adjourned: 11.06.09

Home Appraisals anyone's guess with price fixingTop Class Actions

Business Ethics 2009: “Conspiring to Manipulate”—it’s sort of the theme in this week’s class actions…read on… 

Homeowners High-Jacked on Home Appraisals? A Central Florida homeowner forced into foreclosure has filed a class-action lawsuit against KB Home, Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services.

The allegations? Price-fixing, in a nutshell, or “conspiring to manipulate.” The suit claims that the three companies conspired to rig housing prices in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina, costing home purchasers millions of dollars, and fueling the collapse of the region’s housing market. That’s no mean feat. 

The companies managed this, allegedly, by using a well-planned scheme to control the typically independent appraisal process, jacking up home values, which, in turn, were used to determine the value of other homes sold by KB, affecting thousands of homeowners. 

If you live in Florida, South Carolina or North Carolina and used Countrywide and LandSafe Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 11.06.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.30.09

Bit of irony, no?The Age of the Overtime Class Action…

Top Class Actions

Wells, It’s Official… Wells Fargo is now facing a wages and overtime class action filed by technical support staff who allege that they were not paid for time worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

The suit covers all network engineers, operating systems engineers, information security analysts, technical service specialists, systems support analysts, web engineers, web support engineers, web systems engineers, operating systems analysts (level 2), systems QA analysts (levels 2 or 3), computer operations analysts (levels 3 or 4), database administrators (levels 2 or 3), and applications systems engineers (level 3) who worked for Wells Fargo as exempt employees at any time during the past three years anywhere in the United States. It is estimated that about 3,000 employees are eligible to participate in the unpaid overtime class action.

Eligible employees have 75 days to join the lawsuit.

BOA Constricting Overtime Pay? And then there’s Bank of America: A lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of telephone-dedicated employees for unpaid wages and overtime worked at company call centers across the country. The lawsuit was filed as a collective action, which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.30.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.23.09

Want a smoke? You may not have a choice at the casinoTop Class Actions

Wynn Gambling with Employees Health? After all the noise about second hand smoke being a known risk factor for cancer, you would think the last thing an employer would want to do is wilfully expose its employees to the carcinogen. At the very least, why risk the lawsuit, right? 



Wrong. The employees at Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino filed a class action lawsuit this week, alleging that Wynn failed to provide a safe work environment for its employees and failed to protect them from the effects of second-hand smoke.

According to the suit, the risks are exacerbated for employees because not only is smoking permitted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but it is also encouraged. In some cases the casino gives cigarettes away to gamblers on the casino floor. What? That’s bad judgement no matter how you look at it.

The suit further claims employees that complain about the smoke risk losing their jobs. So, let’s see, you have to choose between risking your health or your livelihood. Or sue. Well—I’d choose the last option as well. 

Top Settlements

New Math on Big Bank Fees: Big Banks = Big Fees = Big Lawsuits = Big Settlements. At Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.23.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.16.09

Whoops! You want that gold necklace back?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

Villa Lago at Renaissance Commons...home sweet chinese drywall home?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 FloridaIt 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

Psychiatric Solutions feeling a bit under the weatherTop 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

A properly run Dutch auction...taking notes Wachovia?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

Corporate bling at banks lately?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 creditIt 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”