General - The Class Action Blog by Carr Maloney PC

Student Files Class Action Lawsuit to Recover In-Person Tuition and Fees During Covid-19 Pandemic

In May 2020, Plaintiff Keller J. Mellowitz, a student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, filed a class-action complaint against the University for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The student contended that the university failed to reimburse students for on-campus college activities interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic during the Spring of 2020. The class action seeks to recover the cost of in-person tuition and other fees for a proposed class of approximately twenty-thousand affected students.

Initially, the suit was derailed because of a 2021 Indiana law retroactively prohibiting class-action lawsuits against state universities over COVID-19 […]

By Stuart Davis|2022-12-13T14:20:27-05:00December 13th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Breach of Contract, COVID-19, Tuition, University|

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JUUL: Now in Certified Class Action Flavor

On June 28, 2022, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California certified four separate plaintiff classes in the nationwide JUUL electronic cigarette litigation. Certification of a plaintiff class is necessary for a class action lawsuit to proceed. The lawsuit alleges teen injury, fraud, and RICO violations against JUUL Labs and others, for the allegedly addictive and harmful effects of JUUL’s products.

In opposition to class certification, the JUUL Defendants argued that the proposed class lacked “commonality” because each potential plaintiff made an individual decision to purchase products containing nicotine or other addictive ingredients. […]

By Brian O’Shea and Stephen Rutigliano|2022-07-26T11:15:36-04:00July 26th, 2022|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Class Action, Class Certification, Juul|

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Supreme Court to Determine Viability of Cause of Action for HIV-Positive Plaintiffs Alleging Disability Discrimination Against CVS Pharmacy Inc. Under Affordable Care Act

The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in CVS, et al., v. Doe, at al., Docket No. 20-1374, to determine whether 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) provides a disparate-impact cause of action for plaintiffs alleging disability discrimination.

In CVS, the plaintiffs/respondents, five individuals living with HIV, allege that CVS Pharmacy’s new requirement that they must obtain their specialty medication through specialty pharmacists by mail or through drop shipments at a CVS Pharmacy, and not at their local pharmacy, is discriminatory. Several respondents requested to opt-out of the program. However, […]

By Savannah McDonald and Matthew D. Berkowitz|2021-09-20T10:18:36-04:00September 20th, 2021|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: ACA, Affordable Care Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, CVS Pharmacy, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Rehabilitation Act of 1973|

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Supreme Court to Determine whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act displaces the States Secret Privilege

On November 8, 2021, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the class action case, Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga, Docket No. 20-828. In Fazaga, members of a Muslim community in Southern California filed suit against the FBI and various FBI agents, alleging that the government’s secret surveillance of them was not lawful because it was based on their religious beliefs and practices. More specifically, three Muslim men allege that the FBI targeted them because of their religion by using a confidential informant to gather information about Muslims as part of a counterterrorism investigation. […]

By Gabriela Chambi|2021-09-07T14:27:58-04:00September 7th, 2021|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Fazaga, FBI, Foreign Intelligence. Act|

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Universities and Colleges Face Class Action Lawsuits Amid Reopening

With students returning back to school, there has been a large number of reported outbreaks of COVID-19. Many students and parents are filing suits for breach of contracts as it relates to remote learning and the impact that social distancing and campus closures have on students and their learning experience. University staff has also been filing suits saying that schools have not been taking the appropriate measures to protect staff from exposure to the virus.

Attorneys, Matthew D. Berkowitz, Brian O’Shea, and Samantha Lewis dive deep into possible causations and significant hurdles for class certification.

By Matthew D. Berkowitz, Brian O’Shea and Samantha Lewis|2020-10-15T10:45:10-04:00September 17th, 2020|Practice Areas: Class Action, General, Podcast|Topics: Class Certification, COVID-19, Universities|

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COVID-19 and a Potential Fall Without College Sports

On August 11, 2020, both the Big Ten and the PAC 12 conferences announced they would “postpone” fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic—the first of the “Power 5” conferences to do so. Their decision came on the heels of several other leagues, including the Mountain West Conference and the Mid-American Conference, postponing their fall sports until the spring. It is unclear whether other conferences, including the SEC, ACC, and Big XII, which are still scheduled to play sports this fall, will follow suit.

The danger of serious illness and the possibility of significant spread of the […]

By Brian O’Shea|2020-08-12T09:40:33-04:00August 12th, 2020|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: COVID-19, Football, legal liability|

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Insurance Carriers Face COVID-19 Class Action Claims

The government-enforced lockdowns around the country have led to a wave of COVID-19 related business interruption claims. Insurance carriers that denied these claims now face class action suits from their insureds. While it is generally the case that an insured can bring breach of contract actions against carriers that deny claims, insureds seeking to sue their carriers in class action suits face additional obstacles.

Case in point, in the pending federal Western District of Washington case Germack DDS v. The Dentists Ins. Co., the insurer, The Dentists Insurance Company (TDIC) filed a Motion to Strike and Dismiss […]

By Matthew D. Berkowitz and David Schlosser|2020-06-05T10:27:44-04:00June 5th, 2020|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: COVID-19, Insurance Claims|

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Thinking of Suing Over Baseball Sign Stealing? Think Again.

The old elephant in the room of Major League Baseball has reared its ugly head once again: cheating. More specifically, sign stealing. Cheating and baseball have a long marriage. The 1951 New York Giants, in fact, won maybe the most famous pennant in baseball history by illegally stealing signs.

Technology, however, has changed sign stealing from an old baseball tradition into something more like a large-scale fraud. On January 13, 2020, Major League Baseball completed its investigation of an illegal sign stealing scheme by the Houston Astros—an investigation that it has called the most extensive investigation in […]

By Brian O’Shea|2020-02-03T10:27:51-05:00February 3rd, 2020|Practice Areas: Class Action, General|Topics: Baseball, Fan Lawsuits|

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Federal Court Decertifies FCRA Class Action for Lack of Standing Under Spokeo

On October 18, 2019, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California decertified a class of approximately 6.5 million Wal-Mart job applicants, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy Article III standing requirements under Spokeo v. Robins. The Supreme Court in Spokeo reiterated that a statutory violation by itself and without a concrete injury is insufficient to confer Article III standing.

In Pitre v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a class of plaintiffs alleged that Wal-Mart violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to provide job applicants with required and sufficient […]

By Matthew D. Berkowitz|2019-11-26T13:20:52-05:00October 22nd, 2019|Practice Areas: General|Topics: Class Certification, FCRA|

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D.C. District Court Dismisses Proposed Class Action Against The George Washington University Alleging Mismanagement of Workers’ Retirement Savings

On Monday, July 15, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit against The George Washington University. The suit was filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The Court held that Plaintiff Melissa Stanley lacked standing to sue because she explicitly gave up her right to sue as part of a 2016 settlement with the University.

Stanley filed the instant lawsuit against the University in April 2018, alleging that the University, its board of trustees, and its plan administration committee breached their fiduciary duty by burdening Stanley’s […]

By Brian O’Shea|2019-11-26T13:19:27-05:00July 16th, 2019|Practice Areas: General, Labor & Employment|Topics: District Court, ERISA, Retirement Plan|

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The District of Columbia Circuit in the Spotlight: Does Bristol-Myers Apply to Class Action Lawsuits?

The appeal at issue originated from a class action lawsuit filed by Whole Foods Market’s employees in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Molock v. Whole Foods Mkt., Inc., 297 F.Supp. 3d 114 (D.D.C. 2018). Specifically, on June 22, 2017, Whole Foods Market’s employees filed a class action lawsuit for unpaid wages. The class consisted of current and former Whole Foods Market employees from the District of Columbia and several states. The employees claimed that they were not paid their entitled bonuses as a result of managers manipulating certain labor cost and […]

By Samantha Lewis and Gabriela Chambi|2020-04-15T10:19:51-04:00June 3rd, 2019|Practice Areas: General|Topics: Jurisdiction|

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SCOTUS Holds that Third-Party Defendants Cannot Remove Class Actions from State to Federal Court

On May 28, 2019, in a 5-4 decision, in which Justice Thomas sided with the Court’s “liberal” justices, the Supreme Court held in Home Depot USA, Inc. v. Jackson that a third-party defendant cannot use the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) to remove a class action from state to federal court.

This case began when Citibank filed a debt-collection action in state court in North Carolina against respondent George Jackson, who borrowed money on a Citibank credit card to buy a home water-filtration system. In response, Jackson filed a counterclaim against Citibank and a third-party class action […]

By Brian O’Shea|2019-11-26T13:18:10-05:00May 29th, 2019|Practice Areas: General|Topics: CAFA, Supreme Court|

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