October 24, 2008 10:30 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
Yes, according to the court in Drury v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., No. 6:08-cv-152-Orl-28DAB, 2008 WL 4642381 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 17, 2008). By analyzing the amount each plaintiff would have been charged per wrongfully-placed insurance policy and the likely, though imprecise, number of plaintiffs who would have incurred such charges, the court was able to deduce that the total amount of damages “likely exceeded” the jurisdictional amount.
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October 17, 2008 3:37 PM | Posted by Kenya Reddy | News | Link
Class action suit alleges violations of commerce clause alleging that drivers from New York and New Jersey who use the E-ZPass pay more at Boston area toll plazas than users of Massachusetts’ FAST LANE transponders. Plaintiff files antitrust class action in federal court alleging Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. conspired to fix text-messaging rates. Federal judge approves $24 million settlement for owners of pets that became sick or died after eating pet food contaminated with melamine.
Predatory-lending individual and class actions against Countrywide Financial Corp. will be consolidated and heard in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
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October 17, 2008 10:03 AM | Posted by D. Matthew Allen | Florida state courts
In Ameriquest Mortgage Co. v. Scheb, -- So. 2d --, 2008 WL 4568383 (Fla. 2d DCA Oct. 15, 2008), Florida's Second District Court of Appeal affirmed "per curiam" an order granting class certification in a case where a homeowner sought repayment of "excess premiums" charged for title insurance policies on refinanced mortgage loans.
Judge Chris Altenbernd filed a concurring opinion in which he provided a practice pointer to class action practitioners. Do you want to know what it is?
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September 28, 2008 4:58 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
Yes, but the responding party does not have to supply an answer because, according to the Middle District of Florida, such a request improperly calls for speculation. Rebman v. Follett Higher Education Group, Inc., No. 06-1476, 2008 WL 3928793 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 26, 2008).
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September 28, 2008 4:36 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
While conceding that all the other elements for res judicata were satisfied, the plaintiffs contended that their case did not arise out of a common nucleus of operative facts. The district court disagreed, finding irrelevant that the prior class action was decided on summary judgment and holding that the claims asserted here by the plaintiffs could have been asserted in the prior litigation.
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September 28, 2008 4:16 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
Only documents provided by the plaintiff, according to the Southern District of Florida’s interpretation of controlling Eleventh Circuit precedent.
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September 28, 2008 3:48 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
In rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that reliance need not be shown to certify a class under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Southern District not only distinguished a seemingly contrary Florida state court decision, but explicitly stated that the court is not bound by that decision.
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September 3, 2008 3:47 PM | Posted by Blaise Huhta | News | Link
Judge grants motion to dismiss of securities class action lawsuit against ATM and voting machine maker Diebold, Inc. which alleged investors were misled.
Settlement in works for class action lawsuit filed by gym members against Court South gym over “lifetime memberships.”
Target Corp. agrees to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind by modifying its website and paying damages.
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August 28, 2008 1:28 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
No, according to a recent decision granting a motion for class certification where class members potentially would recover only $3.20 per individual.
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August 21, 2008 11:02 AM | Posted by D. Matthew Allen | Florida state courts
We have hit a quiet spell in terms of Florida class action law (although the federal courts remain active and we should have some posts up on federal cases shortly). There is a small piece of news on the Florida state court front.
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July 29, 2008 12:04 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Eleventh Circuit
Yes, but only so long as Judge Carnes is constrained by the prior panel precedent rule.
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July 29, 2008 12:00 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
More than a conclusory statement about the aggregate sum of the amount in controversy in an affidavit by an officer of the defendant.
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July 27, 2008 7:21 PM | Posted by Blaise Huhta | News | Link
Cleveland law firm to disburse millions in unclaimed class action awards to charities.
Class action lawsuits filed by shareholders of TRM Corp., a provider of ATM services and products, are dismissed.
A health insurance company charged with systematically paying too little for out-of-network care to its members has agreed to a $255 million settlement of class-action suits.
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June 30, 2008 11:06 AM | Posted by Kenya Reddy | News | Link
Collector files class action lawsuit against Louis Vuitton for failure to provide sufficient documentation for limited edition handbags. On same day that Tyson Foods Inc. settles false advertising lawsuit brought by competitor, lawyers file class action in same court on behalf of customers across the country accusing Tyson of consumer fraud, breach of express warranty and unjust enrichment. Seven workers file class action lawsuit against several Verizon Communications contractors and subcontractors, alleging they were not paid minimum wage and overtime wages. Supreme Court’s ruling cutting punitive damages awarded to Alaskans harmed by Exxon Valdez spill may have far-reaching implications for all class actions involving significant damages. New Jersey town files class action lawsuit suing travel websites accused of shortchanging towns out of hotel occupancy taxes.
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June 26, 2008 11:49 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
The Southern District of Florida determined in Jones v. Jeld-Wen, Inc., No. 07-22328, 2008 WL 2433213 (S.D. Fla. June 13, 2008), that individualized causation issues precluded certification of a class seeking damages for allegedly defective windows.
The plaintiffs in this action were homeowners seeking certification based on claims that the impact resistant glass installed in their homes was defective. The defendants (or more accurately the third-party defendants who actually manufactured the products) successfully argued that individualized issues predominate because the jury must determine, on a house by house basis, whether the defective resin in the windows was the legal cause of the damages for each pane of glass.
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June 26, 2008 11:43 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
Variations in contract law across the nation, along with factual issues over whether unpaid work was actually performed, led to a finding that individualized issues of both law and fact predominated over issues common to the proposed class.
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June 26, 2008 11:41 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Southern District of Florida
In In re Managed Care Litigation, No. 00-1334-MD, 2008 WL 2329448 (S.D. Fla. June 4, 2008), the court decided that an opt-out notice containing (1) the name of the person signing the notice, (2) the name of the entity at issue, (3) the address of the entity, (4) a telephone number, (5) and the Federal Tax ID Number of the entity, was sufficient to establish that the entity at issue opted out of the prior class action and was not precluded from going forward with a separate action.
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June 25, 2008 12:04 PM | Posted by D. Matthew Allen | Analysis
According to the May 2008 ABA Journal, the Federal Judicial Center has released findings on which circuits experienced significant increases in the filing of class actions after the enactment of the Class Action Fairness Act. The bottom line is that more conservative circuits had fewer increases in filings and more liberal circuits had greater increases in filings. Do you want to know where the Eleventh Circuit fell?
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June 23, 2008 7:59 AM | Posted by Kathryn Christian | Alabama district courts
In Eufaula Drugs, Inc. v. TDI Managed Care Services, Inc., No. 2:05-CV-293-MEF, 2008 WL 2428214 (M.D. Ala. June 17, 2008), the Middle District of Alabama granted a motion for class certification filed by pharmacies claiming that they were entitled to be reimbursed at a higher rate pursuant to their contracts with a pharmacy benefits manager.
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June 23, 2008 6:43 AM | Posted by Kathryn Christian | Alabama district courts
In Grimes v. Rave Motion Pictures Birmingham, L.L.C., No. 07-AR-1397-S, 2008 WL 2338131 (N.D. Ala. May 28, 2008), the Northern District of Alabama declared that the damages provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act ("FACTA") violate the due process clause of the United States Constitution.
FACTA prohibits vendors from printing more than the last five digits of a customer's credit card number on a receipt. If the vendor fails to comply with FACTA, the customer is automatically entitled to "damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000" and is also entitled to recover punitive damages.
The defendants argued that they would go out of business if they had to pay the statutory damages under FACTA to all class members and that FACTA therefore deprived them of their property without due process of law. The court stated that, under FACTA, it could see "no honest way to avoid certifying a class" and "no honest way to approve a settlement that awards less than $100 to each class member." The court concluded that it "must follow Congress, even if it means bankruptcy for every business in the country, that is, of course, unless this Congressional enactment is invalid, as the court thinks it is." Read more about the court's reasoning by clicking the link below.
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