The Class Action Hokey Pokey: In re Moneygram Securities Litigation Spat Among Plaintiffs’ Counsel

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Seth Leventhal

Update (March 17, 2011): A second Minnesota Litigator post this week on class action procedure. This one concerns the procedure for “opting out” of a class action and the possibility of “opting back in.” Last week, Sr. U.S. District Court Judge David Doty (D. Minn.) put the kibosh on the proposed class action hokey-pokey discussed below. The Court appears to have found the maneuver too clever by half. Some putative cl… Continue reading →

MoneyGram Securities Fraud Class Action: Opposition to Motion to Certify Class & Redactions

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

U.S. District Court Judge David Doty won’t be deciding Plaintiffs’ motion to certify class against MoneyGram until after a class certification hearing set for Feburary 10, 2010 but the opposition to the motion, below, is of interest on at least a few levels. First, the fact that MoneyGram is contesting class certification at all is of some interest but, unfortunately, raises issues far beyond the scope of this blog. In a nutsh… Continue reading →

Major Win for Class Action Defendants in Minnesota

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

For quite a few years, trial courts’ consideration of whether or not to certify a class of certain kinds of putative class action claims (securites fraud, consumer class actions, certain employment class actions, environmental cases, mass accidents) have been perfunctory, at best. Many plaintiffs in such cases have intoned the requirements of Rule 23 of the federal rules or the state analog, relying on the allegations in their complaint … Continue reading →

In re: Zurn Pex, Eighth Circuit Battle of Titans on an Important Issue of Products Liability Law

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Seth Leventhal

Update (July 7, 2011): A big win for plaintiffs’ class actions before the Eighth Circuit this week. Judge Diana E. Murphy wrote the opinion, in which Judge Roger L. Wollman concurred, affirming U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery’s class certification in its entirety. Judge Raymond W. Gruender dissented, arguing that the “dry plaintiffs’ class,” that is, the class of plaintiffs whose pipes had not yet failed,… Continue reading →

Class Actions & Arbitration Clauses: Clash of the Titans

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

As a rule this blog focuses on Minnesota law but some cases outside the jurisdiction are of such importance that they are worth noting. In re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, Docket No. 06-1871 (2nd Circuit, January 30, 2009) is such a decision. In a Sherman antitrust class action claim brought against American Express by merchants, the issue on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit was whether the arbitration c… Continue reading →

Payday for Plaintiffs’ Counsel: $5.445 Million Fees OKAY’d for Hormone Replacement Therapy Class Action

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Seth Leventhal

Over an objection by a member of the plaintiffs’ class, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kyle, Sr. (D. Minn.) issued an order approving attorneys fees in Yarrington v. Solvay Pharmaceuticals to the class action plaintiffs’ counsel (Gustafson Gluek, PLLC, Lieff Cabraser)– $5.445 million for about 5,450 hours of work over six years. That’s awfully close to $1,000/hour. Seem high? To some, it undoubtedly does (see earlier… Continue reading →

Steel yourselves: Its the end of the line for an 8-year-old class action

Posted on September 26, 2011 by TJ Conley

The 8th Circuit recently issued a major ruling in a significant class action race discrimination lawsuit in Bennett v. Nucor Corp. Nucor is a large steel manufacturer with a production plant in Blytheville, Arkansas. The plaintiffs initiated race discrimination claims against the company in 2003. After the district court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and dismissed their disparate impact claims, the six individual pla… Continue reading →

Preliminary Injunction Hearing on Plaintiff Class Action Challenge to HAMP (Update #2)

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

Latest news re: Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Class Action: Judge Ann D. Montgomery heard argument this afternoon on plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction in this putative class action on behalf of individuals who have sought government assistance to avoid foreclosure and eviction from their homes under the HAMP and have been denied that assistance without any articulated/written basis (and thus, presumab… Continue reading →

Bad News/Good News: Two consumer/insurance class actions…

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

1) Three-years of litigation, three-week trial, one day’s jury deliberation: Plaintiffs zeroed… In a long and certainly hard-fought class action battle against Allianz Life Ins. Co. of Golden Valley, plaintiffs, led by Karl Cambronne came up empty-handed. Allianz was repesented by a phalanx of lawyers from Jordan Burt, which focuses on insurance and financial services. 2) It isn’t over ’til it’s over (and it mi… Continue reading →

Important CAFA Decision (Seventh Circuit (Posner, J.)): "Litigation is not Ping-Pong"

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Seth Leventhal

Minnesota Litigator wanders outside of Minnesota and Eighth Circuit jurisprudence from time to time for important decisions in sister circuits, neighboring states, or the U.S. Supreme Court and a recent decision out of the Seventh Circuit warrants mention. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 made it easier to get class action litigation into federal courts because of a perceived problem with “judicial hellholes,” or pockets of pla… Continue reading →

Product Recalls & Consumer Class Actions

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Seth Leventhal

… (8th Cir. 1999) (“Where, as in this case, a product performs satisfactorily and never exhibits an alleged defect, no cause of action lies.”) Briehl involved an anti-lock braking system (“ABS”) and the class was defined so as to exclude any individuals who had suffered actual physical injuries due to the faulty ABS system. One judge on the panel distinguished Briehl, pointing out that there were no injuries of any kind in … Continue reading →

She Who Hesitates…

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Seth Leventhal

For many years, Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure used to require that class certification motions be brought “as soon as practicable after the commencement of the action.” It seems that no one ever knew what this meant. And, in addition, many lawyers and judges thought that it was bad policy (whatever it meant), so the rule was changed in 2003. This mandate was deleted. On the other hand, Eight Circuit class action… Continue reading →

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