Category: Class Action

At least five employees at the City of Long Beach have joined in a class action lawsuit against the city alleging a system of racial discrimination, which they say held them back in their jobs.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit alleges that the city has disproportionately kept Black employees in lower-paying and unclassified positions, rejected their requests for equal pay and promotions, and created an “anti-Black culture” among city employees. …Read the rest »

A federal judge in California refused to allow Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. to escape for a second time a proposed class action alleging that its switch to soy-based covering for its wires in its vehicles attracted rats. According to a Law360 news report, the judge said the court is bound by the Ninth Circuit’s findings in the case.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney declined to change the appeals court’s ruling stating that under the law of the case doctrine, a district court is precluded from reconsidering an issue that has been decided by the same or higher court. What this means is that in this case, the district court will not dismiss the implied warranty claims that the Ninth Court found were sufficiently pled. It will also not allow to go forward the California Unfair Competition Law claim that the circuit court dismissed with prejudice. …Read the rest »

A user in a low-level hacking forum has published the phone numbers and personal data of hundreds of millions of Facebook users free online. According to a report on Insider.com, this exposed data includes the personal information of more than 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including 32 million records on users in the United States, 11 million in the United Kingdom and 6 million in India. The leaked information includes users’ phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and in some cases, email addresses. …Read the rest »

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bank of America for its role in the widespread fraud involving California Employment Development Department (EDD) debit cards provided by the bank to people getting unemployment benefits. According to a CBS San Francisco news report, the lawsuit lists a number of failings by Bank of America saying that the suit is a wakeup call for the bank, and that the problems could have been foreseen. …Read the rest »

Trek Bicycle is being sued for about $5 million by a consumer who says the company is making misleading claims that its Bontrager WaveCel helmets are safer than other brands. According to a news report, the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that the WaveCel helmet technology was touted by the defendant as the most significant advancement in cycling in the last 30 years when it was released in early 2019. …Read the rest »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting pet owners about high levels of aflatoxin in some pet foods after 28 dogs reportedly died from the toxin and eight others became sick. According to a CNN news report, the pet food containing the toxin has been identified as certain Sportmix products manufactured by Midwestern Pet Foods. The company has voluntarily recalled these products. …Read the rest »

A class action lawsuit filed by a Chevy Bolt owner in California says that a battery recall over fire hazards was issued too late by General Motors and does too little. According to a report on Car Complaints, the Bolt battery recall only offers an interim repair that will cause cars to lose 10% of their mileage range. The lawsuit also alleges that GM held off on a formal recall even though the batteries are unsafe and unable to be fully charged without catching fire. …Read the rest »

A judge in California has signed off on a $4.5 million settlement in a 2018 class action lawsuit, which alleged that Walgreens failed to pay non-exempt workers at a distribution center for the time that was spent in pre-and post-shift security checks. The lawsuit stated that the company essentially rounded downtime on employees’ timecards and failed to pay premium wages to employees who were denied rest breaks required under California law. About 2,600 workers will split the net settlement of $2.8 million. Each individual participant in this class-action lawsuit will receive about $1,200. …Read the rest »

The University of California system would pay $73 million under a proposed settlement reached in a class action lawsuit filed by seven women who accused their former gynecologist at UCLA of sexual abuse, the Los Angeles Times reports. The gynecologist, 67-year-old James Heaps, who is criminally charged with sexually abusing seven patients – not the same seven who are involved in the class action – is accused in the civil litigation of sexual assault and sexual misconduct between 1983 and 2019 when he was at the UCLA student health center as well as the UCLA Medical Center. …Read the rest »

California’s restaurants that have been financially battered by the coronavirus pandemic have filed government claims to recover more than $100 million in fees for liquor and health permits and tourism charges that they say were assessed even though their businesses were closed or only partially operating due to COVID-19 restrictions. …Read the rest »