The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently affirmed a trial court’s order certifying a class of Arkansas homeowners against an insurer that improperly withheld amounts for labor depreciation when paying covered property damage claims under their insurance policies. A copy of the opinion in Stuart v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company is available at: Link to Opinion. A putative class of Arkansas homeowners (“insureds”) sued their insurer alleging that between Nov. 21, 2008 and Dec. 6, 2013 the insurer improperly withheld labor depreciation costs when paying insureds for covered property damage under their insurance policies. The insureds…
Posts published in “Class Actions”
Class Actions
7th Cir. Upholds Denial of Class Certification in TCPA Cases Due to Individualized Issues of Consent
7th Cir. Upholds Denial of Class Certification in TCPA Cases Due to Individualized Issues of Consent
On a consolidated appeal for purposes of disposition, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed the trial courts’ rulings denying class certification to lead plaintiffs who received faxed advertisements that allegedly did not comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Federal Communication Commission’s Solicited Fax Rule. In so doing, the Seventh Circuit, relying upon the D.C. Circuit’s 2017 decision in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley v. FCC regarding the validity of the FCC’s 2006 Solicited Fax Rule, concluded that class treatment was not a superior mechanism for cases involving unsolicited faxes, as the question of…
The District Court of Appeal for the Third District of Florida recently reversed a trial court’s order denying a defendant’s motion to compel arbitration, holding that monthly text messages with a hyperlink to the defendant’s terms of service provided the consumer with sufficient notice that disputes regarding his relationship with the defendant were subject to arbitration. A copy of the opinion in MetroPCS Communications, et al. v. Jorge Porter is available at: Link to Opinion. A consumer filed a putative class action lawsuit against his cellular telephone provider alleging that it improperly charged the consumer and other customers sales tax on the…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently held that the tolling doctrine set forth in American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah does not apply where the named plaintiff in a failed class action commences a subsequent lawsuit outside the statute of limitations. In so ruling, the Court held that American Pipe only tolls the statute of limitations for unnamed members of the putative class. A copy of the opinion in Weitzner v. Sanofi Pasteur Inc. is available at: Link to Opinion. In April 2004 and March 2005, a doctor received two unsolicited faxes from a pharmaceutical company and…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently joined the Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, in ruling that class or collective arbitrability is a gateway question that is presumptively for the court to decide, rather than the arbitrator. In so ruling, the Court vacated the trial court’s order enforcing a $10 million federal “wage and hour” Fair Labor Standards Act arbitration award against the defendant. A copy of the opinion in Herrington v. Waterstone Mortgage Corporation is available at: Link to Opinion. The plaintiff filed a putative class and collective action against her former employer. She alleged…
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California recently dismissed a consumer’s putative class action lawsuit against a mortgage lending and servicing company for purported damages sustained as a result of a security breach wherein his personal information was compromised, and the hackers attempted to open credit cards in his name. Although the Court previously concluded that the consumer had standing to bring his claims under Article III of the Constitution, it held that the consumer failed to state causes of action for negligence and violations of various California laws. A copy of the opinion in Razuki v.…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that, at least under the Massachusetts version of the UCC, automobile post-repossession and post-sale notices must expressly advise the borrower that any deficiency will be calculated using the difference between the amount owed on the loan and the fair market value of the vehicle instead of the difference between the amount owed on the loan and the auction sale price. In so ruling, the Court held that the defendant’s compliance with the safe-harbor provision contained in the Massachusetts UCC that uses the auction sale proceeds to measure any deficiency…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a defendant waived its right to arbitrate due to its “gratuitous delay” in seeking arbitration, where it waited 13 months after the filing of the lawsuit before moving to compel arbitration, and that any showing of prejudice to the non-moving party was not required. Accordingly, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the trial court’s ruling denying a motion to compel arbitration. A copy of the opinion in Smith v. GC Services Limited Partnership is available at: Link to Opinion. The plaintiff applied for and received a credit card from a bank. The credit…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a class settlement where the defendant allegedly violated the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) by printing point-of-sale credit card receipts that included more than the last five digits of the card number. In so ruling, and over the objections of two class members, the Eleventh Circuit held that : Consistent with similar prior rulings from other federal appellate courts, the named plaintiff had Spokeo standing to pursue the claims, because the FACTA claims were similar to the common law tort of breach of confidence; and Class…
The Supreme Court of Missouri recently affirmed the denial of a lender’s motion to compel arbitration of a consumer’s putative class claims because the arbitration provision at issue designated the use of a specific arbitrator which was no longer available to handle creditor claims. A copy of the opinion in A-1 Premium Acceptance, Inc. v. Hunter is available at: Link to Opinion. Following the borrower’s default under a small personal loan, the lender brought an action in Missouri state court for collection of the debt. The borrower filed counterclaims against the lender for alleged violations of the Missouri consumer protection statute and requested…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the trial court erred in awarding $8.7 million in attorneys’ fees in a class action settlement because it did not treat $20 credits issued as part of the settlement as “coupons” under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). In so ruling, the Court held that, because the trial court included the full face value of the coupons in its calculation of the fee award, the “error require[d] recalculation of the fee award.” Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit vacated the trial court’s attorneys’ fee award. A copy of the opinion in…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a plaintiff could not defeat federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act based on a pre-class certification damages stipulation limiting attorney’s fees to ensure that the amount in controversy remained under CAFA’s $5 million jurisdictional limit. In so ruling, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s finding that the amount in controversy for jurisdiction under CAFA includes the amount of future attorney’s fees based on the expected length of the litigation, the risks and complexity involved, and the hourly rates charged. A copy of the opinion in Faltermeier v. FCA US…