Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Lerach Hopes to eat Menu Foods Inc. Dog Food
Author: sebrenner
William Lerach of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, more famous for shareholder lawsuits, has filed two Rule 23 class actions against Menu Foods, Inc. One suit in California and the other in Florida.
The suit alleges Menu Foods, Inc., “after receiving numerous complaints from concerned customers, Menu Foods belatedly recalled the toxic [pet] food.” However in a March 16, 2007 statement the FDA reports, “There has been a small number of reported instances of cats and dogs in the United States (none in Canada) becoming sick.”
Lerach’s states:
As of March 27, members of a Web site for U.S. veterinarians had reported at least 471 cases of kidney failure among pets in the previous 10 days. Experts and veterinary organizations estimate the final death toll could exceed 10,000.
The FDA suspects the toxicity and the subsequent complaints stem from melamine contamination of the pet food.
Melamine is a strong organic base used in the production of plastics and fertilizer. The FDA, in March 2007, found melamine in the recalled pet food. The suspected source of the melamine, was wheat gluten imported from China used in the production of the pet food. Menu Foods has stated they concur with this theory.
The class action is praying for a mutli-million dollar fund (of course, otherwise it would be worth the attorney’s time) to compensate grieving pet owners.
A complete list of affected pet foods is available at http://www.menufoods.com/recall/.
The original press release from Lerach is available.
If you are concerned you may have been affected by the contamination you can join the class action by joining PoisonedPetFood@lerachlaw.com.
Technorati Tags: FDA, Food, Lerach
read comments (0)Leraching Dell, Intel and PriceWaterhouse
Author: sebrenner
William Lerach, head of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP announced a class action lawsuit against Dell Inc. The suit, filed by shareholders, alleges Dell inflated financial results, concealed negative information from shareholders, and accepted $250 million in rebates and kickbacks from Intel Corp. The suit alleges Intel’s payments ensured exclusive use of Intel chips in Dell computers.
Meetings discussing the rebate program were small and held behind closed doors.
The class action also names Michael Dell, Intel Corp, PricewaterhouseCoopers and recently departed former Dell CEO Kevin Rollins as defendants.
Lerach, an attorney specializing in securities fraud, has made such a name for himself that “leraching” is now an eponymous verb describing aggressive shareholder suits.
Parties interested in this suit can learn more at http://www.lerachlaw.com/cases/dellinc/
Via Reuters.
Update: MarketWatch reports the suit also alleges widespread insider trading by Mr. Dell, Mr. Rolins and other high ranking members of Dell’s leadership team.
Technorati Tags: Dell, Lerach, Securities
Vonage’s Customer Friendly IPO Leads to Class Action
Author: sebrenner
Vonage (VG), unlike most companies, made room for its customers in its recent IPO. Unfortunately the stock crashed after the public offering. It opened on June 8th at about $12 even though the offering price was $17. Today, about a week later, it is trading around $10- an big drop.
Now many investors, especially the customers who may not have been very astute investors, are filing law suits left and right. The law firms s of Stull, Stull & Brody; Spector, Roseman & Kodroff; and Schiffrin & Barroway have each filed actions against Vonage on behalf of
investors.
The day the stock opened my buddy called complaining he forgot to get in on the customer offer. Now he feels pretty smart.
Instaloans Financial Solution Centres, of Canada is alleged to have charged over 60% interest on payday loans. Wow!
Edmonton lawyer Graham McLennan, who represented Instaloans, said the company couldn’t run a business charging 60 per cent.
‘It’s just ridiculous to suggest that,” he told The Chronicle-Journal Thursday.
McLennan said one out of every five customers defaults on their loan.
From this brief quote it is hard to determine if McLennan believes 60% is too low or too high.
According to the Chronicle Journal payday lenders change transaction fees to increase the effective interest rate above 60%.
For an more libertarian view of usury read Mises.org.
Expect more suits related to payday loan centers and to bank fees in general.
Nash Finch Class Action Launched by Milberg Weiss
Author: sebrenner
Nash Finch, a Fortune 500 Food Distributor, is the defendent in a class action filed by law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP of New York on behalf of investors who purchsed Nash Finch stock between February and October of 2005.
As with most class actions brought by investors the suit alleges the management, Ron Marshall (CEO), and Le Anne M. Stewart (CFO and Senior Vice President), made false and misleading statements related to finances. In this case the defendents are alleged to have mislead the market with overly optimistic statements regarding the recent acquisition of Roundy’s Distribution Center. Compoung the investor’s ire the defendents are alleged to have engaged
in the fraudulent and wrongful conduct to sell more than $300 million in notes in a private placement and in order for Company insiders, including defendant Marshall, to sell more than $17 million of their privately-held Nash Finch shares while in possession of material adverse non-public information about the Company.
Milberg Weiss is currently looking for a lead plaintiff in this case.
Milberg Weiss | Case Information | Nash Finch Co. Via: Businesswire.com
Katrina victims win hotel extension courtesy of FEMA
Author: sebrenner
The plaintiffs in a class action suit filed against FEMA were handed a resounding victory by Judge Duval of the Eastern District of Louisiana. Duval ordered FEMA, “must pay the hotel bills of hurricane evacuees until Feb. 7.
FEMA’s bill for Katrina related hotel expenses already top $350 million. I can’t help but suspect the hotel and hospitality industry may be supporting the plaintiffs in this matter.
Judge Orders an Extension of FEMA Aid – New York Times
Title 9 Class Action Sought for Cincinnati Crew
Author: sebrenner
The University of Cincinnati women’s rowing team is seeking class action status for a “Title 9″ suite filed today in federal court.
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages. The women allege the university denied them equal opportunity to participate in women’s rowing by not offering facilities, scholarships and coaches commensurate with mens UC sports.
In addition to what they say are unequal facilities, the team members say they have had no certified trainer to attend away events or conditioning and practice, a violation of NCAA regulations and athletic department policy.
From an athlete-to-coach ratio, no team has as low a ratio as the women’s rowing team, the lawsuit says.
And in terms of scholarships, UC spent nearly $2.9 million on men’s sports and just over $1.9 million for women’s sports in the 2003-2004 academic year, according to the suit.
The percentage of available scholarships for women is 40 percent and 60 percent for men, the suit says, while the student body is made up of 48.3 percent women and 51.7 percent men.
Via: The Cincinnati Post – Rowing team suit charges bias:
Shareholders Vs. Universal American Financial Corp.
Author: sebrenner
Shareholders of Universal American Financial Corp. have filed suit alleging, as it is most always the case with shareholder class actions, Universal American Financial made false and misleading statement related to the financial health of the company. Specifically statements about Universal American Financial Corp.’s Medicare Supplement loss Ratio.
The case, Robert Kemp vs. Universal American Financial Corp., Richard A. Barasch, Robert A. Waegelein and Gary W. Bryant, was filed in the Southern District of New York.
Universal American Financial Corp. denies all allegations and plans to fight the suit vigorously.
Via: Forbes.com
FedEx Class action brought by contractors acting like employees
Author: sebrenner
FedEx is the defendant in at least one class action suit. The suit, filed in California, alleges FedEx exerts so much control over its independent driver the drivers should be considered employees not contractors.
In October a California superior court judge reaffirmed his earlier ruling that among ground drivers who had filed a class action there, those who drive single routes should indeed be classified as employees.
A little back ground: FedEx bought RPS a few years back. RPS was a franchise sort of business. All the drivers worked for themselves but deliver packages for the RPS delivery network. As franchisees they had a good deal of control over their lives and their routes. These days, the plaintiffs allege, the drivers have so little autonomy they should be classified as employees and receive the full benefits of being employees.
Patten, Faith & Sandford of California are representing at least a few of the drivers.
Root Kit Class Action For Sony
Author: sebrenner
The tables are turned- customers sue Big Media. After years of RIAA suits Sony gets sued by the EFF for installing spyware/malware on millions of consumer’s computers.
The spyware/malware in question is intended to make it hard for consumers to copy the CD’s they buy and hopefully reduce file sharing. Unfortunately for Sony the software they install, made by XCP, is a security risk and a appears to violate someone else’s copyright.
Regardless of this lawsuit or the five or six other suits that are being filed. The biggest problem for Sony and Big Media is the damage to their reputation. A quick search on Technorati shows a great deal of anger towards Sony.
Green Welling, LLP, a major firm specializing in class action suits including a recent suit against Refco, has joined another major firm Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman and Robbins, LLP, and the EFF in filing the the case.
Via: EFF: Breaking News