Honda and Nissan Odometer Lawsuits

Have you been paying attention to your odometer lately?

If you drive a Honda or a Nissan, hopefully you have been. These two car makers have been accused of designing cars with faulty odometers that rack up miles faster than they’re supposed to. The extra miles can affect a whole slew of things, from your warranty coverage to your car’s resale value, according to CBS News.

The class action lawsuit brought against Honda was settled in November of 2006. You may be entitled to receive benefits from the settlement if you “bought or leased a model year 2002 through 2006 Honda or Acura automobile or a model year 2007 Honda Fit, in the United States or its territories, between April 13, 2002 and November 7, 2006,” according to HondaOdometerClassAction.com.

The Nissan odometer class action is still underway. For more information about it, you can visit EagerOdometers.com or the homepage of attorney James Holmes.

Microsoft to pay out $1.1 billion

Californians will soon to receive their delayed payments from a Microsoft antitrust class-action settlement, according to a recent CNN article:

Beginning in August, Californians who have filed claims will receive vouchers that can be redeemed for cash during the next four years, said Richard Grossman, whose law firm represented plaintiffs in the class-action case.

A California court had approved the settlement in July 2004, but a single class member had held up distribution of the money over his objection that the agreement called for unclaimed benefits to go to the state’s public schools.

But lawyers said the California payouts got back on track after the man objecting to the settlement lost his appeals and missed a deadline last week to further argue his case.

Most similar agreements in other jurisdictions also call for unclaimed benefits to go to public schools, and some states have already begun distributing the settlement money.

Most California consumer claims total less than $100, but many could exceed that amount depending on how much software was purchased, Grossman said. The claims for businesses typically range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, he said.

Ohio workers’ comp bureau will pay $52 million

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation agreed “to drop its appeal and pay $52 million awarded to injured state employees in a class-action lawsuit“:

The bureau had argued that state laws prevented workers from being paid twice once by the state and once by insurance companies for the same injury. But the state Supreme Court said the laws were unconstitutional.

About 7,900 workers, who were forced to return their compensation from the state insurance fund, will get back 70 percent under the payment process approved by Judge Michael Donnelly of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday. The remaining 30 percent will be paid to attorneys and an administrator hired to distribute the money.

The bureau’s decision to pay is a victory for thousands of workers who “will see a return of their funds that had been unlawfully collected,” said lead attorney Craig Bashein.

William Mabe, the bureau’s new administrator, decided that appealing the ruling was not appropriate given the agency’s attempts to rebuild trust following an investment scandal that rocked the agency.

The scandal erupted last year over unorthodox investments in rare coins and other collectibles and included a $215 million hedge fund loss.

$2 Billion AOL Settlement

A judge recently approved a $2.65 billion class-action settlement for AOL. Shareholders had “complained that AOL improperly accounted for dozens of advertising transactions, inflating revenue for 15 quarters between 1998 and 2002″ — prior to the AOL/Time Warner merger.

According to the deal approved by [Judge] Kram, Time Warner will pay the bulk of the settlement while its auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, will pay $100 million.

The judge noted that “”the settlement had received overwhelming support by nearly all of the estimated 600,000 claimants,” but that, despite the support, class members would “not recover their entire loss.”

Source: Chicago Tribune

Vioxx Plaintiff Gets $13.5 Million

…but, of course, Merck plans to appeal.

The 77-year-old man, who blamed his heart attack on Merck’s Vioxx, won $9 million today after already being awarded $4.5 million, bringing his grand total to $13.5 million.

This was the 6th trial over Vioxx, and “the first involving people alleging use of 18 months or more.” That 18-month benchmark is significant because “the study that prompted Merck to voluntarily withdraw the drug found that its risks doubled after 18 months’ use.”

In its only other loss in a Vioxx case, Merck was ordered last August to pay $253 million to the widow of a man who died after taking the drug for a short time.

Merck is gong to face almost 10,000 more cases in state and federal courts, and the company “has vowed to try them one at a time.” That’s gotta be one happy (and rich) team of lawyers…

Source: Yahoo News

iPod to Turn Down The Music

Following a class-action lawsuit filed in California in January, Macintosh has agreed to add a maximum volume control to the iPod nano and the fifth-generation iPod.

The lawsuit claimed that iPods could cause hearing damage because they could produce sounds louder than 104 decibels and up to 115 decibels. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Othe Communicative Disorders, noise-induced hearing loss is common with sounds of 120 to 140 decibels, including firecrackers, motorcycles and firearms.

The new software will allow people to set their own maximum volume on their iPod, and it will let parents use a combination code to set the volume control for their children’s iPods. The software is available for download here.

Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Investors to Sue

The high court has unanimously decided to made it harder for investors to join forces and file lawsuits against companies.

In essence, the decision “blocks state class-action lawsuits by stockholders who contend they were tricked into holding onto declining shares.” Specifically, the court is saying that

the 1998 Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act permits suits on behalf of 50 or more investors only by purchasers and sellers of securities, not by people who simply hold investments.

The decision in Merrill Lynch v. Dabit was a big win for Merrill Lynch, which “faced a spate of lawsuits prompted in part by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s 2002 probe into the investment banking firm’s practices.”

I don’t usually side with Big Business, but I like that it’s now more difficult for disgruntled investors to file frivolous securities class action lawsuits.

Sources: This Bloomberg article and “Court Makes It Harder for Investors to Sue,” by AP writer Gina Holland (3/21/06)

Kentucky diocese settles for $85M

A Catholic diocese in Kentucky has settled its suit for $85,000,000, according to Enquirer reporter Jim Hannah:

A judge approved an $85 million settlement Tuesday in the nation’s only class-action lawsuit pitting sexually abused parishioners against a Roman Catholic diocese.

The final agreement with the Covington Diocese falls $35 million short of what was originally proposed in June. That proposal made world headlines because no diocese had ever agreed to pay such a large amount to settle all outstanding sex-abuse claims.

Attorneys have said the original figure was based on an estimate that 700 to 800 victims would come forward, but no more than 350 said they were abused by employees of the diocese that once included 57 counties across the eastern half of the state.

The Northern Kentucky settlement may equal what the Boston Archdiocese split among 552 victims in 2003. It is less than the Diocese of Orange, Calif., agreement in 2004 to pay $100 million to resolve about 90 abuse claims.

By comparison, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati capped its compensation fund at $3 million for about 130 people.

For the rest, click here.

Protests Put Netflix Settlement On Hold

“A proposed class-action settlement involving Netflix customers may be rewritten in response to complaints that the agreement does little for consumers while rewarding the company and the lawyers who filed the suit,” writes Caroline E. Mayer of the Washington Post.

A hearing over the $4 million settlement had been scheduled in California Superior Court today but was postponed for a month.

Plaintiff attorneys, who were slated to receive $2.5 million in the proposed settlement, said the delay enables both sides to review more than 50 objections, including one by the Federal Trade Commission and another by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, a national public-interest law firm. Netflix Inc. declined to comment on the delay.

In the past few years, both the FTC and the trial lawyers group have been actively protesting class-action settlements that bring little value to consumers, usually coupons with little monetary value, but pay off handsomely for lawyers.

For more, check out the Washington Post.

Sempra Energy to Pay $377 Million

Sempra Energy will pay $377 million to settle the energy crisis-related class action suit:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sempra Energy said on Wednesday it will pay $377 million in cash to settle a class-action lawsuit related to the California and Western energy crisis of 2000-2001.

The energy holding company, which operates San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Company, said the after-tax cost of the settlement is $350 million, including a $100 million charge recorded in the latest fourth quarter.

The company said earnings in future years won’t be materially hurt by the settlement.

Under the terms of the settlement, Sempra Energy denied any wrongdoing.

Sempra also said it expects to earn $3.60 per share for 2005, the upper end of its previous guidance range of $3.40 to $3.60 per share, due to improved performance in the company’s commodities business. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect the company to earn, on average, $3.61 per share for 2005.

The class-action lawsuit is separate from another case filed by the California attorney general, which alleged Sempra illegally manipulated natural gas prices during the energy crisis from 2000 to 2001.

The settlement is subject to approval by the San Diego Superior Court, the Nevada District Court for Clark County, the City of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach, Calif.

Shares of Sempra, which have traded between $35.53 and $47.86 over the last year, closed down by 60 cents at $45.54 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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