Category: In the News - Page 60

Some Marriott International Inc. guests were granted class status by a Maryland federal judge in litigation over a major data breach that compromised the personal information of 133.7 million guests at its Starwood-branded hotels, while others classes were denied certification.

Plaintiffs filed a would-be class action alleging that Marriott took more than four years to discover the breach and nearly three months to notify its customers of their exposed information.

Judge Paul W. Grimm of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland rejected Marriott’s argument that certification should be denied because not all of the class members have demonstrated that they’ve suffered an injury.

The plaintiffs don’t need to demonstrate that every class member has standing at the class certification stage, Grimm said in his Tuesday order.

Read “Marriott Guests Get Partial Class Certification in Breach Suit,” Bloomberg Law. (Subscription required.)

A Maryland federal judge certified eight classes of Marriott International Inc. guests in multidistrict litigation over a major data breach that compromised the personal information of more than 100 million guests at its Starwood-branded hotels, although some other classes were denied certification.

U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm granted certification on Tuesday to eight of 13 potential guest classes with claims against Marriott or Accenture LLP, a consulting company that worked with Marriott-owned Starwood Hotels and Resorts Inc. at the time the data breach was discovered in 2018.

The ruling certifies potentially millions of class members spanning six states that were included in an initial 10 bellwether cases and an estimated 47.7 million exposed customer records associated with the bellwether states, the judge said.

. . .

The classes are represented by Andrew Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Amy Keller of DiCello Levitt Gutzler LLC and James Pizzirusso of Hausfeld LLP.

Click through to read “8 Classes of Marriott Guests Certified in Data Breach MDL,” Law360

More than 60 million Americans in the nonunion private sector workforce have been shut out of the court system by companies that force them to arbitrate in the event of a dispute, according to a 2019 study by Professor Alexander J.S. Colvin of the ILR School at Cornell University. But given the costs, many of those same workers are shut out of arbitration, too. Employment lawyers are often reluctant to take arbitration cases at all because the hours required don’t always justify the potential reward, particularly when low wage workers are seeking justice.

Joseph M. Sellers, co-chair of our Civil Rights & Employment practice, was quoted by Capital & Main in an article examining the impact of forced arbitration on the U.S. workforce. Currently, more than 60 million Americans are subject to forced arbitration, preventing them from using the court system to resolve work-related disputes.

“Low-wage workers have the least bargaining power. Whatever the employer insists on, they are going to agree to.”

Kigali (AFP) – The family of “Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina announced Saturday it has filed a $400 million lawsuit in the United States over his alleged abduction and torture.

Rusesabagina is currently serving a 25-year prison term on terrorism charges after a trial his supporters say was a sham and riddled with irregularities.

“The complaint alleges that the Government of Rwanda and high-ranking Rwandan officials conspired to facilitate and execute an elaborate plot to lure Paul Rusesabagina from his home in Texas to Rwanda, where he would be tortured and illegally detained for the remainder of his life,” the family and his lawyers said in a statement.

A copy of the lawsuit seen by AFP indicates that it was filed in a Washington DC court on February 22. It was served on the Rwandan government on March 8.

Rusesabagina’s family and lawyers will hold a press conference in Washington on Wednesday to announce further details of the suit, which is seeking at least $400 million (380 million euros) in compensation as well as punitive damages.

The lawsuit names the government of Rwanda, President Paul Kagame and other figures including the former justice minister and intelligence chief.

Cohen Milstein is counsel to Paul Rusesabagina and his family in this FSIA, TVPRA human rights lawsuit.

When Laura Baxter was accused of monopolising the attention of actor Tom Cruise aboard Scientology’s Caribbean cruise ship in 2004, she says her punishment was to be locked in an “extremely hot” engine room of the Freewinds ship.

She was shouted at by church officials and then for three days she says she was only allowed to leave to eat for a few minutes at a time or return to her room to sleep for a few hours. She had to urinate in a bin out of fear of being punished for going to the bathroom unaccompanied, she alleges.

Cohen Milstein’s Theodore J. Leopold, Manuel J. Dominguez, and Brendan Schneiderman are representing three individuals in a human trafficking and forced labor lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and five Scientology-affiliated corporations for violations of the United States Code Chapter 77 of Title 18 and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Read the complete case study for more information on Baxter, et. al. v. Church of Scientology International.

A trio of Australian residents have launched legal action against organizations connected to the Church of Scientology over allegations of child trafficking, covering up multiple sexual assaults, and forced labor.

Read the complete article at The Saturday Paper.

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals drug purchasers nabbed initial approval of a $485 million global settlement struck in March over claims the drugmaker manipulated the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s generic-drug approval process to box out competitors.

U.S. District Court Judge Nathanial M. Gorton preliminary approved the two deals on Thursday in Massachusetts federal court and signed off on a proposed order laid out by the parties. Under the terms of the deals, $340 million is designated to direct purchasers and $145 million will go to end-payors such as health care plans.

In the multidistrict litigation, the end-payors asserted that Ranbaxy erroneously acquired exclusivity periods for certain drugs, which set back the launch of generic versions and maintained inflated prices. The drug wholesalers said they then fell victim to the high prices as a result of the alleged scheme.

The claims asserted by the parties came after the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice initiated investigations into Ranbaxy, which culminated in guilty pleas and a $500 million fine in 2013 for lying to regulators and selling drugs that didn’t meet federal safety standards.

. . .

The direct purchasers are represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Hilliard Shadowen LLP, Radice Law Firm PC, Sperling & Slater PC, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, Wexler Wallace LLP, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Nussbaum Law Group PC.

Click through the link to access the complete Law360 article, “Ranbaxy Buyers’ $485M Deal in Generics MDL Gets Initial Nod.”

Three former workers for the Church of Scientology have accused the organization of indoctrinating them as kids, making it physically and psychologically impossible for them to leave what they described as a human trafficking situation. In a lawsuit filed in Florida, the plaintiffs say they were raised within the organization and worked on its Freewinds ship after signing a standard-issue billion-year contract to provide free or underpaid labor. Aboard the ship for over a decade, the trio alleges they were prisoners in “a world filled with abuse, violence, intimidation and fear,” working for up to 18 hours at a time.

A federal lawsuit in Tampa accuses Scientology leader David Miscavige and the church of forcing child staffers to work in Clearwater.

Gawain Baxter was 6 years old when he signed a contract agreeing to work for the Church of Scientology for 1 billion years.

He said he spent his childhood doing manual labor at Scientology’s Flag Land Base in Clearwater, and getting no education beyond basic reading, writing and math.

At 15, Baxter attempted to leave by writing a letter to a superior about constant abuse and intolerable living conditions. Instead, he said, church officials sent him to Scientology’s Freewinds ship in the Caribbean, where he worked for little or no wages for 14 years.

See the Tampa Bay Times for the full story.

Three Australian residents have accused Scientology of child trafficking, covering up multiple sexual assaults, forced labor and other abuses in a significant legal claim lodged in a Florida court overnight.

The plaintiffs, Australian Gawain Baxter and residents Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris, are seeking significant “compensatory and punitive damages” against Scientology leader David Miscavige and five Church-related organizations for alleged human trafficking.