/raid1/www/Hosts/bankrupt/CAR

/raid1/www/Hosts/bankrupt/CAR_Public/211224.mbx C L A S S A C T I O N R E P O R T E R Friday, December 24, 2021, Vol. 23, No. 251 Headlines AMERICAN ELECTRIC: Plan Members Slam Onerous Benefit Modification EXICURE INC: Colwell Slams Share Drop Over Botched Ataxia Meds MASTERS GALLERY FOODS: Ciha Claims Shortchanged on Wages MDL 3017: Heart Meds Patent Litigations Transferred to D. Del. MDL 3018: Panel Denies Centralization of NEC Data Breach Cases MDL 3019: T-Mobile Date Breach Litigation Transferred to W.D. Mo. NY CITY AGENCIES: Bronx Freedom Fund Hits Bail Misappropriation WECOMPETE INC: Turizo Slams Illegal SMS Ads Blasts Asbestos Litigation ********* AMERICAN ELECTRIC: Plan Members Slam Onerous Benefit Modification ----------------------------------------------------------------- Troy A. Carte, James M. Jones, William C. Robinson and Walter W. Raub, II, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. American Electric Power Service Corporation and American Electric Power System Retirement Plan, Defendants, Case No. 21-cv-05651, (S.D. Ohio, December 8, 2021) seeks to recover all losses to plan profits, equitable or remedial relief and redress for breaches of fiduciary duties and prohibited transactions under Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). American Electric Power Service (AEP) is a New York corporation with a corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, which is in the business of operating power plants and power transmission systems in multiple states, directly and/or through its direct or indirect subsidiaries. The American Electric Power System Retirement Plan is a defined benefit retirement plan sponsored and maintained by AEP for the purpose of providing and administering retirement benefits payable to the present and former employees of AEP and its direct or indirect subsidiaries. Plaintiffs are former employees of AEP. Effective on or about January 1, 2001 AEP converted the Plan into a "cash-balance" plan, assigning initial balances to participants based upon their past accrued benefits, and then adding contributions for each year of employment thereafter, and interest at a variable rate up to retirement age. It provided for participants in the Plan on December 31, 2000 (or who were in a one-year waiting period for participation) to continue to accrue benefits under the "final average pay" formula through December 31, 2010 and to receive the greater of their hypothetical cash balance or their accrued benefit. It further provided that all accruals to their initial benefit would cease commencing January 1, 2011. The benefit formula thus offsets the accrued benefit against cash balance benefits which otherwise would be earned after 2010. Because accrued cash balances for Plaintiffs were less than the actuarial value of their accrued benefits, they received no increase in total accrued benefits under the plan for over seven years commencing January 1, 2011. The actuarial value of their accrued benefits fluctuates inversely with changing Treasury Bill interest rates. This cessation or reduction of net benefit accrual to Plaintiffs was foreseeably caused or exacerbated by reductions in interest rates. Such amendment's offset of their accrued past benefits against cash balance benefit accruals shifted the market risk of declining interest rates from the plan to the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs claim that the Plan's administrator did not reasonably inform them of the risk to their future benefit accruals attendant on declining interest rates. [BN] The Plaintiff is represented by: Diana Nickerson Jacobs, Esq. David B. Rodes, Esq. GOLDBERG, PERSKY & WHITE, P.C. 11 Stanwix Street, Suite 1800 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Phone: (412) 471-3980 Facsimile: (412) 471-8308 Email: djacobs@gpwlaw.com drodes@gpwlaw.com EXICURE INC: Colwell Slams Share Drop Over Botched Ataxia Meds -------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Colwell, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Exicure, Inc., David A. Giljohann and Brian C. Bock, Defendants, Case No. 21-cv-06637, (N.D. Ill., December 13, 2021), seeks damages, prejudgment and post-judgment interest, reasonable attorneys' fees, expert fees and other costs and such other and further relief under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Exicure is a clinical stage biotechnology company that develops therapeutics for neurology, immuno-oncology, inflammatory diseases, and other genetic disorders based on its proprietary spherical nucleic acid technology. On November 15, 2021, after the market closed, Exicure announced that it could not timely file its quarterly report for the period ended September 30, 2021 because was investigating "a claim made by a former company senior researcher regarding alleged improprieties that researcher claims to have committed with respect to its XCUR-FXN preclinical program for the treatment of Friedreich's ataxia." On this news, its stock price fell $0.30, or 28%, to close at $1.07 per share on November 16, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume. Colwell alleged that Exicure failed to disclose to investors that there had been certain improprieties in Exicure's preclinical program for the treatment of Friedreich's ataxia and that there was a material risk that data from the preclinical program would not support continued clinical development. Colwell purchased Exicure securities and suffered damages as a result of the federal securities law violations. Plaintiff is represented by: Marvin A. Miller, Esq. MILLER LAW, LLC 115 South LaSalle Street, Suite 2910 Chicago, IL 60603 Telephone: (312) 332-3400 Email: mmiller@millerlawllc.com - and - Pavithra Rajesh, Esq. Robert V. Prongay, Esq. Charles H. Linehan, Esq. GLANCY PRONGAY & MURRAY LLP 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Telephone: (310) 201-9150 Facsimile: (310) 201-9160 Email: rprongay@glancylaw.com clinehan@glancylaw.com prajesh@glancylaw.com MASTERS GALLERY FOODS: Ciha Claims Shortchanged on Wages -------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Ciha, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Masters Gallery Foods, Incorporated, Defendant, Case No. 21-cv-01405 (E.D. Wis., December 16, 2021), seeks unpaid overtime compensation, compensation for missed breaks, liquidated damages, costs, attorneys' fees, declaratory and/or injunctive relief and/or any such other relief pursuant to Wisconsin's Wage Payment and Collection Laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Masters Gallery Foods is a cheese manufacturer in Plymouth, Wisconsin where Ciha worked as an hourly-paid, non-exempt employee. He claims that Masters shaved-off time from her time-card for hours worked and/or work performed, failed to pay her overtime rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of forty hours in a workweek and failed to compensate her for pre-shift and post-shift hours worked. [BN] Plaintiffs are represented by: James A. Walcheske, Esq. Scott S. Luzi, Esq. David M. Potteiger, Esq. WALCHESKE & LUZI, LLC 235 N. Executive Drive, Suite 240 Brookfield, Wisconsin 53005 Phone: (262) 780-1953 Fax: (262) 565-6469 Email: jwalcheske@walcheskeluzi.com sluzi@walcheskeluzi.com dpotteiger@walcheskeluzi.com MDL 3017: Heart Meds Patent Litigations Transferred to D. Del. -------------------------------------------------------------- In the Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) patent litigation, Judge Karen K. Caldwell, Chairperson of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transfers four cases in the U.S. District Court of Delaware and one in the Northern District of West Virginia to the District of Delaware and, with the consent of that court, assigned it to Judge Richard G. Andrews for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. Bayer and Janssen (Plaintiffs in said cases) filed these actions after the various generic drug manufacturer defendants submitted Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) seeking approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make and sell generic versions of Xarelto (rivaroxaban) 2.5 mg tablets, a prescription drug indicated for administration orally twice daily, in combination with aspirin, to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in patients with chronic coronary artery disease or peripheral artery disease. All of the actions are Hatch-Waxman3 patent claims of the applicable U.S. Patent by filing ANDAs seeking FDA approval to market generic Xarelto 2.5 mg tablets in the United States. These actions involve substantially similar claims that defendants infringed one or more claims of the same patent concerning Xarelto (rivaroxaban) 2.5 mg tablets in seeking FDA approval to market generic versions of the drug in the United States. The panel contends that centralization is warranted to eliminate duplicative discovery, prevent inconsistent rulings (particularly with respect to claim construction and issues of patent validity), and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel and the judiciary. A full-text copy of the Court's December 3, 2021 Transfer Order is available at https://bit.ly/3EgIwXf MDL 3018: Panel Denies Centralization of NEC Data Breach Cases -------------------------------------------------------------- In the NEC Networks' customer data security breach litigation, Judge Karen K. Caldwell, Chairperson of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation denies various Plaintiffs' move to centralize D.W. et. al. v. Walmart Inc. (Case No. 4:21-00363) to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Mendoza v. NEC Networks, LLC (Case No. No. 3:21−06146) to the Northern District of California and Defendants' move to centralize Daisy Trujillo v. NEC Networks, LLC (Case No. 5:21−00523), Vereen v. NEC Networks, LLC (Case No. 5:21−00536) and Camacho v. NEC Networks, LLC (Case No. 5:21−00979) to the Western District of Texas. NEC does business as "CaptureRx" in these actions that involve common questions of fact arising from an alleged February 2021 data security breach of CaptureRx's electronic files, which resulted in the exposure of personal information belonging to certain patients of CaptureRx's healthcare provider clients, including defendants Rite Aid, Walmart and Camden-on-Gauley. The panel contends that centralization is premature and could delay a class-wide settlement with little or no benefit to the parties and the putative class members. If certain plaintiffs who have not yet participated in settlement discussions wish to object to or opt out of the proposed settlement, then there are suitable mechanisms in place by which they may do so without the need for centralization. A full-text copy of the Court's December 3, 2021 Order is available at https://bit.ly/3EmzEPX MDL 3019: T-Mobile Date Breach Litigation Transferred to W.D. Mo. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the T-Mobile customer data security breach litigation, Judge Karen K. Caldwell, Chairperson of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transfers two cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and one each from the Northern District of California, Northern District of Georgia and the Eastern District of New York to the Western District of Missouri and, with the consent of that court, assigned it to Judge Brian C. Wimes for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. These class actions present common factual questions concerning an alleged data security breach of T-Mobile's systems that was discovered in August 2021 and allegedly compromised the personal information of approximately 54 million current, former, and prospective customers of T-Mobile. Common factual questions include data security practices and whether those practices met industry standards, how the malfeasants obtained access to T-Mobile's system, the extent of the personal information affected by the breach when T-Mobile knew or should have known of the breach and T-Mobile's investigation into the breach. The panel concluded that centralization will eliminate duplicative discovery, prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings, including with respect to class certification and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel and the judiciary. It also justifies the Western District of Missouri as an appropriate transferee district for this litigation since said district is supported by defendants and, in the alternative, by several plaintiffs, including movants and the district presents a geographically central and accessible venue for this nationwide litigation. A full-text copy of the Court's December 3, 2021 Transfer Order is available at https://bit.ly/3mpDTnL NY CITY AGENCIES: Bronx Freedom Fund Hits Bail Misappropriation --------------------------------------------------------------- The Bronx Freedom Fund, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. The City of New York, The New York City Department of Finance, Lawrence Marks, Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of New York State, Deborah Kaplan, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge of the New York City Courts, Alvin Yearwood, Administrative Judge, Criminal Matters, Twelfth Judicial District, Justin Barry, New York City Criminal Court Chief Clerk, William Kalish, Bronx County Borough Chief Clerk, and John and Jane Does 1-10, all in their official capacities, Defendant, Case No. 21-cv-10614, (S.D. N.Y., December 10, 2021), seeks maximum equitable and declaratory relief and damages arising from alleged unconstitutionally and unlawfully forfeited cash bail pursuant to the U.S. and New York Constitutions. The Bronx Freedom Fund is a duly licensed non-profit bail fund located in the South Bronx, providing bail assistance to indigent criminal defendants facing pretrial detention for misdemeanor charges for nearly a decade. It alleges the Defendants of illegally appropriating its cash bails without a valid court order or any of the requisite judicial findings of fact by filling out forms that are unsigned by judges, which then render their cash bails forfeited and thus remitted to the city. [BN] Plaintiff is represented by: Oren Giskan, Esq. David Feige, Esq. Amy Robinson, Esq. GISKAN SOLOTAROFF & ANDERSON LLP 90 Broad Street, 2nd Floor New York, New York 10004 Tel: (646) 200-6265 Email: ogiskan@gslawny.com davidfeige@gslawny.com arobinson@gslawny.com WECOMPETE INC: Turizo Slams Illegal SMS Ads Blasts -------------------------------------------------- Blake Turizo, individually and on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. WeCompete, Inc., Defendant, Case No. CACE-21-021795 (Fla. Cir., December 9, 2021), seeks statutory damages and any other available legal or equitable remedies for violations of the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act. WeCompete is a "telephone solicitor," sending SMS ads en masse in behelf of its clients. It allegedly sent SMS ad messages to Turizo's phone from a certain "WCL," offering small business financing. Turizo received a text without the requisite prior express written consent. [BN] Plaintiff is represented by: Manuel S. Hiraldo, Esq. HIRALDO P.A. 401 E. Las Olas Boulevard, Suite 1400 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301 Telephone: (954) 400-4713 Email: mhiraldo@hiraldolaw.com Asbestos Litigation ********* S U B S C R I P T I O N I N F O R M A T I O N Class Action Reporter is a daily newsletter, co-published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, USA, and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, D.C., USA. Rousel Elaine T. Fernandez, Joy A. Agravante, Psyche A. Castillon, Julie Anne L. Toledo, Christopher G. Patalinghug, and Peter A. Chapman, Editors. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. ISSN 1525-2272. This material is copyrighted and any commercial use, resale or publication in any form (including e-mail forwarding, electronic re-mailing and photocopying) is strictly prohibited without prior written permission of the publishers. Information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed. The CAR subscription rate is $775 for six months delivered via e-mail. Additional e-mail subscriptions for members of the same firm for the term of the initial subscription or balance thereof are $25 each. For subscription information, contact Peter A. Chapman at 215-945-7000. *** End of Transmission ***