U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, April 20,
2007
West
v. AK Steel Corp., No. 06-3442
In a class action
lawsuit brought under ERISA by early retirees in a company's pension
plan who elected to receive their pension benefits under the plan in
the form of a lump-sum payment, partial summary judgment and an
award in favor of plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) there was
jurisdiction under ERISA for the claims; 2) each plaintiff was
entitled to have his or her lump-sum distribution reevaluated using
a whipsaw calculation, plus interest; 3) there was no error in
holding that the plan could not use a preretirement mortality
discount in performing the whipsaw calculation; and 4) the Pension
Protection Act of 2006 is not retroactive in application, and thus,
has no effect on this case. Read
more...
U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, April 16,
2007
Sanford
v. MemberWorks, Inc., No. 05-55175
In an action
alleging violations of 39 U.S.C. section 3009 and related state law
claims arising from plaintiff's purchase of a set of fitness tapes
by phone, an order confirming an arbitration award is affirmed in
part, and vacated in part where: 1) plaintiff's appeal was timely;
2) the order compelling arbitration was erroneous as the district
court failed to rule upon a contract formation issue before
compelling arbitration; but 3) dismissal of claims against one
defendant was proper as it never mailed unordered merchandise to
plaintiff for purposes of section 3009, and there was no abuse of
discretion in dismissing state law claims as to that defendant. Read
more...
Supreme Court of California, April 16,
2007
Fireside
Bank v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County, No.
S139171
In a class action brought against a bank
arising out of certain debt collection attempts, a court of appeals'
judgment denying bank's challenge to a ruling on the substantive
merits of the action is reversed where the trial court abused its
discretion in ruling on the merits concurrent with deciding that a
class could be certified, but before class notice had gone out. Read
more...
