The Litigation Counsellor®

On November 29, 2017, U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick rejected defendant Keurig Green Mountain’s request to dismiss claims in the single-serve coffee antitrust multidistrict litigation (“MDL”).

The MDL was created in June 2014 in the Southern District of New York. Plaintiffs in the MDL are direct purchasers who similarly allege that Keurig and its parent company, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., have gained, and maintained, a foothold in the single-serve coffee pod market through anticompetitive means.

A $2.28 million settlement has been reached in the class action suit against German auto parts manufacturer, Kiekert AG. The proposed class action was originally filed in Michigan federal court in May 2017. Plaintiffs in the suit claimed that Kiekert conspired to unlawfully fix the prices of vehicle door latches by artificially raising bids for, and allocating the supply of, side door latches and latch mini modules. The latches were then sold by Kiekert at an ultracompetitive price to auto manufacturers in the U.S.

A $97.7 million preliminary settlement agreement was reached on August 8, 2017 between consumers and automaker, Nissan, in the Takata airbag multidistrict litigation. This latest proposed settlement brings the MDL one step closer to a complete resolution as Nissan is the fifth automaker to settle. In May 2017 defendants Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and BMW agreed to a combined settlement fund of $553.6 million. The only remaining defendant automakers in the suit are Ford and Honda.

Following a long litigation process stemming from a 2015 data breach, users of online adultery facilitator, Ashley Madison, and the website’s parent company, Ruby Life Inc., filed a proposed settlement on July 14, 2017. While maintaining their innocence, Ruby Life agreed to pay the class $11.2 million to put an end to the litigation.

Although filed separately, the wives of Thomas Walsh and Joseph Roman are the latest to officially accuse Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals of concealing life threatening risks associated with the use of their blood thinner, Xarelto. On July 10,2017 in New York State court, the couples filed claims alleging negligence, strict products liability, breach of warranties, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation and fraud and deceit, and are seeking compensatory damages.

The first round of bellwether cases in the Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming System MDL were chosen in Minnesota federal court on April 7, 2017. The joint filing stated that both parties had selected 16 cases out of a pool of 150 cases randomly chosen previously by the court in January 2017. The total number of bellwethers to be tried is 31, as one case was chosen by both sides.

Arguments as to where the defective FieldTurf multidistrict litigation should be consolidated still continue with both sides presenting their arguments to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on March 28, 2017. Defendant FieldTurf USA Inc. and its various entities (FieldTurf Inc., Tarkett Inc. and FieldTurf Tarkett SAS) argue that the class-action suits claiming that the company sold defective DuraSpine turf to schools should be consolidated in New Jersey. Conversely, Plaintiffs maintain that the Central District of California or the Southern District of Texas would be the proper venue.

On March 8, 2017, plaintiff financial institutions in the Home Depot Customer Data Breach multidistrict litigation filed an unopposed motion for preliminary approval of a $25 million proposed settlement agreement in the Northern District of Georgia. The proposed settlement represents a possible end to over two years of contentious legal battles stemming from the massive 2014 Home Depot data breach, in which 56 million credit and debit card numbers were compromised.

On Friday March 3, 2017, U. S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel announced that the start of the first bellwether trial in the Depakote MDL was to be postponed due to the illness of defense expert witness neurologist, Dr. James Willmore. Judge Rosenstengel announced that while maintaining the planned trial date of March 27, 2017 was of the utmost importance to her, she was convinced after a phone call with Dr. Willmore that he is indeed too ill to testify.

As the first major verdicts and settlements of are announced, here are three multidistrict litigations (MDLs) from 2016 that are likely to make headlines in the legal community in 2017.

Among the hundreds of pending multidistrict litigations across the country, some stand out for the large jury awards they've yielded against major companies like Johnson & Johnson, and some, like the General Motors ignition-switch MDL, for their inability to produce many verdicts at all. Others are notable for their longevity.