On August 30, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas certified a class of participants in plans that provide employee benefits through the Contractors and Employees Retirement Trust (CERT) and the Contractors Plan Trust (CPT) from 2011 to the present. Defendants Fringe Benefit Group and Fringe Insurance Benefits, Inc. operate these two trusts and provide administrative and marketing services to plans that participate in the trusts.

On September 3, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied BlackRock’s motion to dismiss a case claiming that BlackRock improperly packed its workers’ retirement plan with poorly performing company-affiliated funds and grossly overcharged plans invested in BlackRock collective trust investments (including the BlackRock 401(k) plan) for securities lending services.

The Court in Strauch, et al. v. Computer Sciences Corporation has awarded $18,755,016.46 in damages to the System Administrators who won a jury verdict against Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in December 2017.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has granted final approval of a $5.4 million settlement in Castro, et al. v. ABM Industries, Inc., et al., a class action alleging that Defendants violated Labor Code § 2802 when they failed to reimburse janitorial workers who used their personal cell phones for work.

On August 29, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification in Foster v. Adams and Associates, Inc., et al. (No. 18-02723-JSC). An article about the hearing on the Motion is here. The Court will be issuing a written order shortly.

On July 26, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California denied in part a motion to dismiss in Zavala v. Kruse-Western, Inc. et al. (No. 1:19-cv-00239-DAD-SKO).

On July 2, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted Plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class of participants and beneficiaries in the Wawa, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (the “Wawa ESOP”).

On June 26, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a motion to dismiss by the City of Oakland and intervenor Unite Here Local 2850 in a case brought by the California Hotels & Lodging Association challenging Measure Z, a voter-approved Oakland ordinance that sets minimum wage requirements and reduces room-cleaning workloads for hotel employees.

The Alameda County Superior Court has ruled that a civil rights lawsuit over inadequate access to health care for 13 million Medi-Cal participants may proceed, after a two-year fight by the State of California to stop its advancement.

Settlement Would Resolve Janitors’ Claims for Cell Phone Reimbursement