Class Actions Brief Blog

Not every class action court filing in North and South Carolina becomes a full-length post on our blog. Here is a recap of May's filings:

Harding v. The Pantry, Inc., No. 2:14-cv-02096 (May 30, 2014) (alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act for wrongly classifying store managers as exempt and failing to pay overtime wages).  The case was originally filed in the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas on April 25, 2014.

Fitzhenry v. Lowe’s Cos., No. 2:14-cv-02081 (May 29, 2014) (alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by Lowe’s and GE Capital Retail ...

In Johnson v. Amazon.com dedc LLC, No. 3:14-cv-01797 (D.S.C. May 2, 2014), seven South Carolina Amazon warehouse workers sued Amazon on behalf of themselves and similarly situated employees alleging unpaid overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) at Amazon’s fulfillment centers in West Columbia and Spartanburg. Plaintiffs allege that they should be compensated for time spent going through “intensive and time-consuming security screening” to enter and exit the fulfillment centers (Compl. ¶35) and for similar security procedures at the start ...

It is difficult to understate the effect on class actions of Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224 (1988), which the Supreme Court decided in 1988. It is virtually impossible to demonstrate “reliance” – a key element of most securities’ fraud claims – on a class-wide basis. Indeed, if reliance is a part of the substantive proof required for the class claims, that usually presents a ticket for dismissal of those claims and a denial of class certification. But in Basic, the Supreme Court bridged that gap, reasoning that the stock market was “efficient,” and therefore would ...