Class Action Roundup – April 6

Toyota Camrys May Have a Bit of a Mold Problem

What are some words you associated with a new car? Sleek? Fast? Stlyish? Moldy? One of these things is not like the other – but, according to a lawsuit filed against Toyota Moro Sales USA Inc. last week, those words are all exactly what you get with certain 2012 Toyota Camry models. There are lots of things that can go wrong with a car, but few people probably worry their car is growing spores. It’s a problem for cheese, right? Maybe some old bread – but cars? Apparently so.

The suit asserts that a problem with the cars’ air conditioning system (a defect that Toyota apparently knew about, mind) leaves it ineffective, allowing mold to build up and emit foul odors, and even lead to health problems for some drivers. The lawsuit states that Toyota “actively concealed and failed to disclose” the mold problem, despite the defect being “uniform and widespread” and being linked to nasal stuffiness, wheezing, eye irritation and other sicknesses. What’s more, when drivers complain and the HVAC systems in their Camrys, Toyota replaces the components with identical parts, meaning the problem doesn’t go away. The suit is seeking to certify a class of all California purchasers of 2012 Camry vehicles.

Taste of Their Own Medicine? Walgreen Pays to End Prerecorded Prescription Calls

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act makes one thing pretty clear: if a company doesn’t have your express permission to contact you, they can’t. Or, more accurately, they shouldn’t – though plenty still do. It’s a problem that used to be a lot worse, until a beefed-up TCPA increased the costs of fines and laid out in black and white what a company had to do to get your permission. Still, plenty of businesses run afoul of the law, phoning or texting customers using prerecorded messages, or “cold calling” to sell services and products. Walgreen Co. just learned the hard way how seriously the TCPA should be taken. The company has agreed to pay $11 million for violating the act by “robocalling” customers with prescription reminders – sometimes even years after customers gave their numbers to Walgreens. More than nine million customers may qualify to receive some of the money, none of which will revert back to the retailer.

Takeda Offers More than $2 Billion to Settle Actos Suits

Bloomberg Business reports that Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. has offered more than $2.2 billion – one of the largest ever U.S. settlements for a defective drug or medical device – to settle claims the company hid cancer risks associated with its Actos diabetes medication. More than 8,000 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal court of the last few years after patients who used the Type 2 diabetes drug were reported to have a increased risk of bladder cancer. The FDA released a warning in 2011 to inform the public about the correlation, and last year a jury awarded more than $9 billion in damages to two patients who were diagnosed with cancer after treatments involving Actos. One of the main accusations against Takeda is that the company knew about the risks and chose to conceal – or at least, not reveal – the evidence. This latest settlement has already been criticized as too lenient considering the scale of injuries allegedly linked to the drug – but there are more lawsuits still being fought in court, meaning the eventual cost to the company is still unknown.

Gender Discrimination in Silicon Valley? Nope, Says Jury.

Last week’s major news was the ongoing fight between Ellen Pao and her former Silicon Valley employer, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Pao sued the company for alleged discrimination based on her gender, arguing that the company culture favored men and failed to counter sexual harassment and retaliation. The lawsuit kicked off a wider conversation on the role and treatment of women in Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, and may have been the inspiration for two further lawsuits filed against Twitter and Facebook by former female employees. In the end, however, Pao lost her case. As the Washington Post reported, lawyers were unable to convince the jury of six men and six women that the company fostered a culture of sexism and harassment and, despite the fact that women currently hold between fifteen to twenty percent of the technology jobs in top Silicon Valley companies, disagreed that Pao had faced discrimination when she was fired. There are some positives, though: several companies have already taken steps to make themselves more welcoming to women, while, as the Washington Post puts it, “the trial remains a rebuke of Silicon Valley’s male-dominated culture and a warning sign to other technology firms and start-ups — a message that seemed to find a wide audience despite the particulars of a difficult case.”

Johns Hopkins Faces Lawsuit for Government-Backed STD Experiments

A lawsuit filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court last week alleges that Johns Hopkins, along with the U.S. government, deliberately infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases during the 1940s and 1950s. This was allegedly as part of a study of syphilis and other STDs carried out by a consortium of leading hospitals and pharmaceutical companies including the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Health System, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co. The lawsuit named more than 700 family members of the allegedly infected individuals as plaintiffs, and lawyers working for the family members insist that documents exist to support their allegations. Johns Hopkins has vehemently denied the claims, stating that “[t]he study they’re complaining about took place almost 70 years ago. The doctors they name are all deceased.” The suit is seeking $1 billion in compensation.