News in Brief June 27 Chase, Black & Decker and More

Jury: Black & Decker Utility Knife Not Defective

Black and Decker Inc. scored a win on Thursday when a New York federal jury ruled that the company’s utility knife was not defective. The ruling will end a suit filed by a Canadian man who claimed he cut his left arm with the knife when installing windows at a local high school. Though the plaintiff said the knife should have been better designed to indicate when the blade was in the “lock” position, the jury found otherwise. They did not believe the plaintiff’s claims that the knife was defectively designed/manufactured or that Black and Decker’s instructions and warnings weren’t adequate.

Chase Robocall Lawsuit Settles for $3.75M

JPMorgan Chase Bank will pay out nearly $4 million to resolve claims that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it autodialed phone numbers that had once been linked to checking, savings or other accounts, but had since been transferred to other people – and, in some cases, non-customers. It is expected that the class of 675,000 will receive $5.55, according to the preliminary settlement order; however, history indicates that each class member is more likely to collect between $45 and $75.

LaMi Products Settles Overtime Lawsuit for $1.5M

Merchandiser LaMi Products LLC has agreed to pay out $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed it deprived workers of proper overtime wages. The suit, which was filed in Pennsylvania, alleged that the employees were paid for time spent setting up displays, but were not compensated for traveling between stores, packing up unsold goods or filling out paperwork. Each member of the 2,500-strong class is expected to receive $50, plus an additional amount based on how many extra hours they worked during the class period.

Louisville Strip Club Hit with Suit from Dancers

Kentucky Restaurant Concepts, Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit that claims PT’s Showclub, which the company owns, wrongly classified dancers as independent contractors. In the suit, the dancers claim that they are employees – and not contractors – because they don’t have control over how they dress, how they dance, their fee arrangement and what hours they work. They are looking to collect back pay for the minimum wage they should have received over the past five years.

Centene Settles Overtime Suit with Nurses

Centene Management Corp. has come to a settlement agreement with a group of nurses who said they weren’t properly paid overtime wages. The settlement, estimated at $4.5 million, will allow each class member to receive just over $9,000 in damages. The suit claimed that the nurses were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay and therefore missed out on millions of dollars in time-and-a-half wages.