Class Action Suits

Frustrated emergency room doctors filed a class-action lawsuit against the state Tuesday, saying that California's overstretched emergency healthcare system -- which ranks last in the country for emergency care access -- is on the verge of collapse unless more funding is provided. Across the state, scores of hospitals and emergency rooms have shut their doors in the last decade, leading to long waits, diverted ambulances and, in the most extreme cases, patient deaths.

Dannon Co. settled a false-advertising lawsuit Friday, agreeing to set up a $35-million fund to reimburse consumers who bought its Activia and DanActive yogurts. The class-action lawsuit, filed in January 2008, alleged that Dannon lied when marketing its Activia and DanActive yogurts by trumpeting health benefits that didn't exist. The White Plains, N.Y.-based yogurt maker denied the claims and admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The decision to settle was based on Dannon's desire "to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation," spokesman Michael Neuwirth said.

Congress took its first big step Thursday to implement President Bush's plan to overhaul the nation's legal system, approving a measure long sought by business to impose new restrictions on class-action lawsuits. Republicans hailed the lopsided vote in the Senate -- the bill passed 72-26 -- as an important legislative victory in their campaign against what they call "lawsuit abuse." The legislation has strong support in the House, which is expected to pass it next week.

A federal appeals court has granted Wal-Mart Stores Inc. a new hearing to decide whether plaintiffs grouped in a nationwide class-action case will instead be required to file separate lawsuits. A majority of judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the issue should be heard by an 11-judge panel, but a hearing date has not yet been determined. Six female employees sued the Bentonville, Ark.-based company in 2001, saying they were paid less than men and promoted less frequently.

Some angry investors -- both average Americans and giant pension funds -- are not taking their massive losses quietly. Holding portfolios that have imploded from a barrage of financial time bombs, they are turning to the courts for compensation. "Any time people lose money, expect litigation to pick up," said John Sandy Smith, a partner at law firm Morris, Manning & Martin in Atlanta.

Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills money manager and philanthropist who steered hundreds of millions of dollars into investments overseen by Bernard L. Madoff, has fallen ill, relocated to New York and wants to move lawsuits against him from state court to federal court in Los Angeles. Investors have filed at least three lawsuits against Chais, accusing him of failing to properly safeguard their money and of not disclosing that he was investing with the disgraced New York swindler.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday revived a class-action lawsuit accusing Arco, Chevron and several other refiners of conspiring to fix gasoline prices during the mid-1990s. But the same panel expressed doubt that the plaintiffs would be able to prove their case. The ruling stems from a suit filed by William O. Gilley on behalf of other wholesale buyers of the cleaner-burning fuel that since 1996 has been required in California.

U-Haul International Inc. has settled a class-action lawsuit that had accused the equipment rental giant of deceiving California customers through its reservations policy. The settlement came amid U-Haul's appeal of a court ruling that found it had engaged in fraudulent business practices. In the 2006 ruling, Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Samuel S. Stevens barred U-Haul agents from promising "confirmed reservations" for one-way equipment rentals in California.

Trish Wiener believes Dannon misled her, and she wants to milk it for all it's worth. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, she accuses the yogurt maker of a "massive and comprehensive" false advertising campaign for its Activia, Activia Light and DanActive products. Dannon promotes them as clinically proven to help regulate digestion and boost immunity because they contain bacteria that Wiener's suit says aren't so special.

New York state and city authorities are suing 26 banks and two accounting firms that did business with Countrywide Financial Corp., claiming that the companies failed to ensure that the beleaguered mortgage company was being honest with investors. The banks and accounting firms were added as defendants Friday in a class-action lawsuit already pending in California against Calabasas-based Countrywide. Two of the lead plaintiffs, New York State Comptroller Thomas P.