Class Action News

Putative class action by end payors of the drug Seroquel XL alleging anti-competitive agreements by drug companies to delay lower cost generics from coming to market in the U.S.

Wagstaff & Cartmell was counsel to a class of indirect purchasers who obtained settlements of $20.5 million in a price fixing action against potash suppliers.

Wagstaff & Cartmell attorney, Ty Hudson, as court appointed co-lead counsel, prosecuted an illegal monopolization case arising from an alleged hard switch product hop. Judgments for the three named plaintiffs were entered by the court against defendants totaling more than $2.7 million.

Wagstaff & Cartmell attorney, Ty Hudson, was appointed to the Plaintiffs Steering Committee of nine attorneys selected to prosecute a consolidation of more than 50,000 individual actions and a Minnesota state-wide class action brought by corn farmers and other entities against Syngenta alleging that the company prematurely released genetically modified corn seed that led to a de facto embargo on U.S. corn by China. In 2018, a federal court gave final approval to a nationwide global settlement of $1.51 billion.

In late 2007, several shareholders who sold shares of stock to some of the largest U.S. private equity firms in leveraged-buyout transactions brought an antitrust action. They alleged that collusion had suppressed the price that they were paid for their shares of stock in these transactions that involved buying multi-billion-dollar U.S. public companies. In 2015, after almost seven years of contentious litigation, U.S. District Judge William G. Young approved seven settlements totaling $590.5 million for shareholders. Wagstaff & Cartmell and its attorney, Ty Hudson, was a member of the proposed Executive Committee that prosecuted this case and was one of the firms selected to present oral argument for plaintiffs at a two-day summary judgment hearing in Boston. The plaintiffs’ success in withstanding the defendants’ summary judgment motions paved the way for the series of settlements that followed. This case is believed to be the largest antitrust class action settlement involving market allocation in which no government antitrust action was taken.

Wagstaff & Cartmell attorney, Ty Hudson, served as the court-appointed lead counsel for a certified class of more than 200,000 merchants suing an independent sales organization for breach of contract, fraud, and RICO violations alleging the company engaged in a scheme to overbill small businesses on credit card processing fees.

Wagstaff & Cartmell attorney, Ty Hudson, served as the court-appointed interim co-lead counsel in a putative class action against the dominant provider of electronic prescription routing services to pharmacies alleging illegal monopolization and other antitrust violations by the company and alleged co-conspirators.

Wagstaff & Cartmell reached a $10 million class action settlement with an engineering firm on behalf of a class of Northwest Missouri landowners. The case involved allegations that a tannery distributed tannery sludge containing hexavalent chromium to landowners to use as fertilizer in four Missouri counties from 1983 to 2009. The defendant, an engineering firm, provided consulting services to the tannery during some of that time period.

Wagstaff & Cartmell attorney, Eric Barton, served as Co-Lead Class Counsel, obtaining a court-approved $7.6 million settlement for a class of commercial customers alleging breach of contracts for waste-hauling services.

Eric Barton served as Class Counsel for the indirect purchaser settlement class in an antitrust price fixing case arising from sales of polyurethane foam. He helped obtain settlements collectively valued at over $151 million.