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CATES V. COOPER TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY AND JOHNSON V. COOPER TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY
Goldenberg Schneider LPA represents a class of more than a thousand Cooper Tire retirees claiming that they are entitled to fully paid lifetime health care benefits from the company. The retirees filed ERISA and LMRA actions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to remove the employer “caps” on those benefits to provide the retirees those benefits at a lower cost and secure health insurance in the future. This case was successfully resolved for the benefit of the Class, a settlement valued at $7 million.
AVERAGE WHOLESALE PRICE (AWP) PHARMACEUTICAL LITIGATION
Goldenberg Schneider is co-counsel with Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro challenging pharmaceutical companies’ practice of charging for drugs based on Average Wholesale Price (AWP). This massive multidistrict litigation focuses on a group of physician-administered drugs that are used to treat many types of cancer and other serious illnesses. Plaintiffs allege in the complaint that the pharmaceutical companies consistently inflated the prices of these prescription drugs as part of a scheme to overcharge consumers. Goldenberg Schneider also assisted the Connecticut Attorney General’s office in its successful cost recoupment litigation against many of the same Pharmaceutical companies related to this same pricing scheme.
DALESANDRO V. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY
The firm represented a class of employees in an ERISA action to recover severance benefits from the defendant company when their paper mill was sold. The case was certified as a class action and the plaintiffs won a multi-million dollar judgment in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The litigation was then resolved in a multi-million dollar settlement and benefits were paid.
Goldenberg Schneider had litigation leadership responsibilities on behalf of direct purchasers of oriented strand board (“OSB”), a structural panel wood product that is used throughout the United States in residential construction for sheathing and flooring. The purchasers contended that the OSB manufacturers, which include many major wood product manufacturers in the United States, engaged in an antitrust cartel where the supply of OSB was unlawfully restricted, resulting in significantly inflated prices being charged to the purchasers. The case is significant as it includes a massive amount of OSB sold during the residential construction boom throughout the United States. The case was certified as a class action in federal district court and successfully resolved in a multi-million dollar settlement.
Goldenberg Schneider served on the Lead Committee in this class action that was filed following the August 2005 Styrene gas rail car release in Cincinnati, Ohio. Tens of thousands of residents and employees and hundreds of businesses either evacuated their residences or businesses or were otherwise negatively impacted by this toxic styrene release. This case was successfully resolved resulting in a multi-million dollar recovery for those individuals and businesses negatively impacted by this release.
Goldenberg Schneider represented a family whose son was tragically poisoned by the ingestion of lead-based paint. The young child suffered serious, permanent neurological impairment. This product liability case against the manufacturers and sellers of a defective home-based lead paint detection test kit resulted in a substantial settlement to the family.
Goldenberg Schneider filed a lawsuit on behalf of a teenage cancer survivor whose limb replacement system fractured twice in the same exact spot within a five month period, resulting in additional surgeries and complications. The suit, which alleges that DePuy Orthopaedics defectively manufactured the limb replacement system, recently settled.
DAIDO METAL AND DANA ATLANTIC LEAD POISONING LITIGATION
Goldenberg Schneider recently filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of an employee’s child suffering from elevated blood lead levels. The child was exposed to dangerous amounts of lead as an infant and the plaintiff claimed that this exposure resulted from the mother’s excessive exposure to lead dust while at work. The parties agreed to a settlement to resolve this litigation.
CONSOLIDATED MORTGAGE SATISFACTION CASES
The Firm, as lead counsel, has either settled or certified twenty class actions against some of the largest national and Ohio banking and lending institutions. In an industry wide practice, these lending institutions failed to timely record mortgage loan payoffs by homeowners in violation of Ohio law. The Firm was able to consolidate all twenty actions before one trial judge and successfully upheld all the class certifications before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Goldenberg Schneider filed suit on behalf of a group of employees working for a large industrial company claiming the company violated federal and state labor laws by systematically misclassifying managers and other employees as salaried professionals while treating them as hourly wage earners to avoid paying overtime and other benefits, and by treating certain managers as salaried employees under federal and state wage and hour laws even though they did not qualify for such exemption. The class included all current and former salaried managers employed by the company and was successfully resolved through the implementation of a multi-million dollar settlement.
ESTEP V. OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE
Goldenberg Schneider initiated and settled a case against the Ohio Secretary of State seeking to end the Internet publication of personally identifiable information of tens-of-thousands of individuals. By aggressively litigating the case, Goldenberg Schneider and co-counsel, were able to negotiate a fair and comprehensive resolution. As a result, the Ohio Secretary of State agreed to implement immediate remedial measures to remove this personal and sensitive information.
COLLINS V. NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE
Goldenberg Schneider filed suit on behalf of all Ohio Nationwide policyholders claiming that Nationwide specified inferior non-OEM parts for repair of policyholder vehicles. The Firm successfully appealed an initial adverse decision to the Tenth District Court of Appeals, and later defeated numerous attempts by Nationwide to dismiss the case. The case was successfully resolved through implementation of a state-wide class action settlement.
PPA MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION (DEXATRIM)
Goldenberg Schneider successfully represented a woman who suffered a stroke in 1985 while taking Dexatrim. The link between Dexatrim’s active ingredient (PPA) and its propensity to cause strokes was made public in 2000. Overcoming substantial litigation hurdles including the defendant’s statute of repose argument, the Firm recovered over $1.5 million for this client.