Subway Sub-Length Litigation Slammed

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin discusses the Subway ‘footlong’ settlement with Ted Frank.

It’s not only some Subway sandwiches that don’t measure up, according to a federal appeals court.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday threw out a settlement reached in consolidated class-action lawsuits that accused Subway of short-changing customers by selling them “Footlong” sandwiches that didn’t reach 12 inches.

…

The panel sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Lynn S. Adelman of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Nine class actions filed against Subway around the country were consolidated by the U.S. Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation and assigned to Adelman.

The settlement was reached following mediation, first before Morton Denlow, a retired magistrate judge now with JAMS, and then before Adelman.

Adelman approved the settlement over the objection of Theodore H. Frank of Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Frank is a class member and what the 7th Circuit panel described as a “professional objector to hollow class-action settlements.”

Frank appealed Adelman’s decision and argued his own case before the 7th Circuit.

“We’re pleased that the 7th Circuit affirmed an important principle that it’s an abuse when lawyers use class settlements and the class-action system to win fees for themselves without any concomitant benefits to the class, to their clients,” Frank said today.

Read the full article at Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.