SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Class action lawyers recruited the wrong people to use as lead plaintiffs in their lawsuit against Hershey and won’t be able to fix that problem.
In February, Judge William Alsup denied a request that would have allowed new plaintiffs to take over a case that alleges Hershey was wrong to say one of its products contained no artificial flavors despite the presence of malic acid.
The candies are Brookside Dark Chocolate – small chocolate balls with fruit-flavored centers. Hershey said the Law Offices of Ronald Marron had to seek out plaintiffs for the case rather than have them come to him.
"Plaintiffs’ lawyer recruits people to serve as plaintiffs in food labeling cases through a website called Class Action Rebates, www.classactionrebates.com,” the company’s lawyers wrote.
“The website promises that users will be able to earn cash or refunds on class settlements. When an individual signs up for notices, lawyers send emails seeking to recruit purported representatives to bring class action lawsuits.”
Judge Alsup found in November that the three plaintiffs were not adequate class representatives.
Howard Clark said he wouldn’t have bought the candies if he knew there were artificial ingredients, but his injury was caused by his misunderstanding that “No Artificial Flavors” meant there were no artificial ingredients at all, Alsup wrote.
Todd Hall started buying the product in 2014 – three years before the “No Artificial Flavors” statement was put on the product.
“Following the appearance of the label, there is no indication from the facts that he looked at it or based any purchasing decisions off of it,” Alsup wrote.
“Plaintiff Hall’s decision to stop purchasing the product was because he ‘learned’ from his lawyers following a laboratory testing that the products contained an artificial flavor, and he did not want to purchase a product with artificial flavors, not because of the label.”
Angelo Pirrone had also been buying the product well before the label appeared and learned of the presence of malic acid from lawyers. Alsup said there was no indication she relied on the label after it appeared.
With no credible plaintiffs, Alsup entered judgment in favor of Hershey.