A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out a class-action settlement intended to resolve claims that the Subway sandwich chain deceived customers by selling "Footlong" subs that were less than a foot long.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago called the settlement "utterly worthless," and said the customers' lawyers were not entitled to attorney's fees for convincing Subway it was better to make the case go away than fight.
"A class action that seeks only worthless benefits for the class and yields only fees for class counsel is no better than a racket and should be dismissed out of hand," Circuit Judge Diane Sykes wrote for a three-judge panel.
"This is exactly the opinion we were hoping for," Frank said in an interview. "It affirms the principle that when attorneys bring class actions to benefit only themselves, it's an abuse of the system, and courts should not tolerate it."
The case is In re: Subway Footlong Sandwich Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-1652.
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