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The Firm's Class Action Practice
When many individuals suffer damages from a common wrong, The Nygaard Law Firm's class action practice is ready to step in and obtain just compensation for victims. The Nygaard Law Firm has worked with attorneys across the country in representing large groups of investors or insurance policyholders who were defrauded. The firm also represents consumers and businesses which have been the victims of fraud, price fixing schemes, or other anti-competitive practices. Often many investors come to us complaining about the same security, the same misrepresentations made by the same broker or brokerage firm, or the same inaccurate and misleading sales presentations by insurance agents. In these situations, it is more efficient to represent a large group of similarly-situated plaintiffs in a class action. The Nygaard Law Firm has been successful in representing plaintiffs in many class actions, both in the Midwest and in many other states.
Currently, The Nygaard Law Firm represents a nationwide class of consumers in an action against Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, as well as a class of Kinder Morgan, Inc. shareholders in a derivative action related to a proposed leveraged buyout of the company.
SECURITITES FRAUD CASES
The firm has was the liaison counsel in an ERISA case filed on behalf of the employees of Sprint, whose 40l(k) losses have been enormous due to the continuing representations to employees that they should continue to buy company stock in their retirement plans. When the Worldcom merger was not approved, and insiders sold their stock apparently believing that it would not be approved, Sprint stock swooned in value. The nosedive continued when Sprint belatedly announced that its CEO and CFO had availed themselves of discredited tax shelters, were being audited, faced financial ruin, and were eventually terminated. This case is pending before the United States District Court for the District of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas. In Re Sprint Corporation ERISA Litigation, Case No. 2:03-CV-02202-JWL.
The firm also represented employees of Aquila, a Kansas City-based utility company, in another ERISA case. Aquila had taken over many smaller regional utility companies, but had paid its executives large salaries and bonuses while the company's debt level rose to the stratosphere. Again, its own employees were urged to keep buying the company's stock for their retirements, only to see the value of the retirement plan nosedive when the financial weaknesses became public knowledge. This case is pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri, In Re Aquila ERISA Litigation, Case No. 04-CV-00865 (DW)
INSURANCE COMPANIES' FRAUDULENT AND DISCRIMINATORY PRICING
The Nygaard Law Firm was contacted by Mrs. Charlene McCallup, who realized that she had been sold several life insurance policies by MetLife, but that she had paid more in premiums than the death benefits her daughter would receive. Mrs. McCallup had driven a school bus that took minority school children to school when the school district was segregated and did not provide transportation for minority children. The Nygaard Law Firm's investigation of the situation led to the discovery of investigations of MetLife by state officials in other states. A class action was filed on behalf of its minority policyholders against MetLife, for its fraudulent and discriminatory sales practices of high-cost, low-death benefit life insurance policies to minorities from the 1920s until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of l964. McCallup, et al. v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., U.S.D.C., S.D.N.Y., No. 01-CV-2090. The case was consolidated with two other cases before Judge Baer of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and after extensive litigation and a lot of hard work reviewing many years of actuarial and premium histories, was resolved by a settlement by MetLife for $125,000,000, and the establishment of a $5 million scholarship program through the United Negro College Fund.
The Nygaard Law Firm also represented owners of "industrial life" policies in a similar case against Unitrin, Inc. for sales by Reliable Life Insurance Company and United Insurance Company. These companies also sold small, expensive life insurance policies "door to door" in areas with large minority populations. The policies were much more expensive than the policies marketed to the rest of the country. The Unitrin policies largely provided what is known as "industrial life" coverage, also known as "burial policies" because of their small size and likely use. The agents personally collected a small amount each week in premiums from policyholders. As part of a group of law firms representing the minority policyholders, the firm worked for two years reviewing the insurance company's documents and establishing the discriminatory and fraudulent sales practices by these insurance companies. In 2002, the company settled this class action for $35,000,000, distributed to policyholders and beneficiaries of 34,753 small-value life and accident policies in force since 1960. In Re Unitrin, Inc., Industrial Life Insurance Litigation, Docket No. MDL 1382.
The Nygaard Law Firm was co-lead counsel on behalf of investors who were sold "vanishing premium" life insurance policies by American Family Life Insurance Company. Our clients were told that these policies only required them to make premium payments for a few years, and their policies would then become "self sustaining." Some clients put up a large initial premium and were told they would never again receive a premium notice. When they did, they contacted our firm for help. Our investigation led us to realize that this practice was not just limited to the Kansas City area, and wasn't just limited to the Midwest, but was a calculated and wrongful company-wide practice. After several years of discovery, including the depositions of the company's marketing personnel, the case settled for $50,000,000. This was the result of the combined efforts of several fine law firms, including the Nygaard Law Firm. Arbtin et al., v. American Family Life Insurance, Case No. 2:98-CV-00526-WEC (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin)
"Vanishing premium" policies were also fraudulently sold by other insurance companies. The Nygaard Law firm filed a lawsuit in Sedgwick County District Court on behalf of Kansas purchasers of such policies sold by the Knights of Columbus. Kippes and McCabe v. Knights of Columbus, et al., District Court, Sedgwick County, KS, Case No. 00-C-969. The firm won motions to dismiss filed by the Knights of Columbus, and then joined with other cases around the country. The Nygaard Law Firm was responsible for the depositions of the insurance companies' marketing personnel and reviewed tens of thousands of documents as co-lead counsel. The case settled for $23,000,000, In Re Nepomuceno and related cases v. Knights of Columbus, U.S. District Court, N.D. Ill. Civil Action No. 96-C-4789.
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