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A class action lawsuit accusing NaturalCare Inc. of falsely advertising its homeopathic tinnitus remedy RingStop has been tossed after a California federal judge ruled Thursday that the lead plaintiff could no longer represent the certified Class due to a misleading Chapter 7 bankruptcy she filed two months after filing the class action.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter certified the RingStop class action lawsuit in December 2012, but ruled Jan. 30 that lead plaintiff Alisa Neal omitted from her bankruptcy filing that she had an interest in the class action, which means her bankruptcy estate assumes possession of her claim and she no longer has standing to sue.
For a plaintiff to assert a claim — in this case violations of California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law — they must suffer an injury in fact or, more specifically, some economic injury.
Judge Carter ruled that Neal “lacked prudential standing because the bankruptcy estate, not she, was entitled to assert her claim against NaturalCare” regarding the alleged RingStop false ads. Had the estate filed, or had her finances been in order, there was sufficient pleading for the case to continue.
Moreover, had Neal and her class action lawyers been able to find another class representative, the RingStop class action lawsuit may have been able to continue, according to Judge Carter. However, as the only lead plaintiff, he had to dismiss the entire complaint with prejudice because there was no way for adequate representation of the putative Class as the case currently stands.
In a case cited by Neal’s legal team, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a similar class action lawsuit that another Class representative could be found. However, Carter noted that in that instance, the bankruptcy application came after certification, whereas Neal had done so prior to certification following the first amended complaint. Moreover, since amended complaints supersede the original, the claims must be decided based on facts at that time.
In the original RingStop class action lawsuit, Neal had sought compensatory damages for her and a class of California consumers who purchased RingStop tinnitus products, alleging violations of the Unfair Competition Law and the False Advertising Law because the product allegedly did not reduce ringing or buzzing in users’ ears as had been claimed in the product’s packaging and other representations.
Neal is represented by class action lawyers Scott J. Ferrell, James B. Hardin and Ryan M. Ferrell of Newport Trial Group.
The RingStop False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Alisa Neal v. NaturalCare Inc., Case No. 12-cv-00531, U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
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