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'Hot Coffee' Class Action Suit Squashed By The Court
Posted by Michael McWhertor at 7:20 AM on August 6, 2008
Take-Two won't be writing out as big a check as we expected to settle a class action lawsuit filed over "Hot Coffee" claims — the Court has issued an opinion on the matter this week, refusing to certify the proposed settlement class. That, according to our friendly neighbourhood legal council, means that the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas may not have to pay out a proposed $US 1.025 million in settlement benefits, possibly because there was no actual representative class. In short, too few people were offended, or could agree to be offended in the same way, for the Court to see the class as worthy of getting a cool million.
You may recall that in November of last year, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted preliminary approval of a settlement of several class action suits against Take-Two. TTWO expected then to pay out up to $US 2.75 million for the settlement, pending Court approval.
Turns out that few actually filed claims. On July 31, the Court said that "the plaintiffs could no longer meet their burden of showing that the case could proceed on the proposed class basis" according to an SEC filing.
Take-Two opts not to weigh in on whether an appeal is likely in the filing, but when a million bucks is offered and folks don't bite — only $US 30,000 in claims were filed — we'd have a hard time believing that one is in the cards. The attorneys involved already got their paycheck actually haven't yet been paid, at least on the plaintiff side. Makes me feel that much better about never completing "The Guide To Spending Your 'Hot Coffee' Settlement".
Update: Ted Frank from Overlawyered wrote in to clear some things up for us. He writes: "The plaintiffs' attorneys have not gotten their paycheck. My objection was premised on the grounds that the court should not approve a settlement that paid the attorneys so much more than what the class received; when the court rejected the settlement, it meant there was no court approval for a payment to the plaintiffs' attorneys".
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
nick.soapdish
Posted 8:14 AM 6/8/08
Class action lawsuits are always tricky, especially when the outrage doesn't have as adverse effects as, let's say, actual hot coffee does to people. It was a lot of dust kicked up over something that, for the most part, people didn't quite understand or it was something that could be easily ignored. If the speed of the courts were as fast as the news reports, it might have seen a different result. I don't think anyone is still walking wounded over content in a game most people don't even have the capacity to unlock.
nick.soapdish
NeVeRMoRe666
Posted 8:08 AM 6/8/08
@ShaggE: SMMMMMMAAAAAAACCCCKK!!! IT ENDS HERE!
NeVeRMoRe666
sunpop
Posted 7:59 AM 6/8/08
hmm it's about time this thing get put away and never be mentioned again too much bitching about video games these days, people need to stop getting so pissy and no more blaming games for violence in real life..
on a side note when Jack Thompson dies I'm gonna dance on his grave who wants to join me?
sunpop
drlard
Posted 7:56 AM 6/8/08
@Punkateer: HA! best quote evar!
drlard
Punkateer
Posted 7:53 AM 6/8/08
A city with 1 attorney is a city with a poor attorney. A city with 2 attorney's is a city with rich attorneys.
Punkateer
ShaggE
Posted 7:51 AM 6/8/08
About time we reached an end to the Hot Coffee thing. Now we can move on to suing over the parody pedo website in GTAIV. :p
ShaggE
mrantimatter
Posted 7:50 AM 6/8/08
@Michael McWhertor:
Obviously you've got a problem when 99+ percent had no issue with the game, and a good chunk of those who did file claims obviously knew nothing about game content.
They saw the news stories, saw a copy in Billy's hands, and jumped on the bandwagon.
mrantimatter
peacefuloutrage
Posted 7:50 AM 6/8/08
n order to even SEE the hot coffee content, you had to mod your system or download additional software, so to be "offended", you had to initiate the "offense".
I know there's all types of things that will offend me on the internet, yet I don't google willy-nilly and click links like a mad man.
@Jas49: Yeah. The lawyers always get paid. They get people riled up thinking they're getting big money and take the lion's share in fees.
peacefuloutrage
BillyTheRatKing
Posted 7:50 AM 6/8/08
You had to hack the game just to see it, so if you came across it wouldn't it be your own fault.
BillyTheRatKing
godot
Posted 7:43 AM 6/8/08
I suspect 2,767 claimants represents only about 0.3% of those who might have had a claim. Definitely no level of class to be found in that action.
godot
Michael McWhertor
Posted 7:43 AM 6/8/08
@mrantimatter: Since I'm not a lawyer, don't take this as legal gospel, but I understand that the suit met numerosity requirements, unless they were defined differently in this case.
Michael McWhertor
Jas49
Posted 7:42 AM 6/8/08
@UVaDave:
But the lawyers still got paid.
What do they care.
Jas49
mrantimatter
Posted 7:41 AM 6/8/08
@NeVeRMoRe666:
Right, you can't have only what, 2,000 people claiming they were hurt by this, when the other 8+ million seemingly weren't. Considering the class can't point to any physical damage endured, it seems like nothing more than some insignificant busy bodies at work.
mrantimatter
GrrSnort
Posted 7:40 AM 6/8/08
Too bad, I'm sure mother's everywhere were looking forward to that whopping $5 check in the mail.
GrrSnort
gundamtotoro
Posted 7:37 AM 6/8/08
This is pleasing news. I felt good already not joining on the bandwagon for the lawsuit, but it pleases me more to know that other gamers didn't bite either.
... or maybe they just lost their receipts. >_<
gundamtotoro
drlard
Posted 7:36 AM 6/8/08
now i want to see good ole' JT's assessment is on this...of course this judge must be a raving lunatic as well!
drlard
NeVeRMoRe666
Posted 7:32 AM 6/8/08
@Jessup: I think its the many ruining it for the few: "In short, too few people were offended, or could agree to be offended in the same way, for the Court to see the class as worthy of getting a cool million".
NeVeRMoRe666
TimmyTesties
Posted 7:31 AM 6/8/08
Owned
TimmyTesties
UVaDave
Posted 7:28 AM 6/8/08
Minus one for money grubbing lawyers and frivolous lawsuits
UVaDave
Jessup
Posted 7:28 AM 6/8/08
So, does this mean the system works or is this just another case of the few ruining it for the many?
Jessup
kwonster
Posted 7:28 AM 6/8/08
score one for common sense.
kwonster
mva5580
Posted 7:28 AM 6/8/08
Good, but the damage has been done to all of us who had to deal with the frustration of the 2nd Edition PC version disabling mods. Of course a downgrade hack was created, and it works, but it's still frustrating as all hell. Oh and 1920 x 1080 widescreen resolution was in that 2nd Edition patch as well, so I can't have mods and 1920 x 1080 at the same time. Dumb.
mva5580
PsycheE
Posted 8:39 AM 6/8/08
No, it just makes it a major PTA just to get into the class action lawsuit. Reading six page pamphlet with LSAT caliber lingos, then have to mail it in and wait 8-12 weeks for a five dollar gift card to Starbucks.
PsycheE
Xagest
Posted 8:56 AM 6/8/08
It's a shame, really. All these people jump onto the media bandwagon, when in truth, no one cared. This whole drama triggered a huge wave of ridiculous events in video game politics, like Holding developers accountable for user-created modificatio..., not to mention giving a huge boost in sales for a game that was mediocre at best.
Xagest
AJMarra
Posted 8:55 AM 6/8/08
Poor Jack must be in tears. All that hard, Christian-based work for nothing. Don't people love Jesus?
AJMarra
parad0x360
Posted 8:46 AM 6/8/08
Im so glad lots of gamers didnt jump on this bandwagon just to get a few free $$$. I know I know you might have only gotten a couple bucks but still its the principle and this goes to show gamers can stand for their convictions.
parad0x360
princess_stomper
Posted 9:14 AM 6/8/08
When are people going to assume responsibility for their own use of content?
Oh snap! Looks like they just took some :D
princess_stomper
seafisch
Posted 11:56 AM 6/8/08
I wasn't offended by the hot coffee mod, but I was going to send in the claim form anyway. I figure after putting in that annoying mission where you had to shoot down the radio control planes, Rockstar owed me $5 on general principle.
seafisch
Zero_Beat
Posted 12:32 PM 6/8/08
@mva5580: Wait, people being offended at what they worked so hard to see or because it's their job to be offended actually caused more "damage" (it's kinda hard to prove a loss because of that) than Hot Coffee ever could? That's so messed up it's hilarious.
Zero_Beat
TrjnRabbit
Posted 2:14 PM 6/8/08
Is anyone else amused that the Hot Coffee scandal has come down to a frivolous lawsuit?
If only the game could have been spilled on some laps. . .
TrjnRabbit
Bort
Posted 2:11 PM 6/8/08
I attended the hearing! :-)
Interesting stuff.
Bort
dionion
Posted 6:48 PM 6/8/08
Ha ha, I have that ridiculous cup at home. Bought it in Astoria as a bit of kitch-souvenir. Greece ftw!
dionion
beeporama (brian.j.parker)
Posted 10:58 PM 6/8/08
Class action trolls are a pox upon the legal community. I'm glad to hear this.
Also: Anybody who loves this iconic little New York mug can search for "We Are Happy To Serve You" and find a number of retailers who sell a reusable ceramic version. I got one for a friend of mine as a gift a little while back.
beeporama (brian.j.parker)
UVaDave
Posted 1:11 AM 7/8/08
@Jas49: No they didn't, the settlement is going to be overturned. The lawyers "act" on behalf of the class (which didnt actually exist) and get their payment (maybe 40-50% of the class settlement) from the settlement. Why do you think lawyers jump at class action lawsuits, and even set up websites to find people for their suits, because they get a majority of the settlement. If they don't win, they don't get paid.
The court just ruled that the lawyers essentially lied or missrepresented the class (they claimed millions were offended and it was at most a few thousand) and thus the settlement is not going to be paid out. Take Two's lawyers are making their money, but those filing the suit will not be paid.
UVaDave
PathRifter
Posted 2:49 AM 7/8/08
That's one lawsuit down...what about the results to that lawsuit by the two Texas douchebags who sued Microsoft for their Xbox Live not working for the holiday weekend about a year back?
Anyone remember that? What was the end result from that silly affair?
PathRifter
fuchikoma
Posted 4:26 AM 7/8/08
It's about time...
I've always said that unless you can get to the orphaned code and resources that contain the "sex" scene, R* has done nothing at all wrong.
fuchikoma
b.bear
Posted 7:57 AM 6/8/08
There are a lot of requirements that need to be met to qualify as a "class" of plaintiffs. And there are any number of possible reasons that this group failed to qualify as such. This determination doesn't prevent individual plaintiffs from filing individual suits against the company. Nevertheless, this is still a great victory for Take Two, as indiviuals are far less likely to bring lawsuits on their own. It would require them to get their own lawyers and go through the whole painful process alone. On the other hand, in a class action suit, most plaintiffs do little more than fill out a form and maybe a declaration.
b.bear