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First of all, let me say that anyone who has been in any way hurt or injured by any other party and settled through a class action lawsuit, disregard this article. I am more interested in the little frivolous lawsuits that award pitiful amounts to offended parties who most likely had no idea they were offended.

There are habitual class action participators and then there are the lucky ones who find themselves on the receiving end of a check to settle a dispute they were most likely never aware of in the first place. And the best part is the size of the checks, often in amounts less than the stamps used to mail them. Nothing like getting a check for fourteen cents in the mail says L. Matthews, whose settlement check in the landmark case against American Express Centurion Bank just arrived.

Sometimes the amount isn’t the issue as much as the stipulations surrounding the acceptance of the settlement. In Los Angeles, a judge approved an agreement calling for Sony Pictures Entertainment to pay $1.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the studio of citing a fake movie critic in ads for several films, an attorney said Tuesday.

Moviegoers who saw the films “Vertical Limit,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “The Animal,” “Hollow Man” or “The Patriot” during their original theater runs must file a claim to be eligible for a $5 per ticket reimbursement, said lawyer Norman Blumenthal, who represented a group of filmgoers who sued Sony Pictures in 2001. What do they do when the 1.5 million runs out? You have to assume more than 300,000 tickets were sold between the four movies.

I have been awarded three ridiculous checks as settlement for things I wasn’t truly injured by. I am proud to say those checks; totaling $7.41 were not and never will be cashed. Cashing them would be condoning the practice, where consumers get the pittance, and the attorneys pushing the cases get the nice cars. Me? I’m hoping for a direct hit by a dominoes delivery driver.

Jason Rigler
“Settlement Advocate” and consultant for Prosperity Partners Customer Service Department.

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The federal government continues to pressure executives that fail to add stakeholder value while amassing personal wealth, sending a strong precautionary signal to other executives.

The two executive in the best position to recognize the financial conditions as Kmart was heading rapidly toward bankruptcy, CEO Chuck Conaway and CFO John McDonald, are being held accountable by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC feels the pair made statements that indicated the company’s financial difficulties were not as dire as they actually were in the period just prior to the company’s January 22, 2002 Chapter 11 filing.

The duo lost bids before US District Judge Paul Gadola in Flint, Michigan, to drop the case despite an arbitration panel that cleared Conaway in a previous suit filed by creditors. The panel found “no basis to hold Conaway personally liable for Kmart’s misfortunes.” However, an internal Kmart investigation found Conaway misled the board of directors about withholding payments to suppliers.

What Created the Problem

Beginning late in 2001, Kmart removed supplier visibility to the accounts payable data previously available through Kmart Workbench, an interactive view into the Kmart databases by suppliers. Kmart’s Vendor Development Department, the liaison in charge of Workbench connections, was informed that the Accounts Payable system data was no longer accurate due to systems problems. Although the department suspected the problem with the payable data and delayed vendor payments were more of a problem with bank balances than actual data systems, Conaway, McDonald, and executive reporting directly to McDonald maintained the data official company excuse was valid and needed to be used.

As the Director of Vendor Development at the time, it seemed to me that if middle-management executives suspected the vendor communication was a lie that the CEO and CFO would have had the same suspicions. Our hands were tied. We could not get an official story other than the data problem. Although the excuse did not seem valid we could not get any other executive to go the record with something more reasonable.

Lessons to be Learned

The entire situation points to the need that today’s leaders must be inquisitive and fully understand how to read a financial statement and its implications. CEOs and CFOs can argue that they were not smart enough or experienced enough to have known better, the distraction of the lawsuits, FBI, and SEC investigations have been a distraction to both executives.

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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched a second wave of lawsuits against users of internet2 (a specialized high speed version of the internet that makes it ideal for file sharing). By adding 20 new schools to the list, RIAA has greatly expanded the number of students involved in the case.

“As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions,” said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA. “With the multitude of legal music alternatives available to students today, there is simply no excuse for this ongoing, illegal downloading on college campuses.”

RIAA is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

“Whether it’s done on a computer at home or one in a college dorm room, the act of theft is one and the same,” said Sherman. “These lawsuits have had a significant educational impact on the public and have helped to arrest the staggering growth of digital music theft. We will continue to aggressively pursue them.”

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