The Law Firms of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP and Saxena White, P.A. Announce That They Have Been Appointed Co-Lead Counsel in a Class Action Pending in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida Before the Honorable

NEW YORK and BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 12, 2016 -- The law firms of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP and Saxena White, P.A. announce that they have been appointed co-lead counsel in a class action pending in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida before the Honorable William W. Haury, Jr., Circuit Judge.  The action is entitled Golf Clubs Away LLC vs. Hostway Corporation, Hostway Services, Inc. and Valueweb, Case No. 09-29596-13.

The operative complaint alleges claims under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and for unjust enrichment and breach of the covenants of good faith and fair dealing. Defendants offer email services for thousands of small and medium sized businesses as well as thousands of individual customers in the United States.

In an order dated July 7, 2015, the Court found, among other things, that, during the class period, members of the class experienced interruptions in their ability to send and receive email because the Defendants’ shared servers located in Florida were blacklisted.  Many class members had significant difficulty during the class period sending email to intended recipients and receiving email from senders due to the blacklisting.  Moreover, Defendants did not notify class members that email had been blocked because of the blacklisting of Defendants’ shared servers.   Accordingly, class members did not know that they were unable to send or receive email consistently during the class period.

The Court further found that Defendants’ shared servers, from which Plaintiff and members of the Class sent their emails, were placed on various blacklists by certain Internet Service Providers (“ISP”) as a result of the use of Defendants’ shared servers for spamming.  Specifically, Defendants’ shared servers were blacklisted at various times during the class period by major ISPs, such as AT&T, BellSouth, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and Hotmail, among others. Many of these blacklistings were the result of fraudulent accounts set up with Hostway.  Hostway’s internal controls either did not detect these fraudulent accounts or failed to detect them in a timely fashion to prevent the blacklisting.  Defendants did not inform Plaintiff and the Class of the blacklistings and the possibility that their emails were not reaching the intended destinations.  Plaintiff and the Class have adequately alleged and the evidence supports that they have been damaged as a result of Defendants’ willful misrepresentations and omissions and Defendants’ complicity through their insufficient internal controls, which resulted in the continued blocking of Plaintiff and the Classes’ emails from reaching their respective recipients.  Plaintiff and the Class paid for uninterrupted e-mail service and did not receive it.

After finding that Plaintiff had met all the prerequisites for class certification under Florida law, the Court certified the following class:

All customers who directly or indirectly subscribed to Defendants’ e-mail services, including e-mail services provided by Defendants’ predecessors, affiliates, subsidiaries and/or parents, and whose e-mail accounts utilized Hostway’s shared servers located in Florida that were “blacklisted” at any time from November 1, 2008, through and including March 31, 2009. 

The Court further directed that Defendants disseminate a notice of pendency via email to all of their customers, including the customers of any predecessor, affiliate, subsidiary and parent, who subscribed to Defendants’ email service and whose email services utilized shared email servers located in Florida from November 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009. On February 4, 2016, the Court amended the prior order and modified the notice of pendency to reflect a new opt-out date.  Class Members have the right to opt out of the class by completing and mailing an exclusion request form by June 8, 2016.

A copy of the Court’s class certification order, the notice of pendency and the exclusion request form may be obtained by CLICKING HERE.

Wolf Haldenstein has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country.  The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego.  The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation.

Saxena White's attorneys concentrate in the areas of securities class actions, consumer class actions and corporate derivative litigation.  The firm, located in Boca Raton, Florida, has served as lead counsel in some of the largest and most complex class actions in the nation.  Over the years, the attorneys at Saxena White have successfully achieved significant results against some of the nation's largest companies on behalf of consumers and shareholders, and Courts have regularly recognized Saxena White attorneys for the high caliber of legal representation provided to class members.

If you have any questions or information about this action, you may contact Benjamin Y. Kaufman, Esq. or Patrick Donovan, Esq. at 212-545-4600, or Jonathan M. Stein, Esq. or Adam Warden, Esq. at 561-394-3399.