Plaintiffs Seek Approval of Six Continents Call Recording Settlement

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

On Dec. 22, class action plaintiffs asked a judge for final approval of their $11.7 million settlement with Six Continents Hotels over allegedly undisclosed recording of telephone calls to the hotel chain.

The plaintiffs state that more than 36,000 claims were filed, and that if the court grants final approval of the settlement, and if those 36,000 claims are all found to be valid, then it is estimated that each Class Member will receive $209.40. The plaintiffs are requesting the court approve the settlement because it is “fair, adequate, and reasonable.”

The recorded calls class action lawsuit alleges that the lead plaintiffs Laura McCabe, Latroya Simpson, and Christy Sarabia made telephone calls to Six Continents Hotels’ toll-free numbers to ask about the hotels’ rates and to make reservations. According to the original complaint, the plaintiffs and other consumers gave sensitive personal information, such as credit card numbers, during these phone calls to Six Continents Hotels. McCabe, Simpson, and Sarabia claim that they were never informed during the calls that the conversations were being recorded.

After the Six Continents class action lawsuit was initially filed, the plaintiffs filed a new complaint adding Sarabia as a lead plaintiff and adding claims about recording landline telephone calls to its original claims of cell phone recordings.

The defendant Six Continents Hotels continues to deny the allegations in the call recording class action lawsuit. According to the most recent court filing, “To date, no court has found that Defendant engaged in any wrongdoing or otherwise acted improperly or in violation of any state law, rule or regulation with respect to the issues presented in the litigation.”

However, Six Continents Hotels agreed to pay $11.7 million to settle this class action lawsuit, and the court approved the preliminary settlement on June 30, 2015. Based on that preliminary approval, notice of the settlement was published, and claims from potential Class Members were received.

The deadline to file a claim for the Six Continents call recording class action settlement passed on Dec. 14, 2015.

The plaintiffs state that out of roughly 698,000 potential Class Members, approximately 36,000 filed claims, 17 requested exclusion, and only 2 filed objections to the settlement. One of those objections was from a class action defense attorney, who according to the plaintiffs argued that “all lawsuits should be forced to go to trial” and the letter “does not actually attack any of the settlement terms but rather complains that Defendant should have made a different legal argument in defending the litigation.”

The Six Continents Hotels recorded call class action lawsuit will seek final approval of the settlement in court on Feb. 3, 2016. If the court grants final approval of the settlement, Class Members who filed claims will receive a percentage share of the settlement, which is again currently estimated by the lead plaintiffs as $209.40 each.

The plaintiffs are represented by Eric A. Grover and Rachel G. Jung of Keller Grover LLP and Scot David Bernstein of the Law Offices of Scot D. Bernstein.

The Six Continents Hotels Recorded Calls Class Action Lawsuit is McCabe, et al. v. Six Continents Hotels Inc., Case No. 3:12-cv-04818, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Apr. 25, 2016, Top Class Actions readers started receiving settlement checks worth as much as $245.98.