Judge Trims Elations Joint Supplement Class Action Lawsuit

On Dec. 9, a partial pretrial judgment was handed down by a California federal judge regarding a joint supplement drink class action lawsuit against The Elations Company LLC, which alleges the company used false claims to sell their Elations Healthier Joints dietary beverage. The presiding judge ruled that the lead plaintiff lacked standing to pursue injunctive relief because the company ceased claiming their dietary supplement drink had “clinically-proven” joint healing properties by the time the plaintiff filed the Elations class action lawsuit.

According to Elations’ motion to dismiss the joint supplement drink class action lawsuit, the company stopped including the phrases “clinically-proven combination” or “clinically proven formula” on their Elations product packaging sometime during 2011. In light of this, Elations claims lead plaintiff Robert McCrary cannot demonstrate how the Elations Healthier Joints packaging presents a risk of deceiving future consumers and, therefore, cannot pursue injunctive relief.

U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal agreed with Elations and granted the company’s motion for partial summary judgment, finding:

“Although plaintiff may be correct that defendant is currently free to return to its previous practice of using the clinically proven claims on its advertising, that fact is not enough to demonstrate that defendant’s use of those claims is ‘real and immediate.’ If and when defendant reinitiates its use of those claims, plaintiff will have the option of attempting to enjoin that practice.”

Judge Bernal ruled that by failing to demonstrate how Elations past “clinically-proven” claims present a “real and immediate” risk of misleading consumers, McCrary cannot pursue injunctive relief in this Elations joint supplement drink class action lawsuit.

McCrary filed this Elations joint supplement drink class action lawsuit in December 2012, alleging he relied on the company’s claims of Elations Healthier Joints “clinically proven” ability to heal and provide relief to consumer’s suffering from joint pain when purchasing the product. He has since submitted four amended complaints after several class action claims were thrown out by the court.

During these court proceedings, Judge Bernal certified a Class of Elations consumers in January that would include “all persons residing in the state of California who purchased Elations for personal use, and not for resale, via methods other than the website, between [May 29, 2009, and September 30, 2013,] when the following claims were on the packaging and/or labeling of Elations: ‘clinically-proven combination’ and/or ‘clinically proven formula.’”

According to the Elations joint supplement drink class action, the company argued that a Class could not be fully determined because of the lack of records identifying consumers of the dietary supplement product. Without an objective way to identify individual Class Members aside from said individuals submitting self-identification affidavits, which Elations claims violates their right to raise individual challenges against Class Members, the company claims the Elations consumer Class cannot be established.

However, Judge Bernal disagreed, ruling the Class was sufficiently defined in the Elations class action lawsuit because the suit clearly established characteristics of qualifying Class Members by setting a reasonable Class Period and specifically identifies the allegedly offending Elations joint supplement product.

More information about the Elations joint supplement drink class action lawsuit is available here.

McCrary is represented by Gillian L. Wade and Sara D. Avila of Milstein Adelman LLP.

The Elations Joint Supplement Drink Class Action Lawsuit is Robert McCrary v. The Elations Company LLC, et al., Case No. 5:13-cv-00242, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the Elations class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.ElationsClassAction.com for details.

UPDATE 2: A viewer reported receiving the following message from the Settlement Administrator: “Payments for approved class members are due for disbursement at the of May, 2016.”  Top Class Actions could not confirm this with the Settlement Administrator, but will continue to provide updates as they become available. Keep checking back and let us know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.

UPDATE 3: On May 31, 2016, Top Class Actions readers who submitted timely and valid claims for the Elations settlement began receiving checks worth as much as $59.72.