NEW YORK >> Subway customers can finally rest assured that their “Footlong” sandwiches will be as long as promised.
A judge last week granted final approval to a settlement of a class-action suit filed against Subway after an Australian teenager in 2013 posted an image of his sandwich on Facebook that was only 11 inches. The image garnered international media attention, with The New York Post writing that it found four out of seven Footlongs it purchased in New York “measured only 11 or 11.5 inches.”
A judge had given preliminary approval in October to a settlement between Subway’s parent company, Doctor’s Associates, and plaintiffs’ attorneys. Final approval was granted Thursday.
As part of the settlement, Subway agreed to institute practices for at least four years to ensure its bread is at least 12 inches long. The judge approved $520,000 in attorney fees and $500 for each of the 10 individuals who were representatives of the class, but no monetary claims were awarded to potential members of the class.
“It was difficult to prove monetary damages, because everybody ate the evidence,” said Thomas Zimmerman, who was co-lead attorney for the class. Zimmerman said the attorney fees are being split among 10 law firms.
SunEdison delays financials due to inquiry
SunEdison Inc., the struggling renewable-energy developer, won’t release its financial results for 2015 on time.
The company, the current developer of three recently rejected solar projects on Oahu, announced the delay in a regulatory filing Monday.
The delay was due to several factors, including an internal inquiry that began late last year “based on allegations made by former executives” related to the accuracy of the company’s financial status.
Google self-driving car hits public bus
LOS ANGELES >> A self-driving car being tested by Google struck a public bus on a Silicon Valley street, a fender-bender that appears to be the first time one of the company’s vehicles caused an accident during testing on city roads.
Google accepted some responsibility for the collision, which occurred Feb. 14 when one of the Lexus SUVs it has outfitted with sensors and cameras hit the side of the bus. No one was injured, according to an accident report Google wrote and submitted to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
The agency posted the report Monday on its website.
In the accident report, Google wrote that its car was trying to get around some sandbags near the curb at an intersection near its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., when its left front struck the right side of the bus.
On the Move
ProjectFocus Hawai‘i has named two new members to its board of directors: Coreen Lee, owner of Moxie Productions LLC, and Gerald Teramae, head of school at Island Pacific Academy. ProjectFocus Hawai‘i is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping at-risk children and youth through the use of photography.
Hawaiian Telcom has promoted Greg Chamberlain to vice president of network operations. His more than 30 years of experience in network operations, engineering and management include serving as executive director of network engineering at SureWest Broadband, now known as Consolidated Communications, and as director of network operations for WINfirst in Denver.
