Practice Areas

Rivero Mestre sued Centene Corporation, Inc. (Centene) in June 2018, for failing to provide members of the class with the cure that would save their lives—Harvoni. Centene—the largest health insurer in the multistate marketplace for individual health insurance policies created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—had set up pretextual guidelines that resulted in the denial of Harvoni coverage for patients suffering from the most acute cases of hepatitis C. The instructions went so far as to refuse coverage unless an insured sought duplicative tests that were either difficult to obtain because they aren’t readily available or potentially damaging to the precarious health of Centene’s insureds. We obtained $141 million worth of life-saving treatment for a class of 1500 hepatitis C sufferers in a settlement with Centene Corp. In addition to the $141 million of insurance coverage, the settlement also provides a fund to pay for insurance coverage for a subset of persons no longer insured by Centene so that they can obtain the treatment they need.

Rivero Mestre sued Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Inc. (collectively, “Florida Blue”) in January 2016, to provide members of the class with the cure that would save their lives—Harvoni. The FDA approved Harvoni in October 2014 and gave it the rare “breakthrough therapy” label. It cures hepatitis C in 99% of the cases with almost no side effects. The cure, however, comes with a steep price tag (starting at $63,000 for the shortest course of treatment), which caused insurers to come up with schemes to deny coverage. Rivero Mestre successfully obtained more than $200 million in benefits on behalf of more than 2,500 individuals in a settlement with Florida Blue in a highly contests class action.

Rivero Mestre sued United HealthCare Services Inc. (“United”) in May 2015, to provide members of the class with the cure that would save their lives—Harvoni. The FDA approved Harvoni in October 2014 and gave it the rare “breakthrough therapy” label. It cures hepatitis C in 99% of the cases with almost no side effects. The cure, however, comes with a steep price tag (starting at $63,000 for the shortest course of treatment), which caused insurers to come up with schemes to deny coverage. Rivero Mestre successfully obtained nearly $300 million in benefits on behalf of more than 4,000 in a settlement with United in a highly contests class action.

Rivero Mestre has sued various generic pharmaceutical manufacturers because they sold carcinogen-tainted Valsartan—a generic version of the leading blood pressure medicine in the U.S.—into the United States. The Valsartan contamination case deals with extremely disturbing corporate misconduct that has caused the single largest FDA recall ever. Rivero Mestre filed its case in Miami, Florida, on behalf of third-party payors (medical insurers) who have paid as much as 80% of the estimated $3 billion cost of the tainted Valsartan and the untainted replacement doses of the recalled Valsartan. Because hundreds of individual injury cases were expected, the case was drawn into the multi-district litigation (MDL) process, which led to the consolidation of all cases in Camden, New Jersey. Rivero Mestre has been named to the executive committee leadership of the MDL and is lead counsel on the third-party payor issues in the MDL. The MDL is entering the discovery stage and the TPP issues are expected to be among the earlier aspects of the litigation to be addressed by the Court.

Rivero Mestre has aggressively pursued claims under the Helms-Burton statute since Title III of the law was allowed to go into effect by order of the U.S. president on May 2, 2019. The law allows U.S. nationals to claim damages against persons who “traffic” in property they (or their forbearers) owned in Cuba at the time of the Cuban revolution that was thereafter confiscated by the Castro government. On learning that the statute had become operational Rivero Mestre quickly analyzed potential cases (determining that economic activities like tourism, transportation, rum and mining were most likely to be the basis for successful suits) and brought the greatest number and most important of the 20 lawsuits filed at the time of this submission. Rivero Mestre has sued the principal hotel chains operating in Cuba, bringing 5 hotel-related lawsuits relating to more than 70 of the 84 foreign hotels operating in Cuba. The largest such case names Melia International S.A, which operates 34 hotels and resorts in Cuba and the online reservation bookings services, Expedia, and Booking.com. Rivero Mestre has also brought the single biggest claim, that of the heir to the Jose Marti International Airport, against two of the major airlines flying into that airport. The Jose Marti International airport claim is estimated to be for an amount approaching $1 billion. All of the cases are extraordinarily complex, involving questions of proof spanning six decades, conduct crossing multiple borders, and legal questions of first impression because the statute has never been applied until now.

We represented former directors and officers of W Holding Co., Inc. in a securities class action lawsuit, Hildenbrand v. W Holding Co., Inc., in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico. Filed on behalf of purchasers of the publicly-traded securities of W Holding, the suit alleged that W Holding violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5. We opposed class certification, moved for sanctions against the lead plaintiff and his counsel—the largest class action firm in the U.S.—and ultimately moved for summary judgment, all of which caused the plaintiff to settle for pennies on the dollar. We whittled a claim of $135 million to a settlement of $8.75 million, which the available D&O insurance amply .

Rivero Mestre represented Headway in the multi-district lawsuit arising from the Bernie Madoff fraud scheme. Headway sued Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) because it recommended that Headway invest millions of dollars in two investment funds offered by Fairfield Greenwich that were nothing more than funnels into Madoff’s coffers. The Court appointed Jorge Mestre to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee. SCB, represented by Sullivan & Cromwell, moved to dismiss the claims based on the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (SLUSA). On July 29, 2015, the Court ruled that Headway’s claims related to SCB’s failure to conduct due diligence—the essence of the claim—are not barred by SLUSA. In light of this critical ruling in Headway’s favor, the case was set for trial and a favorable settlement was obtained after years of litigation.

We defended Home Title in a class action alleging that it was charging title premiums that exceeded those permitted under Florida law to Florida consumers who were refinancing their mortgages and obtained a dismissal.