BELLE — A jumbled article in the Columbia News Tribune Nov. 2 inaccurately named Daryl White, Jr. of Belle as the sole petitioner for $5.1 million in a class action lawsuit case against Just Born, Inc.

Just Born, Inc is a Pennsylvania corporation that, with it’s agents, manufactures, markets, distributes, labels, promotes, advertises and sells Hot Tamales and Ike and Mike candies.

The class action lawsuit’s original complaint was that the $1 boxes of Mike and Ikes and Hot Tamales candies were filled to 66 percent and 65 percent — respectively —with 34 percent and 35 percent slack-fill. According to the filing by the class, the ‘products are non-functional, and therefore misleading and unlawful.’

White allowed his name to be attached to the lawsuit, but did not know that the case named him as petitioner or that it had proceeded to such a degree.

“I never asked for $5.1 million dollars — I never expected monetary gain,” White said Tuesday about the case. “But I do think companies should accurately represent how much is in their packaging.”

The case was filed Feb. 16, 2017, in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri in Jefferson City. Judgements are requested by the case attorneys on behalf of the class.

“I have not been up-to-date on the case,” White said. “I didn’t realize how serious it was.”

The case attorney, David Steelman of Steelman, Gaunt & Horsefield out of Rolla contacted The Maries County Advocate Tuesday to correct some of the rumors. Steelman added that the Columbia News Tribune rewrote the online story.

“Daryl was acting as a class representative  for the case,” Steelman said. “Stating that he requested $5.1 million dollars was a total misstatement.”

Steelman added that the class action lawsuit involved thousands of people and Daryl’s actions were to protect fellow consumers.

“It is inaccurate to say he (White) was ever asking for $5.1 million dollars — that is for the class and includes thousands of people.,” Steelman said.

He said the purpose of the class action lawsuit is to make sure the class is represented, not just the representative.

White said no one has ever contacted him about the case, including the Columbia News Tribune reporter, until after the story came out.

“There are rumors he asked for money for himself — to secure for himself,” Steelman said. “That is not true.”

Steelman said he filed the petition for the class action lawsuit in federal court.

The case is assigned to Judge Nanette K. Laughrey. The most recent entry to the case Nov. 1, 2018, was order no. 154, entered by Laughrey, to strike the pretrial conference set for 11/29/18 and the jury trial set for 12/10/18.

“There is an entry (for the case) and we are candidly working on a settlement that we can’t talk about yet,” Steelman said.

In other similar cases, petitioners have received as little as 50 cents and as much as $12.50. White said he doesn’t expect to receive anything.

“This is the kind of thing that can kill businesses in a small town,” White said of the rumors. He added that his family will take a stand against things they don’t believe is right, and this type of lawsuit is not normally on the list.