San Francisco Judge Denies Class Action For Wal-Mart Bias Suit

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- A judge has rejected an attempt to file a class action discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart women workers in California who claimed their male colleagues were paid more and promoted faster than them.

The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court was a scaled-down version of an initial complaint that sought to represent 1.6 million women nationwide.

But the Supreme Court tossed out that class action lawsuit in 2011, ruling it covered too many disparate claims under one legal claim.

After that setback, the women's lawyers filed smaller class action lawsuits, alleging discrimination occurred in different states and Wal-Mart "regions."

On Friday, the judge said the smaller suit on behalf of 150,000 California women employees was still too disparate and wide ranging to qualify as a class action lawsuit.

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