She has now withdrawn (Feb 8th) from the Five Person Class Action Lawsuit.
Trumps attorneys are saying...wait a minute. She's the original plaintiff...and the whole suit hinges on her.
It's not over.
2/26/16 article.
http://lawnewz.com/important/why-trump-university-is-every-bit-as-awful-as-marco-rubio-says/
As it turns out, there are three lawsuits over Trump’s school that launched in 2005 and shuttered in 2011.
Two are simultaneous class action claims. The lead plaintiff of one is Tarla Makaeff, a yoga instructor who Yahoo News reports felt pressure to back out of the suit out of fear of being bankrupted by Trump during the process. Trump counter-sued Makaeff for defamation, but a judge rejected his claim and ordered him to pay her $800,000 in legal bills. Her case covers a class of Trump University customers from California, Florida, and New York. What makes this case particularly interesting is that Trump is on the witness list, meaning that could force him to take a break from his campaign to testify in the case.
That class action claims that Makaeff and others paid up to $60,000, some maxing out their credit cards, to pay for what ended up being seminars in hotel ballrooms. Ads promised training from expert instructors handpicked by Trump to teach methods that he developed. “Just copy exactly what I’ve done and get rich,” Trump said in advertising materials, according to Crain’s New York. But instead of Trump’s methods taught by experts, the students claim they sat through what amounted to a glorified infomercial that lacked any practical advice.
That case is headed towards trial, after a judge denied Trump’s motion for summary judgment on November 18, 2015, as reported on the website of Co-Lead Class Counsel Zeldes Haeggquist & Eck, LLP . The judge also dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim for injunctive relief, but allowed the claims against Trump for violating California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, and Legal Remedies Act, as well as committing financial elder abuse under California law, and violating New York’s consumer protection statute and and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and Misleading Advertising Law.
The other class action, representing a nationwide class of plaintiffs, claims that Trump University violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) Act.