Huntsman v. Southwest Airlines Co.

Background

Jayson Huntsman brought the action for himself and similarly situated Southwest employees. The complaint alleged that Southwest’s policy of refusing paid leave for short-term military leave violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) because Southwest provided paid leave for other comparable short-term absences. After five years of litigation, the parties reached a proposed class action settlement and asked the court for preliminary approval.

Settlement Class and Terms

The proposed settlement class includes current or former Southwest employees who, during employment with Southwest from October 10, 2004, through January 1, 2026, took short-term military leave lasting 14 days or fewer and were subject to a collective bargaining agreement. Employees covered by the agreement between Southwest and Transport Workers Union Local 550 covering meteorologists are excluded.

Southwest will pay an $18.5 million cash settlement amount. The proposed deductions include up to $6,105,000 in attorneys’ fees, $707,314.30 in litigation expenses, $25,000 service awards each for Jayson Huntsman and David Cash, and no more than $17,500 in settlement-administration costs. The remaining amount will be distributed among class members on a pro rata basis, using their pay rates and dates of short-term military leave to calculate claims.

Beginning in 2026, Southwest will also provide service-member employees with up to 10 days of paid short-term military leave per calendar year. The daily payment will approximate the difference between an employee’s Southwest pay and military pay, with a minimum payment of $30 per day.

Preliminary Class Certification

The court had previously certified a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3). For settlement purposes, the agreement slightly modified the class definition by adding January 1, 2026, as the end date of the class period.

The court also found that David Cash, a current Southwest employee and Reservist, was an adequate representative and approved his substitution as a class representative. The court explained that Huntsman had retired from the military while the case was pending and therefore no longer had standing to seek programmatic relief. The court granted preliminary approval of the Settlement Class and appointed Cash as a class representative.

Settlement Review

At the preliminary-approval stage, the court considered whether it was likely to certify the class for purposes of judgment and approve the settlement under Rule 23. The court concluded that the settlement appeared to result from serious, informed, and non-collusive negotiations. The parties had conducted years of discovery, including review of thousands of pages of documents, electronic data from Southwest and the Department of Defense, written discovery, and more than 20 depositions. The settlement followed a full-day mediation after Southwest had moved to decertify the class.

The court noted that the proposed $25,000 service awards for Huntsman and Cash were substantially higher than amounts typically awarded in the district, but deferred deciding whether those amounts were appropriate. The court found that the $18.5 million settlement fell within the possible range of approval when compared with estimated damages and the risks and costs of continued litigation, including the pending decertification motion. The court also found no obvious deficiencies in the agreement.

Notice and Class Members’ Options

The settlement administrator, ILYM Group, Inc., will provide notice by mail, email, text message, and a case-specific website. Class members will have 60 days from the date of notice to request exclusion from the settlement or object to it. The court found that the revised notice adequately addressed concerns about missing information and instructions for reviewing and objecting to the requested attorneys’ fees and costs.

Attorneys’ Fees and Costs

The settlement permits class counsel to request up to one-third of the settlement amount, or $6,105,000, in attorneys’ fees. Counsel reported a current lodestar of $3,577,431 for 3,903.27 hours and $707,314.30 in costs, including $603,034.87 in expert fees. The court required a separate fee motion with detailed billing summaries and supporting information about costs so the court and class members could evaluate the requests. The court did not make a final ruling on the fees, costs, or service awards in this order.

Order

The court granted preliminary approval of the class action settlement. It provisionally certified the class for settlement purposes only, conditionally appointed David Cash as class representative, conditionally appointed Outten & Golden LLP and The Barton Law Firm as class counsel, appointed ILYM Group, Inc. as settlement administrator, and set deadlines for notice, objections, the motion for final approval, and the final approval hearing. The final approval hearing was scheduled for May 14, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.