Hickey v. Ruby's Midtown LLC
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:19-cv-07452
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hickey v. Ruby’s Midtown LLC, Judge Broderick ordered the parties to submit their Fair Labor Standards Act settlement for fairness review.
The plaintiffs and defendants in the FLSA case, and any attorneys whose fees were included in the settlement, were required to provide the settlement terms and supporting information to the court.
What happened
In Hickey v. Ruby’s Midtown LLC, the parties told the court they had settled this Fair Labor Standards Act case, which concerns federal wage rules. The court explained that such settlements require approval by the court or the Labor Department before the parties can privately resolve the claims with prejudice.
The court required the parties to provide the settlement terms within 30 days. They also had to submit a joint letter of no more than five pages explaining why the agreement was fair and reasonable, including information about five factors such as possible recovery, litigation risks, and whether the settlement resulted from proper negotiations.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick also required factual support for any attorney-fee award, including billing records showing each lawyer’s dates, hours, and work. The order required these submissions so the court could review the settlement; it did not decide whether to approve the settlement in this order.
The detailed version
- Hickey v. Ruby's Midtown LLC · No. 1:19-cv-07452
- Vernon Broderick
- Jan. 15, 2020
Background
The court was advised that the parties had reached a settlement in this Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case. The opinion states that parties may not privately settle FLSA claims with prejudice without approval from the district court or the Department of Labor. The settlement therefore had to satisfy the court that it was fair and reasonable.
Fairness review
Judge Broderick stated that the court would consider the total circumstances, including:
- The plaintiffs’ possible range of recovery;
- The extent to which the settlement would help the parties avoid the burdens and costs of proving their claims and defenses;
- The seriousness of the litigation risks;
- Whether experienced counsel reached the agreement through arm’s-length bargaining; and
- The possibility of fraud or collusion.
If the settlement included attorney’s fees, the court also had to separately assess whether those fees were reasonable. The parties were required to provide factual support for any fee award, including contemporaneous billing records identifying, for each attorney, the date, hours worked, and nature of the work.
Order
The court ordered the parties to submit the settlement terms within 30 days. Along with those terms, they had to submit a joint letter of no more than five pages explaining why the settlement represented a fair and reasonable compromise of disputed issues, including information about the five listed factors. If the agreement provided for attorney’s fees, the parties also had to submit the required factual support. The order required materials for the court’s review and did not itself approve the settlement.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.