De los Santos Comonfort v. Services Mangia, Inc.
- Edgardo Ramos
- 1:19-cv-09262
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In De los Santos Comonfort v. Services Mangia, Judge Ramos approved a revised settlement, dismissed the case with prejudice, and closed it.
The named plaintiff, other plaintiffs described in the caption as similarly situated, and the defendants are affected by the approved settlement and dismissal. The opinion does not describe the settlement's other terms.
What happened
In De los Santos Comonfort v. Services Mangia, the parties asked the court to approve a proposed settlement. The court had previously declined to approve the agreement because the requested $29,999 in attorney’s fees was too high compared with the calculated $6,865 amount.
The parties submitted a revised agreement that reduced the attorney’s fees to $20,000 after costs, producing a multiplier of 2.9. The court stated that it had approved fee requests involving similar multipliers.
Judge Ramos approved the revised settlement agreement, dismissed the case with prejudice, directed the clerk to terminate the motion, and closed the case.
The detailed version
- De los Santos Comonfort v. Services Mangia, Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-09262
- Edgardo Ramos
- Oct. 13, 2020
Background
On September 11, 2020, the parties asked the court to approve their proposed settlement. On September 29, 2020, the court declined to approve the agreement without prejudice because the requested $29,999 in attorney’s fees was too high compared with the $6,865 lodestar amount. A lodestar is the fee amount calculated from reasonable hours worked multiplied by reasonable hourly rates.
Revised Settlement
The parties responded with an amended motion and revised settlement agreement. The revised agreement lowered the attorney’s fees to $20,000, net of costs, and resulted in a multiplier of 2.9. The court cited prior decisions in which it had approved attorney’s-fee requests involving similar multipliers.
Ruling
The court found that the revised settlement agreement complied with the settlement-review standard described in Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, Inc. The court approved the agreement, dismissed the case with prejudice, directed the clerk to terminate the motion at docket entry 38, and closed the case. The order was signed by Judge Edgardo Ramos.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.