Lin v. Liberty Health Sciences Inc.
- Vyskocil
- 1:19-cv-00161
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Lin v. Liberty Health Sciences Inc., Judge Vyskocil did not preliminarily approve the class settlement and ordered plaintiffs to explain whether its amount was adequate.
The proposed class members and the plaintiffs seeking approval of the settlement; the settlement was not preliminarily approved at this stage.
What happened
In Lin v. Liberty Health Sciences Inc., the court reviewed the plaintiffs’ unopposed request for preliminary approval of the parties’ class-action settlement.
The court said it could not determine that the settlement adequately compensated class members because the plaintiffs’ filing stated that each member might receive up to two cents per damaged share before fees or costs were taken from the settlement fund.
Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil did not preliminarily approve the settlement at that time and ordered the plaintiffs to file no more than seven pages of briefing by March 26, 2021, addressing the settlement amount and other approval factors.
The detailed version
- Lin v. Liberty Health Sciences Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-00161
- Vyskocil
- Feb. 16, 2021
Background
The plaintiffs sought preliminary approval of the parties’ proposed class-action settlement. The motion was unopposed. The court explained that, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e)(1)(B), it had to consider whether it would likely be able to approve the settlement under Rule 23(e)(2) and certify the class for purposes of entering judgment on the proposed settlement.
Court’s analysis
Rule 23(e)(2) requires the court to determine whether the relief provided to the class is adequate. The plaintiffs’ supporting memorandum stated that each class member might receive as much as two cents per damaged share before fees or costs were excluded from the settlement fund. The court stated that, without additional support, it could not determine whether that amount was likely to be adequate compensation for class members.
Ruling and next steps
Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ordered that the settlement would not be preliminarily approved at that time. The court ordered the plaintiffs to submit, by March 26, 2021, briefing of no more than seven pages addressing the adequacy of the current settlement amount and other factors supporting approval. The court specifically directed the plaintiffs to cite other approved settlements involving similar per-share distributions to class members.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.