Bonaventura v. Gear Fitness One NY Plaza LLC
- Edgardo Ramos
- 1:17-cv-02168
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Bonaventura v. Gear Fitness One NY Plaza LLC, Judge Ramos approved a revised wage-and-hour settlement awarding Bonaventura $200,000 and counsel $100,000.
Ben Bonaventura receives $200,000 under the approved settlement, and his current and prior counsel receive $100,000. The defendants are affected by the settlement’s approval, and the case was closed.
What happened
In Bonaventura v. Gear Fitness One NY Plaza LLC, Ben Bonaventura brought contract, Fair Labor Standards Act, and New York Labor Law claims. The court had previously declined to approve the parties’ first settlement because of concerns about a reemployment ban, a non-disparagement provision, and unsupported attorney-fee documentation.
The revised agreement removed the reemployment ban, allowed truthful statements about the wage-and-hour claims, and included documentation supporting the fees. It awarded Bonaventura $200,000 and his current and prior counsel $100,000, including litigation costs. The court found the payment to Bonaventura fair because it exceeded his alleged unpaid wages of approximately $170,240, and found the attorney-fee award reasonable.
Judge Edgardo Ramos granted the parties’ request to approve the revised agreement and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. The opinion does not state that the court separately decided the underlying wage-and-hour claims.
The detailed version
- Bonaventura v. Gear Fitness One NY Plaza LLC · No. 1:17-cv-02168
- Edgardo Ramos
- Apr. 26, 2021
Background
Ben Bonaventura asserted contract-based claims and claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The parties first asked the court to approve a settlement, but the court declined that request without prejudice. The court identified three problems: the agreement barred Bonaventura from being reemployed by the defendants; its non-disparagement provision barred truthful statements about his wage-and-hour claims; and Bonaventura’s counsel had not provided evidence supporting the proposed attorney-fee award.
The parties submitted a Revised Agreement and an amended fairness letter. The revised agreement removed the reemployment restriction, added an exception allowing Bonaventura to make truthful statements relating to the wage-and-hour claims and defenses, and included documentation supporting the proposed fees.
Settlement Terms
The Revised Agreement awarded Bonaventura $200,000 and awarded his current and prior counsel $100,000, including $5,992.66 attributed to litigation costs. Bonaventura alleged that he was owed approximately $170,240 in unpaid wages. Because the amount awarded to him exceeded his alleged unpaid wages, the court found that portion of the settlement fair and reasonable.
The court independently reviewed the attorney-fee request, as required in Fair Labor Standards Act cases. Counsel’s fee award was $94,007.34, representing 32 percent of the total settlement after costs. The court also used the lodestar method as a cross-check. A lodestar is the reasonable hourly rate multiplied by the reasonable number of hours worked. Even using an assumed hourly rate of $250 and only the hours worked by current counsel, the court calculated a lodestar of $97,375. The proposed fee represented a multiplier of 0.97, which the court found reasonable.
Ruling and Disposition
The court concluded that the Revised Agreement otherwise represented a fair and reasonable settlement. Judge Edgardo Ramos GRANTED the parties’ request for approval of the Revised Agreement and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. The opinion approved the settlement; it does not state that the court adjudicated the underlying wage-and-hour claims on their merits.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.