Preldakaj v. The Monarch Condominium
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:20-cv-09433
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Preldakaj v. The Monarch Condominium, Judge Broderick ordered the parties to submit their FLSA settlement for fairness review.
The parties to Emanuel Preldakaj’s FLSA case, including the defendants identified in the caption as The Monarch Condominium, et al., and their attorneys.
What happened
In Preldakaj v. The Monarch Condominium, the parties told the court that they had reached a settlement in a case under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal wage-and-hour law. The opinion does not provide the settlement’s terms.
The court explained that this type of settlement requires approval by the court or the Department of Labor, and that the agreement must be fair and reasonable. It ordered the parties to submit the settlement terms within 30 days, along with a joint letter of no more than five pages explaining why the agreement was a fair and reasonable compromise.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick also ordered the parties to provide supporting records for any attorney-fee award, including contemporaneous billing records. The order required further submissions; it did not approve or reject the settlement.
The detailed version
- Preldakaj v. The Monarch Condominium · No. 1:20-cv-09433
- Vernon Broderick
- May 13, 2021
Background
The court was advised that the parties had reached a settlement in this Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case. The opinion does not state the settlement amount or other terms.
Legal standard
The court explained that parties may not privately settle FLSA claims with prejudice without approval from the district court or the Department of Labor. The court must determine whether the settlement is fair and reasonable. It identified five relevant factors: the plaintiff’s possible recovery; the burdens and expenses the settlement would avoid; the seriousness of the litigation risks; whether experienced counsel negotiated at arm’s length; and the possibility of fraud or collusion.
If the settlement includes attorney’s fees, the court must separately assess whether those fees are reasonable. Counsel must provide a factual basis for any fee award, including contemporaneous billing records showing each attorney’s date of work, hours, and the nature of the work performed.
Order
The court ordered the parties to submit the settlement terms within 30 days so the court could determine whether they were fair and reflected a reasonable compromise of disputed issues. The parties also had to submit a joint letter of no more than five pages addressing why the settlement was fair and reasonable, including information about the five identified factors. If the agreement included attorney’s fees, the parties had to submit the required supporting evidence.
The order required additional submissions and did not approve or reject the settlement.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.