Basurto v. Tacos El Paisa Inc.
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:20-cv-05483
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Basurto v. Tacos El Paisa, Judge Broderick approved the parties’ $7,500 Fair Labor Standards Act settlement, including attorney’s fees and expenses.
The order affected Amelia Basurto, Tacos El Paisa Inc., the other defendants, and Basurto’s counsel by approving their FLSA settlement and the associated attorney’s fees and costs.
What happened
In Basurto v. Tacos El Paisa Inc., the parties told the court that they had settled Amelia Basurto’s Fair Labor Standards Act claims.
The agreement provided Basurto $7,500, including attorney’s fees and expenses. The court found that amount fair, noted the parties had negotiated through mediation, and approved a release limited to wage-related claims.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick also found the requested $2,817.33 in attorney’s fees and costs reasonable and granted the request to approve the settlement.
The detailed version
- Basurto v. Tacos El Paisa Inc. · No. 1:20-cv-05483
- Vernon Broderick
- Jan. 10, 2022
Background
The parties advised the court that they had reached a settlement in this Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case. Because the Department of Labor had not approved the settlement, the court reviewed whether the agreement was fair and reasonable. The court considered the possible recovery, the burdens and expenses of continued litigation, litigation risks, the parties’ negotiations, and the possibility of fraud or collusion. It also reviewed the requested attorney’s fees and costs.
Settlement Amount
The agreement provided for Basurto to receive $7,500, inclusive of attorney’s fees and expenses. Her counsel represented that she believed she was entitled to $7,065. The court noted that the settlement exceeded her expected recovery, that the parties sought to avoid the risks and costs of continued litigation and trial, and that they negotiated at mediation through the Southern District of New York’s Mediation Program. The court found no basis to believe that fraud or collusion was involved and determined that the settlement amount was fair and reasonable.
Release Provision
The agreement released claims concerning allegedly unpaid compensation under the FLSA, the New York Labor Law, New York City law, the Equal Pay Act, or other laws regulating the payment of wages. The court found that the release was appropriately limited to the claims at issue in this action.
Attorney’s Fees and Costs
Counsel claimed to have incurred $6,045 in attorney’s fees and $476 in costs but requested $2,817.33 in total. The court noted that this represented 37.6 percent of the $7,500 settlement and was more than one-third of the settlement amount. It nevertheless evaluated the request using the supporting documentation because the Second Circuit had held that the FLSA does not limit attorney’s fees to 33 percent of a settlement.
The court found that counsel had worked on the complaint, evaluated damages, and prepared for and attended the successful mediation. It also found that the requested amount was reasonable for the 18 hours documented, particularly because counsel’s claimed lodestar—the amount based on documented time multiplied by hourly rates—was $6,521. The court determined that the requested fees and costs were fair and reasonable.
Ruling
The court granted the parties’ request to approve the settlement agreement. It ordered that the parties’ settlement agreement was approved.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.