Fritz v. Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:21-cv-04727
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Fritz v. Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC, Judge Schofield approved the settlement, awarded fees and costs, and closed the case.
The settlement parties, Plaintiffs, and Plaintiffs’ counsel were affected. Plaintiffs’ counsel received $14,009.00 in fees and $472.00 in costs, and the remaining settlement funds were to be distributed to Plaintiffs.
What happened
In Fritz v. Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC, the parties submitted a settlement agreement for court approval. They initially did not provide time records or an expense breakdown, but Plaintiffs’ counsel later submitted those materials.
The court found the settlement fair and reasonable. It granted Plaintiffs’ counsel $14,009 in fees and $472 in costs, and ordered the remaining settlement funds distributed to Plaintiffs.
Judge Schofield directed the Clerk of Court to close the case.
The detailed version
- Fritz v. Manhattan Beer Distributors LLC · No. 1:21-cv-04727
- Lorna Schofield
- Mar. 17, 2022
Background
On February 17, 2022, the parties filed a joint letter and settlement agreement. The filing did not include contemporaneous time records or a breakdown of Plaintiffs’ counsel’s expenses. On March 14, 2022, Plaintiffs’ counsel submitted a supplemental letter with time records and a fee breakdown to support the request for attorneys’ fees and expenses.
Rulings
The court approved the settlement agreement as fair and reasonable, considering the nature and scope of Plaintiffs’ claims and the risks and expenses of additional litigation.
The court granted Plaintiffs’ counsel’s request for $14,009.00 in attorneys’ fees, excluding costs. The court noted that this amount was less than the lodestar calculation—the product of a reasonable hourly rate and the reasonable number of hours required—and was approximately one-third of the settlement. The court also granted the request for $472.00 in costs.
The court ordered that the remainder of the settlement be distributed to Plaintiffs and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. Judge Schofield’s order approved the settlement and related fees and costs; the opinion does not state the underlying claims’ specific legal theories or decide their merits.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.