Thomas v. Arts in Common LLC

Background

Daria Thomas brought this wage-and-hour action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) on behalf of herself and others in a proposed FLSA collective action against Arts in Common LLC and Rafael Baccus. The parties consented to Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave’s jurisdiction to review their proposed settlement.

The parties first submitted a settlement for approval under the Second Circuit’s requirements for reviewing FLSA settlements. On May 2, 2022, the court denied that request without prejudice because it identified defects in the settlement agreement and directed the parties to submit a revised agreement. The parties filed the revised agreement on May 13, 2022.

Revised settlement

The revised agreement provided for one lump-sum payment of $12,000. The agreement allocated $7,045.15 to Thomas and $4,954.85 to her counsel, consisting of $3,522.05 in legal fees and $1,432.80 in costs. The court stated that, after deducting $1,432.05 from the settlement amount, the remaining $10,567.20 was appropriately allocated two-thirds to Thomas and one-third to her counsel as legal fees.

Court’s ruling

Judge Cave found that all terms of the revised settlement, including the allocation of attorneys’ fees and costs, appeared fair and reasonable under the totality of the circumstances. The court therefore approved the Revised Settlement Agreement.

The court dismissed the action with prejudice and without costs except as provided in the Revised Settlement Agreement. It retained jurisdiction to enforce the agreement, ruled that any pending motions were moot, directed the Clerk of Court to mark the settlement filing as “granted,” and directed that the case be closed.