Colon v. The Morgan Group, LLC
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:21-cv-08699
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
Judge Broderick approved Colon v. The Morgan Group’s $65,000 Fair Labor Standards Act settlement as fair and reasonable.
Edy Colon, The Morgan Group LLC and the other defendants, and Colon’s attorneys were affected. Colon received the approved settlement, the attorneys received the approved fees and costs, and the case was terminated.
What happened
Colon v. The Morgan Group, LLC was a wage case under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The parties reached a settlement and asked the court to approve it because these claims generally cannot be privately settled without court or Department of Labor approval.
The agreement provided Edy Colon with $65,000, including attorneys’ fees and expenses. The court compared that amount with Colon’s stated possible recovery of $265,997.08 and found the settlement amount fair and reasonable. The court also found the requested fees and costs—$19,078.76—reasonable.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick approved the settlement agreement. He directed the clerk to close the open motions and end the case.
The detailed version
- Colon v. The Morgan Group, LLC · No. 1:21-cv-08699
- Vernon Broderick
- May 24, 2022
Background
Edy Colon brought this Fair Labor Standards Act case against The Morgan Group LLC and other defendants. The parties reached a settlement on or about March 1, 2022, after the case was referred to mediation. They jointly asked the court to approve the agreement.
Because the Department of Labor had not approved the settlement, the court reviewed whether it was fair and reasonable. The court considered the total circumstances, including Colon’s possible recovery, the litigation burdens and expenses the settlement would avoid, the risks of continuing the case, whether the agreement resulted from negotiations between experienced counsel, and whether fraud or collusion was possible.
Settlement Amount
The settlement provided Colon with $65,000, including attorneys’ fees and expenses. Colon stated that his best-case recovery would include $4,444.02 in unpaid minimum wages, $119,110.50 in unpaid overtime, and $10,000 in wage-notice and wage-statement claims. After accounting for possible additional damages, the court calculated his total possible recovery as $265,997.08. The settlement was approximately 24.4% of that amount.
The court found the settlement amount fair and reasonable and consistent with other Fair Labor Standards Act settlements approved in the Southern District of New York.
Attorneys’ Fees and Costs
The agreement awarded Colon’s attorneys $19,078.76: $17,858.26 in fees and $1,220.50 in costs. Together, those amounts were approximately 29% of the total settlement. Colon’s retainer agreement provided for a contingency fee of one-third of the net recovery, but counsel reduced the requested amount because the case settled early.
The court found the fees and costs fair and reasonable. The requested amount was less than one-third of the total settlement and represented approximately 1.25 times the attorneys’ documented base time value, commonly called the lodestar.
Disposition
The court found the settlement agreement fair and reasonable and approved the parties’ motion to approve it. The clerk was directed to close all open motions and terminate the action.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.