Coronel v. Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant
- Andrew Krause
- 7:21-cv-09329
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 9
In Coronel v. Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant, Judge Krause approved the settlement’s material terms but required corrected documents before final approval.
Lizbeth Chamorro Coronel, Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant, Gary Serina, and Plaintiff’s counsel are affected. Coronel is to receive $6,111.67 under the approved material settlement terms, and her counsel is to receive $3,888.33 in fees and costs, subject to the required document revisions before final approval.
What happened
In Coronel v. Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant, Lizbeth Chamorro Coronel sued Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant and Gary Serina over unpaid minimum and overtime wages, weekly pay, wage notices and statements, sexual harassment, and battery. The parties asked the court to approve a settlement of the wage-related claims. A separate agreement addressed the sexual-harassment claims.
The proposed settlement required a total payment of $10,000: $6,111.67 to Coronel and $3,888.33 to her counsel for fees and costs. The court found the settlement fair and reasonable because it accounted for the possible recovery, litigation risks and costs, arm’s-length negotiations, and the absence of apparent fraud or collusion. The agreement released only wage-and-hour claims related to the case.
Judge Krause approved the settlement’s material terms but required several changes before final approval and dismissal: Coronel had to sign the agreement, the parties had to submit the promised stipulation and order of final dismissal with prejudice, and unclear wording about governing law had to be corrected or clarified. The parties were directed to submit revised, fully executed documents by November 7, 2022.
The detailed version
- Coronel v. Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant · No. 7:21-cv-09329
- Andrew Krause
- Oct. 26, 2022
Background
Lizbeth Chamorro Coronel brought claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law against Hudson Anchor Seafood Restaurant and Gary Serina. She alleged that Defendants failed to pay the minimum wage, overtime wages, and weekly wages, and failed to provide required wage notices and wage statements. She also asserted claims for sexual harassment and battery.
The parties applied for approval of a settlement under the Second Circuit’s requirement that courts review private settlements of Fair Labor Standards Act claims. The proposed settlement resolved only Coronel’s wage-and-hour claims. The parties entered into a separate agreement concerning her sexual-harassment claims.
Settlement Terms and Fairness Review
The settlement provided for a total payment of $10,000, divided as follows:
- $6,111.67 to Coronel - $3,338.33 in attorneys’ fees to her counsel - $550 in requested costs to her counsel
The court compared Coronel’s proposed recovery with her estimate of $10,807.54 in unpaid wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. It found that the settlement amount was reasonable in light of the possible recovery, the expense and burden of further discovery and trial, and the risks of litigation. Defendants maintained that Coronel had been properly paid and had detailed time records, creating a risk that she could recover nothing at trial.
The court also found no reason to believe that the settlement resulted from fraud or collusion rather than negotiations between experienced counsel. It was unaware of similarly situated employees, a likelihood that the circumstances would recur, or a history of Fair Labor Standards Act violations by the employer. The court further found that the release was limited to wage-and-hour claims and did not improperly release unrelated claims.
Attorneys’ Fees and Costs
The court found the requested attorneys’ fee reasonable. Counsel reported spending 23.29 hours on the case, producing a lodestar amount—a calculation based on reasonable hours multiplied by hourly rates—of $6,596.25. The requested $3,338.33 fee was approximately 51 percent of that amount.
The court found that the $402 filing fee was supported by the docket but that the $150 process-serving cost lacked supporting documentation. Even excluding that $150 cost, however, the combined fee and cost award remained below the lodestar amount. The court therefore found the requested award fair and reasonable. The opinion also noted discrepancies concerning the filing-fee amount and other listed costs, but stated that they did not affect its analysis.
Ruling
Judge Andrew E. Krause found the proposed settlement fair and reasonable and approved its material terms. The court did not yet fully approve the agreement or sign the dismissal order. It required four steps before final approval: (1) Coronel had to sign the settlement agreement; (2) the parties had to submit the promised stipulation and order of final dismissal with prejudice; (3) the unclear phrase “Federal Laws state of New York” in the governing-law provision had to be deleted or clarified; and (4) the parties had to submit a revised, fully executed settlement agreement and dismissal papers by November 7, 2022.
Read the full 9-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.