Ferreira v. Property Management Group, Inc.
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:23-cv-03766
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ferreira v. Property Management Group, Judge Broderick ordered the parties to submit their FLSA settlement for fairness review and supporting fee information.
Jose Ferreira and Property Management Group, Inc., Burnside Mews Associates, L.P., Steve Zervoudis, and Xin Pan a/k/a Pan Xin must submit the settlement terms and supporting materials required by the order.
What happened
In Ferreira v. Property Management Group, the parties told the court they had reached a settlement of the Fair Labor Standards Act case. The court explained that such settlements require approval and must be fair and reasonable.
The court ordered the parties to provide the settlement terms within 30 days, along with a joint letter of no more than five pages explaining why the agreement is a fair and reasonable compromise. The letter should address five factors, including possible recovery, litigation burdens and risks, bargaining between counsel, and possible fraud or collusion.
If the settlement includes attorney’s fees, the parties must also provide evidence supporting the amount, including billing records showing each attorney’s date, hours, and work. Judge Vernon S. Broderick did not state that he approved the settlement in this order.
The detailed version
- Ferreira v. Property Management Group, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-03766
- Vernon Broderick
- Sept. 18, 2023
Background
The parties advised the court that they had reached a settlement in this Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case. The defendants are Property Management Group, Inc., Burnside Mews Associates, L.P., Steve Zervoudis, and Xin Pan a/k/a Pan Xin.
Settlement-review standard
The court explained that parties may not privately settle FLSA claims without approval from the district court or the Department of Labor. The court must determine whether the settlement is fair and reasonable by considering the total circumstances. The opinion identifies five factors: the plaintiff’s possible recovery; the extent to which the settlement avoids the burdens and expenses of proving the claims and defenses; the litigation risks; whether experienced counsel negotiated the agreement at arm’s length; and the possibility of fraud or collusion.
When a settlement includes attorney’s fees, the court must separately assess whether those fees are reasonable. The parties must provide a factual basis for any fee award, including contemporaneous billing records stating, for each attorney, the date, hours worked, and nature of the work.
Order
The court ordered the parties, within 30 days of the order, to submit the settlement terms so the court could determine whether they comply with the FLSA and reflect a reasonable compromise of disputed issues. The parties must also submit a joint letter of no more than five pages explaining why they believe the settlement is fair and reasonable, including information concerning the five identified factors. If the agreement provides for attorney’s fees, the parties must submit the required supporting evidence. The opinion does not state that the court approved the settlement.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.