Rupa Marya v. Warner Chappell Music Inc

Filing 340

DECLARATION of Norman Swett [Second Supplemental Declaration of Norman Swett] In Support Of NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION for Settlement Approval of Proposed Class Action Settlement Plaintiffs' Notice of Motion and Motion for Final Approval of Proposed Class Action Settlement; Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support Thereof322 filed by Plaintiffs Good Morning to You Productions Corp, Majar Productions LLC, Rupa Marya, Robert Siegel. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit A, #2 Exhibit B)(Manifold, Betsy)

1 FRANCIS M. GREGOREK (144785)
[e-mail]
2 BETSY C. MANIFOLD (182450)
[e-mail]
3 RACHELE R. RICKERT (190634)
[e-mail]
4 MARISA C. LIVESAY (223247)
[e-mail]
5 BRITTANY N. DEJONG (258766)
[e-mail]
6 WOLF HALDENSTEIN ADLER
FREEMAN & HERZ LLP
7 750 B Street, Suite 2770
San Diego, CA 92101
8 Telephone: [phone]
9 Facsimile: 619/234-4599
10 Interim Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs and the [Proposed] Class
11

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

12

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA -

13

WESTERN DIVISION

14 GOOD MORNING TO YOU
PRODUCTIONS CORP., et al.,
15
Plaintiffs,

16
17

v.

18
19 WARNER/CHAPPELL MUSIC,
INC., et al.
20
Defendants.
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

Lead Case No. CV 13-04460-GHK (MRWx)
SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL
DECLARATION OF NORMAN
SWETT IN SUPPORT OF FINAL
APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION
SETTLEMENT
Room:
Judge:
Date:
Time:

650
Hon. George H. King, Chief
Judge
June 27, 2016
9:30 a.m.

1

The undersigned, Norman Swett, under penalty of perjury, hereby declares and

2 states as follows:
3

1.

I am a Senior Project Manager for Rust Consulting, Inc. (“Rust”), the

4 Court-appointed Settlement Administrator in this Action. I have personal knowledge
5 of the matters set forth herein concerning all matters pertaining to this Action and, if
6 called upon, I could and would competently testify thereto.
7

2.

I submit this second Supplemental Declaration in further support of

8 Plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of the Settlement, which was filed on April 27,
9 2016.
10

3.

The postmark deadline for claim filing was May 27, 2016. As noted in

11 the prior supplemental declaration, we emailed Notices to 83 foreign performing
12 rights societies with which ASCAP is affiliated on May 5, 2016. It was determined
13 that 48 of these 83 societies had not been on either list of names and addresses of
14 Settlement Class Members who received Notice by mail sent on March 28, 2016
15 (pursuant to the Notice Plan), or on the list of foreign rights organizations (“FROs”)
16 who received Notice by email on April 15, 2016 (pursuant to Plaintiffs’ Counsel’s
17 request). Plaintiffs and Defendants stipulated and agreed to extend the claim filing
18 deadline for these 48 entities, which the Court approved on May 27, 2016. (Dkt.
19 Nos. 331 & 333).
20

4.

On May 27, 2016 Rust sent emails to these 48 FROs with the following

21 message:
22

RE: Happy Birthday Litigation Extension of Claim Deadline

23
24
25
26
27
28

You may not have received notice of the Settlement until May 5,
2016, when it was sent to you by email. Therefore, please be
advised that the Parties have agreed to extend the deadline for
you to submit a claim to June 24, 2016. To be timely, your claim
must be received by the Settlement Administrator no later than
June 24, 2016. No other dates or deadlines have been changed.

1

5.

As of June 15, 2016, Rust has received and processed through intake

2

275 claims, 63 of which were found to be duplicative (class members frequently

3

chose to submit claims in a redundant manner to insure inclusion). The remaining

4

212 claims together have claimed $7,345,976.40 for Period One Claims and

5

$13,290,497.33 for Period Two Claims. Rust is still reviewing the claims. The

6

dollar amounts of these claims may change as we conduct our review of the

7

claimants and the supporting documentation for the claims.

8
9
10

6.

As of June 17, 2016, Rust has not received any objections to the

proposed Settlement from any Settlement Class Members or from anyone else
claiming an interest in the copyright to Happy Birthday to You.

11

7.

As of June 17, 2016, Rust has received exclusion requests from only

12

four FROs, which are listed in Exhibit A.

13
14

seeking to exclude themselves is $38,112.98, as set forth on Exhibit A.

15

attached in Exhibit B. Based upon prior experience, we expect that our total invoice

16

for work on this matter (including the review, processing, and payment of the claims

17
18

from Settlement Class Members) will not exceed the sum of $120,000.

19

United States, that the foregoing statements are true and correct to the best of my

20
21

knowledge, information, and belief.

8.

9.

The total amount paid by the FROs

Rust's invoices to date for this matter total $76,326.58. The invoices are

I hereby certify, under the penalty of perjury under the laws of the

Executed this 20th day of June, 2016, at Minneapolis, Minnesota.

22

~" (~

23

/ae>(f

NORMAN SWETT

24
25
26
27
28

31110449.1

-2-