Christensen et al v. Hillyard, Inc.

Filing 35

ORDER RE: FURTHER BRIEFING. Signed by Judge Nathanael Cousins on 12/5/2014. (lmh, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 12/5/2014)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11 SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 12 LAWRENCE DANIEL CHRISTENSEN and Case No. 13-cv-04389 NC and all others similarly-situated, ORDER RE: FURTHER BRIEFING 13 GEORGE CURREA, on behalf of themselves 14 Plaintiffs, 15 16 17 18 v. HILLYARD, INC., Defendants. 19 20 Before the Court is plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of class action settlement as 21 well as plaintiffs’ motion for award of class representative payments and attorneys’ fees. 22 The proposed order does not address who the cy pres beneficiary would be in the event that 23 class members fail to cash or deposit their award. 24 The Court’s website contains a resource for class action settlements located under the 25 Forms & Guidelines section entitled, “Procedural Guidance for Class Action Settlements.” 26 According to item 8 of these guidelines: 27 28 Case No. 13-cv-04389 NC ORDER RE: FURTHER BRIEFING 1 The parties should address their chosen cy pres awardees, if any, and how those awardees are related to the subject matter of the lawsuit and the class members, including their location. See, e.g., Dennis v. Kellogg Co., 697 F.3d 858 (9th Cir. 2012); Nachsin v. AOL, LLC, 663 F.3d 1064 (9th Cir. 2011). In general, unused funds allocated to attorneys’ fees, incentive awards, settlement administration fees and payments to class members should be distributed to the class pro rata or awarded to a cy pres recipient. 2 3 4 5 6 See http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/ClassActionSettlementGuidance. The settlement agreement in this case includes a cy pres provision entitled, 7 8 “Uncashed Settlement Payment Checks.” Dkt. No. 29-3 at 17. The provision states in part: 9 If any checks remain uncashed or not deposited by the expiration of the 30-day. [sic] After mailing of the Reminder Notice, the Settlement Administrator will pay the funds represented by such un-redeemed checks and any sums arising due to a reversal of employee taxes, to Volunteers of America, the Southwest Chapter (www.voa-swcal.org) a non-profit organization working to improve the quality of life by providing services and support to families, children and veterans, nationally and in California. 10 11 12 13 14 Id. 15 It is not clear from the face of this provision that the cy pres beneficiary meets the 16 standard under Dennis. See Dennis, 697 F.3d at 865 (finding that there must be a “driving 17 nexus between the plaintiff class and the cy pres beneficiaries”) (citation omitted). 18 Therefore, the Court orders the plaintiffs to submit supplemental briefing within 19 seven days explaining how the cy pres awardee meets the requirements set forth in Dennis. 20 IT IS SO ORDERED. 21 Date: December 5, 2014 22 _________________________ Nathanael M. Cousins United States Magistrate Judge 23 24 25 26 27 28 Case No. 13-cv-04389 NC ORDER RE: FURTHER BRIEFING 2

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