Turner v. Hickinbotham Real Estate, Inc.

Filing 23

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the parties' joint motion for hearing 22 is GRANTED. A hearing will be held in this matter on Friday, August 25, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. in courtroom 16-South.. Signed by District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on 8/3/17. (LGK)

Case: 4:17-cv-00381-RWS Doc. #: 23 Filed: 08/03/17 Page: 1 of 2 PageID #: 74

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
EASTERN DIVISION
ANGELIA M. TURNER,
Plaintiff,
v.
HICKINBOTHAM REAL ESTATE, INC.,
Defendant.

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

Case No. 4:17 CV 381 RWS

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Plaintiff Angelia Turner and Defendant Hickinbotham Real Estate, Inc. jointly move for
court approval of their settlement in Turner’s action for unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor
Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. The parties also move to stay the case until defendant has
completed the payments required by the settlement agreement and request a hearing on their
motions for approval of the settlement and a stay.
Even assuming this settlement agreement requires court approval, but see, e.g., Trogdon
v. Kleenco Maintenance & Construction, Inc., 2016 WL 7664285, at *1 (W.D. Ark. Nov. 18,
2016), the parties have not provided all the information required for me to evaluate the basic
aspects of the agreement. “A district court may only approve a settlement agreement and enter a
stipulated judgment that includes a waiver of FLSA claims after it determines that the litigation
involves a bona fide dispute and that the proposed settlement is fair and equitable to all parties.”
Id. at *2. Here, the parties describe generally the nature of the disputed issues in the case, but
they make no mention of basic information like the alleged numbers of hours of unclaimed
overtime, the amount of damages Turner believes she could have recovered for the unpaid
overtime, or what documents she reviewed to evaluate her claim for unpaid wages. See id. As a

Case: 4:17-cv-00381-RWS Doc. #: 23 Filed: 08/03/17 Page: 2 of 2 PageID #: 75

result, I will grant the parties’ motion for a hearing.

The parties should be prepared to

supplement their joint motion with the information necessary for me to evaluate the fairness of
the proposed settlement.
Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the parties’ joint motion for hearing [22] is
GRANTED. A hearing will be held in this matter on Friday, August 25, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. in
courtroom 16-South.

RODNEY W. SIPPEL
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Dated this 3rd day of August, 2017.

2