PITTSBURGH - A federal judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania green-lighted a $30,000 settlement in a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit that never became a class action against Right Turn Supply on April 23.
Judge Nicholas Ranjan approved the settlement, which includes $17,000 for plaintiff Chaney Horton and $13,000 for Horton’s legal team. Horton also agreed to drop the claims against Right Turn. He, along with others in his position, alleged that while they were Right Turn employees, the company classified them as independent contractors, so they didn’t receive the overtime paid they were owed under the FLSA and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act.
Horton filed the lawsuit as a class action but a class was never certified.
Interestingly enough, while Judge Ranjan okayed the agreement, he also pointed out that, “nothing in the FLSA expressly requires court review and approval of settlements" as he noted the case never became a class action.
At the same time, there’s an ongoing argument of whether particular concerns related to FLSA settlements should go through a judge first. Considering this, Judge Ranjan did the due diligence of evaluating the motion to approve the settlement.
While he said the settlement was fair, he didn’t see the need to approve Horton’s attorney fees. He simply noted that Horton had knowledgeable counsel who “have thus far conducted themselves professionally, demonstrated deep knowledge of wage-and-hour law, and have been diligent and responsive to the court’s orders,” Judge Ranjan wrote.
Plus, he also added that the court doesn’t have the stance or position to nitpick the attorneys’ fees part of the settlement, which is $13,000 of the $30,000 settlement agreement; especially because Horton can manage the time his own counsel spent on the case.
Judge Ranjan ended by stating that Horton ended up in more than fair shape as he not only received the amount he claimed he missed out on because of Right Turn’s conduct, but received even more money on top of that.