Preliminary Approval Amount Was $1.04 Million, But Final Amount Sustained On Appeal Was $880,000.
In Turman v. Parent, Case No. G060330 (4th Dist., Div. 3 July 6, 2022) (unpublished), after a decade of litigation producing several appellate decisions, all things must come to rest, parties or counsel notwithstanding. That finally occurred in this case, despite class counsel yet again wanting to maximize attorney’s fees for an additional amount—something which did not occur.
What happened here is that a preliminary class action settlement order awarded class counsel $1.04 million in fees. However, after more hearings, the fee award was reduced to $880,000. Class counsel was not happy, appealing to no avail.
Plaintiffs initially argued that a more detailed explanation of the fee award was required, but no statement of decision is required, no statement of decision was requested, and the advocated Kerkeles decision was a civil rights decision not apropos when it comes to California state court decisions. The real problem for class counsel was a credibility problem: they first proposed $1.04 million but then got greedy and said the real lodestar was $2.807 million. Not a good idea, with neither the trial nor appellate courts buying the significant “pivot” in positions. In fact, the $880,000 fee award equaled 40% of the $2.2 million gross settlement, with the $1.04 million prior amount being 47% of the gross settlement. The end-all in this case was summarized this way: “Plaintiffs do not offer any authority that the trial court’s final attorney fee award, constituting 40 percent of a multimillion dollar class action gross settlement amount, is inappropriate, unreasonable, or arbitrary given the history and circumstances of this case.” (Slip Opn., at p. 16.) The award was no abuse of discretion.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Linda Marks, sitting by designation, authored the 3-0 decision by the 4/3 DCA.