Ninth Circuit Affirms Fee Award to NVIDIA Class Counsel.
In Nakash v. NVIDIA Corp., Case No. 11-15186 (9th Cir. Sept. 4, 2013) (not for publication; per curiam), a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a $13 million fee award to plaintiffs’ class action counsel in a defective computer component case. In a sui generis (“of its own kind”) type of settlement, defendant computer component maker reached out to retailers to craft a compromise after learning that it made allegedly defective graphics processing units. Defendant agreed to replace or make repair reimbursements for class action members who still owned computers exhibiting the problems. The settlement was approved by a district judge as fair, adequate and reasonable, a determination affirmed by the federal appeals court.
The Ninth Circuit also affirmed an admittedly “large” $13 million fee award to class counsel, finding it was “proportional to the time spent by counsel under the lodestar method”–namely, more than $10 million worth of time or well over 20,000 hours. This result was reinforced by the fact that the district judge properly weighted such factors as the vigor/length of the litigation, the complexity of issues, the risk that class members would recover less or nothing, the significant benefit to class members, and a neutral mediator’s opinion that the amount was fair and reasonable.
Survey Fleshes Out Particulars Of Residential Neighborhood Disputes.
If you have followed our blog for any time, you know that many disputes producing fee-shifting battles in litigation involve neighborhood property or other controversies of some nature. (See especially our category “Homeowner Associations.”) We now share the results of an interesting FindLaw.com survey about specifics of these disputes, both in terms of categorical breakdown, reasons for the disputes, and ways in which they are resolved or left hanging.
According to the FindLaw.com survey (as reported by G.U. Krueger in the September 8, 2013 edition of The Orange County Register in the “Real Estate” section), 42% of Americans have had a neighborly dispute in the past. The most common complaints were: noise–48%; pets/other animals–29%; child behavior–21%; visual nuisances–18%; property boundaries–17%; suspected criminal behavior–8%; health and building code violations–4%; parking–1%. (We assume that the totals exceeded 100% because there was crossover on some as well as survey reporting methods.)
So how were these disputes handled? Standard diplomacy (talking)–49%; call the police–27%; call the neighborhood association–15%; wrote letter or email–11%; went to court–4%; went to mediation–4%; took “other action”–4%.
So how were these disputes resolved (82% of them)? Diplomacy–40%; matter disappeared–35%; police/court/HOA/outside intervention–11%; unresolved–14%.