Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedNovember 3, 2023
Docket4:15-cv-02277
StatusUnknown

This text of Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc. (Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2023).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 JULIA BERNSTEIN, et al., Case No. 15-cv-02277-JST

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ 9 v. UNOPPOSED MOTION TO APPROVE THE PLAN OF ALLOCATION, 10 VIRGIN AMERICA, INC., et al., ATTORNEY’S FEES AND EXPENSES, AND SERVICE AWARDS TO CLASS 11 Defendants. REPRESENTATIVES 12 Re: ECF No. 478

13 Before the Court is Plaintiffs’ unopposed motion to approve the plan of allocation, 14 attorney’s fees and expenses, and service awards. The factual and procedural background to this 15 case is well known to the parties and is set forth in greater detail in several of this Court’s prior 16 orders. See, e.g., ECF No. 456; ECF No. 121. On January 24, 2023, the Court entered an 17 amended judgment in the amount of $30,976,831.87. After the addition of prejudgment and post- 18 judgment interest, the total judgment is now $31,637,391.85 (“Common Fund Judgment”). ECF 19 No. 468 ¶ 15. The parties subsequently reached an agreement with respect to an award of 20 statutory fees. See id. ¶ 9. Plaintiffs filed the instant motion on May 18, 2023. The Court held a 21 hearing on the motion on August 17, 2023. The Court will now grant the motion. 22 A. Plan of Allocation 23 “[T]he plan of distribution in [an] adjudicated class action is subject to the same standards 24 that apply to the allocation of a class settlement fund, i.e., ‘the distribution plan must be fair, 25 reasonable and adequate.’” Rodman v. Safeway Inc., No. 11-CV-03003-JST, 2018 WL 4030558, 26 at *2 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2018) (quoting In re Citric Acid Antitrust Litig., 145 F. Supp. 2d 1152, 27 1154 (N.D. Cal. 2001)). “A plan of allocation that reimburses class members based on the type 1 Plaintiffs’ Plan of Allocation will reimburse class members based on the extent of their 2 injuries. The Plan provides that each class member shall receive their pro rata share of the “Net 3 Distribution Amount”—the Common Fund Judgment less attorney’s fees, costs, service awards, 4 and the amount payable to the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”)— 5 based upon that class member’s payroll data. ECF No. 469-1 ¶ 1.3.1; ECF No. 470 ¶ 13. Once 6 the class administrator calculates the amount distributable to each class member and notifies class 7 members of their respective amounts, class members will have 75 days to submit additional 8 information or documentation to the class administrator to challenge that calculation. ECF No. 9 469-1 ¶ 1.3.2. The Plan further provides that the class administrator will issue checks to class 10 members that will remain valid for 120 days and that, after 90 days, the class administrator will 11 attempt to contact all class members that have not cashed their checks. Id. ¶¶ 1.3.2, 1.4. 12 The Plan also calls for unclaimed funds to be distributed to Legal Aid at Work as a cy pres 13 beneficiary. See id. ¶ 1.7. There is a clear “driving nexus between the plaintiff class and the cy 14 pres beneficiar[y],” as the plaintiff class comprises aggrieved employees who were denied wages 15 owed, and Legal Aid at Work provides legal assistance to workers and working families. Dennis 16 v. Kellogg Co., 679 F.3d 858, 865 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting Nachshin v. AOL, LLC, 663 F.3d 1034, 17 1038 (9th Cir. 2011)). Accordingly, the cy pres award is “guided by the objectives of the 18 underlying” California labor laws and “the interests of the silent class members,” id. at 865 19 (quoting Nachshin, 663 F.3d at 1034), and it does not “benefit a group ‘too remote from the 20 plaintiff class,’” id. (quoting Six (6) Mexican Workers v. Ariz. Citrus Growers, 904 F.2d 1301, 21 1308 (9th Cir. 1990)). 22 For these reasons, the Court concludes that the Plan of Allocation is fair, reasonable, and 23 adequate and approves the Plan. 24 B. Attorney’s Fees 25 “Calculation of attorney’s fees awards in cases brought under state law is a substantive 26 matter to which state law applies.” Rodriguez v. Cnty. of Los Angeles, 891 F.3d 776, 809 (9th Cir. 27 2018). This case “is a ‘hybrid’ class action” insofar as “it was initiated under a statute with a fee- 1 Stores Inc., 269 F. Supp. 3d 975, 982–83 (N.D. Cal. 2017) (quoting Sobel v. Hertz Corp., 53 F. 2 Supp. 3d 1319, 1324 (D. Nev. 2014)). “In such instances, California courts permit plaintiffs to 3 seek both attorneys’ fees both under the fee-shifting law and through the common fund.” Id.; see 4 In re Bluetooth Headset Prods. Liab. Litig., 654 F.3d 935, 941 (9th Cir. 2011) (“The award of 5 attorneys’ fees in a class action settlement is often justified by the common fund or statutory fee- 6 shifting exceptions to the American Rule, and sometimes by both.”). In California, “regardless 7 whether the percentage method or the lodestar method is used, fee awards in class actions average 8 around one-third of the recovery.” In re Consumer Privacy Cases, 176 Cal. App. 4th 545, 558 9 (2009) (quoting Chavez v. Netflix, Inc., 162 Cal. App. 4th 43, 66 n.11 (2008)). And “while the 10 California Supreme Court recognized the Ninth Circuit’s 25% benchmark for percentage awards 11 in common fund cases, it did not adopt such a benchmark for California cases.” Ridgeway, 269 F. 12 Supp. 3d at 999. Courts consider “the risks and . . . value of the litigation” as a function of 13 “contingency, novelty, and difficulty,” as well as “the skill shown by counsel, the number of hours 14 worked[,] and the asserted hourly rates.” Lafitte v. Robert Half Int’l Inc., 1 Cal. 5th 480, 504 15 (2016). 16 Plaintiffs seek attorney’s fees in the amount of $10,441,409, which equals 33% of the 17 Common Fund Judgment. ECF No. 469 ¶ 10. However, Defendants have agreed to pay 18 $6,395,874.95 in statutory fees, id., to which Plaintiffs are entitled under Sections 218.5, 1194, 19 and 2699(g)(1) of the California Labor Code, and under Section 1021.5 of the California Code of 20 Civil Procedure. See MacDonald v. Ford Motor Co., 142 F. Supp. 3d 884, 895 (N.D. Cal. 2015). 21 That $6,395,874.95 payment will be credited against the $10,441,409 fee request such that only 22 $4,045,534.49 will be paid from the $31,637,391.85 Common Fund Judgment. ECF No. 469 ¶ 10. 23 Plaintiffs thus functionally seek a fee payment of 12.8% of the Common Fund Judgment. 24 The Court finds the fee award to be reasonable under the circumstances. Plaintiffs’ 25 counsel litigated this case through to judgment over a span of nearly eight years. The case itself 26 concerned complex and novel questions of law, see generally Bernstein v. Virgin Am., Inc., 3 27 F.4th 1127 (9th Cir. 2021), one of which was undecided by the California Supreme Court until 1 in partially reversing this Court’s grant of summary judgment, the Ninth Circuit “rel[ied] on a 2 California Supreme Court decision issued while [Defendants’] appeal was pending”), and another 3 of which the California Supreme Court has not decided at all, see Bernstein, 3 F.4th 1133 4 (“[T]here is no California Supreme Court case specifically interpreting the reach of the waiting 5 time penalties statute for interstate employers . . . .”).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Bluetooth Headset Products Liability
654 F.3d 935 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Nachshin v. Aol, LLC
663 F.3d 1034 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Robert Radcliffe v. Experian Information Solutions
715 F.3d 1157 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
Rodriguez v. West Publishing Corp.
563 F.3d 948 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
Sasco Electric v. Fair Employment & Housing Commission
176 Cal. App. 4th 532 (California Court of Appeal, 2009)
Chavez v. Netflix, Inc.
75 Cal. Rptr. 3d 413 (California Court of Appeal, 2008)
In Re Citric Acid Antitrust Litigation
145 F. Supp. 2d 1152 (N.D. California, 2001)
Ketchum v. Moses
17 P.3d 735 (California Supreme Court, 2001)
Laffitte v. Robert Half International Inc.
376 P.3d 672 (California Supreme Court, 2016)
Heriberto Rodriguez v. County of Los Angeles
891 F.3d 776 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)
Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp.
290 F.3d 1043 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
MacDonald v. Ford Motor Co.
142 F. Supp. 3d 884 (N.D. California, 2015)
Ridgeway v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
269 F. Supp. 3d 975 (N.D. California, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bernstein-v-virgin-america-inc-cand-2023.