Huyer v. Wells Fargo & Co.

314 F.R.D. 621, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21003, 2016 WL 637253
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedFebruary 17, 2016
Docket4:08-cv-507
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 314 F.R.D. 621 (Huyer v. Wells Fargo & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huyer v. Wells Fargo & Co., 314 F.R.D. 621, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21003, 2016 WL 637253 (S.D. Iowa 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

ROBERT W. PRATT, U.S. DISTRICT COURT

Before the Court are two motions: (1) Plaintiffs’ Motion for Final Approval of Class Action Settlement Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 (Clerk’s No. 262); and (2)Plaintiffs’ Motion for Attorneys’ Fees, Reimbursement of Litigation Expenses, and Class Representative Service Awards (Clerk’s No. 263). A fairness hearing was held on January 21, 2016. Clerk’s No. 288. The matter is fully submitted.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This class action was filed in the Northern District of California against Defendants Wells Fargo & Co. and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A (collectively “Wells Fargo”) on August 5, 2008, alleging eight counts including RICO violations, violations of California law, fraud, and unjust enrichment. See Compl. (Clerk’s No. 1). The claims all relate to Wells Fargo’s practice of automatically ordering and charging fees for drive-by property inspections when customers fall behind on their mortgage payments. Id. ¶2. Wells Fargo made a motion to transfer the case to the Southern District of Iowa, which was granted on December 17, 2008. Clerk’s No. 38. The parties engaged in discovery and a motion to certify the class was filed on November 9, 2012. Clerk’s No. 150. That motion was granted on October 23, 2013. Clerk’s No. 206. The parties engaged in settlement negotiations and reached a resolution following mediation with retired United States Magistrate Judge A’thur Boylan. A preliminary motion to approve the settlement was filed on August 21, 2015. Clerk’s No. 243. The Court granted preliminary approval on September 2, 2015, and a fairness hearing was held on January 21, 2016. Clerk’s Nos. 245, 288. Attorneys for Plaintiffs and Defendants appeared at the hearing, and the Court also heard from one class member who objected to the settlement terms. See Clerk’s No. 288. The settlement is now ready for final approval.

II. LAW AND ANALYSIS

A. Class Certification

In order to grant final class certification, the Court must find that the requirements of both Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a) and (b) have been met. Rule 23(a)(l)-(4) requires that:

(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable [“numerosity”];
(2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class [“commonality”];
(3) the claims or defenses of the representative party are typical of the claims or defenses of the class [“typicality”]; and
(4) the representative party will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class [“adequacy”].

The class consists of individuals who “have or had a mortgage serviced by Wells Fargo and owe or paid a property inspection fee assessed during the period August 1, 2004 through December 31, 2013, inclusive.” Clerk’s No. 245 at 1-2. The numerosity requirement is satisfied, as the class contains approximately 2.7 million borrowers. See Clerk’s No. 264 (Deck of Clark-Weintraub) ¶ 51. Commonality is satisfied if class members have a common contention “that is capable of classwide resolution.” Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 2551, 180 L.Ed.2d 374 (2011). The essential question is “not the raising of common questions ... but, rather the capacity of a classwide proceeding to generate common answers apt to drive the resolution of the litigation.” Id. (internal quotations omitted). This class satisfies the commonality requirement because every [625]*625class member was charged property inspection fees under the same Wells Fargo policy-the question of the legality of that policy is common to all class members. As to typicality, the party representatives have claims that are typical of the class. There are three categories of class members: (1) those with active loans (“active”); (2) those whose loans are paid-in-full (“paid-in-full”); and (3) those whose loans ended in foreclosure (“post-sale”). Clerk’s No. 243-3 at 21. The class representatives fall into either the active or paid-in-full categories. Nonetheless, the claims for each of the categories are all based on the same property inspection policy, therefore, the class representatives satisfy the typicality requirement as their claims are similar to those of borrowers in the post-sale category. See Alpern v. UtiliCorp United, Inc., 84 F.3d 1525, 1540 (8th Cir.1996) (“The burden [to prove typicality] is fairly easily met so long as other class members have claims similar to the named plaintiff.”) (internal quotation omitted). Finally, the class representatives fulfill the adequacy requirement. This requirement “serves to uncover conflicts of interest between named parties and the class they seek to represent.” Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 625, 117 S.Ct. 2231, 138 L.Ed.2d 689 (1997). Here, the class representatives seek the same type of recovery as the rest of the class members, they are represented by qualified counsel and, as discussed below, reached a favorable settlement. See DeBoer v. Mellon Mortg. Co., 64 F.3d 1171, 1175 (8th Cir.1995) (explaining that “[t]he adequacy of class representation ... is ultimately determined by the settlement itself.”) (internal quotation omitted).

To certify a class for settlement, the class must also meet the two requirements listed in Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3): (1) “questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members”; and (2) “a class action is superior to other available methods for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy.” These requirements are fulfilled in this case. The Court has not been presented with any evidence that legal questions exist in relation to the property inspections that pertain only to individual class members, and not to the class as a whole. In addition, the massive size of the class convinces the Court that a class action is the most efficient and fair way to resolve this case.

Accordingly, the Court certifies the class for settlement purposes. In addition, the Court certifies, solely for the purpose of effectuating the settlement and for no other purpose, Plaintiffs Connie Huyer, Edward R. Huyer, Jr., Carlos Castro, and Hazel P. Navas-Castro as representatives of the class, and appoints the law firms of Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP and Reese LLP as co-lead class counsel.

B. Sufficiency of Notice

Notice of a class action settlement must be reasonable and satisfy due process for the potential class members. Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(e), DeBoer, 64 F.3d at 1176. “The Supreme Court has found that the notice must be ‘reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections.’ ” Petrovic v.

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Bluebook (online)
314 F.R.D. 621, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21003, 2016 WL 637253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huyer-v-wells-fargo-co-iasd-2016.