ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S EX PARTE APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL OF SETTLEMENT DISTRIBUTION PLAN

[ECF No. 116]

CYNTHIA BASHANT, District Judge.

Presently before the Court is Plaintiff Paul Stemple's unopposed Ex Parte Motion for Approval of Settlement Distribution Plan. (ECF No. 116.) Plaintiff commenced this class action against Defendant QC Holdings, Inc. seeking relief for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227. (ECF No. 1.) After several years of litigation, the Court granted the Motion for Final Approval of the Class Action Settlement ("Final Approval Order") on November 7, 2016. (ECF No. 113.) This approval included, among other things, that a claims administrator would pay each Settlement Class Members their pro rata share of the Settlement Fund, or approximately $1,208. (ECF No. 113 at 2, 7.)

Plaintiff now requests that the Court modify the distribution plan for the settlement proceeds to the Settlement Class Members in the following ways. First, Defendant will send one settlement check in the amount of $1,163.24 to the validly claiming Settlement Class Members who provided the claim administrator (Kurtzman Carson Consultants, or "KCC") with their valid tax identification information. Currently, this includes 457 out of 664 Settlement Class Members. Second, Defendant will also mail two settlement checks, one in an amount slightly under $600 (approximately $577) in 2017 and the other in the amount of the remaining portion in January 2018, to the validly claiming Settlement Class Members who did not provide KCC with their valid tax identification information by November 27, 2017. These two checks will total approximately $1,155.00 and account for the additional costs associated with sending two checks instead of one. Currently, this includes 207 out of 664 Settlement Class Members.

Plaintiff makes this request largely due to the Internal Revenue Service's requirement that any individual recovery exceeding $600 must be accompanied by a tax identification number. (Mot. at 2.) The IRS penalizes $250 for each check without the required tax identification information. KCC sent out requests for the tax identification numbers to every Settlement Class Member, and only received 457 valid tax identification numbers to date. (Id. at 2). Hence, for the remaining 207 Settlement Class Members, Plaintiff seeks to send these individuals two checks, neither of which will exceed the $600 threshold, to avoid the IRS's penalty and maximize these individuals' recovery. (Id. at 4.) Plaintiff has also made the final calculation of the settlement proceeds, which amounts to $1,173.19 per claim for 664 valid claims. After dividing the costs of distributing the settlement checks among the Settlement Class Member, each member will receive $1,163.24. Those Settlement Class Members who did not provide a valid tax identification number will bear the additional cost of distributing two checks instead of one, and their individual recovery will be further reduced to approximately $1,155.00. The Final Approval Order approximated $1,208 per claim for the individual recovery amount for 645 valid claims. The Court made previous fairness determinations in its Final Approval Order. Likewise, the Court finds that this amendment to the Final Approval Order is fair and approval is warranted.

For the reasons stated both in this Order as well as its Final Approval Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff's ex parte motion for approval of the settlement distribution plan (ECF No. 116). Accordingly, the Court amends its previous Final Approval Order (ECF No. 113) in the following ways:

IT IS SO ORDERED.