SHERI POLSTER CHAPPELL, District Judge.
This matter comes before the Court on the Plaintiff, Daisy, Inc.'s Agreed Motion to Reopen the Case for Purposes of Approval of Class Action Settlement (
District courts are given discretion to certify a class under Fed R. Civ. P 23.
Preliminary approval, which is what Daisy seeks here, is the first step in the settlement process. It simply allows notice to issue to the class and for Class Members to object to or opt-out of the settlement. After the notice period, the Court will be able to evaluate the settlement with the benefit of the Class Members' input.
Preliminary approval of a settlement agreement requires only an "initial evaluation" of the fairness of the proposed settlement on the basis of the written submissions.
Here, the Court concludes that the proposed Settlement Agreement is within the range of possible final settlement approval, such that Notice to the Class is appropriate at this time. Therefore, the Motion is due to be granted.
Accordingly, it is now
The Plaintiff, Daisy, Inc.'s Agreed Motion to Reopen the Case for Purposes of Approval of Class Action Settlement (
By stipulation of the Parties, and pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, the Court preliminarily certifies the following Settlement Class: "All persons who were successfully sent a facsimile image of a Pollo Tropical coupon between December 23, 2010 and January 5, 2011 by or on behalf of Pollo Operations, Inc." The successful transmissions will be defined as the facsimile numbers identified in Appendix A to the Settlement Agreement with a call length between 30 and 120 seconds. The Parties expressly agreed to this Settlement Class definition for settlement purposes. Excluded from the Settlement Class are: (a) the Defendant Case and its present and former officers, directors, employees and their successors, heirs, assigns, and legal representatives; and (b) the Court and its officers.
2. The Court finds that class certification is appropriate because: (a) the Settlement Class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impractical; (b) there are common questions of law and fact that predominate over any questions affecting only individual class members; (c) Plaintiffs will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the Settlement Class; and (d) a class action is an appropriate method for the fair and efficient adjudication of this controversy.
3. The Court appoints Plaintiff, Daisy, Inc. ("Daisy"), as the "Class Representative" and appoints Attorney Brian J. Wanca of Anderson + Wanca as "Class Counsel."
4. Pursuant to Fed R. Civ. P. 23, the settlement of this action, as embodied in the terms of the Settlement Agreement, is preliminarily approved.
5. The Settlement Agreement is incorporated by reference into this Order (with capitalized terms as set forth in the Settlement Agreement) and is hereby preliminarily adopted as an Order of this Court.
6. The Settlement Agreement proposes notice to the Settlement Class by mailed postcard, and by maintaining a settlement website permitting the Claimants to file a claim without charge. The Court finds that such notice satisfies the requirements of due process and Fed. R. Civ. P. 23. The plan is approved and adopted. The Court orders that the Parties provide the notice to the Settlement Class as proposed in the Settlement Agreement. The Court approves the form of the Notice as contained in Exhibit 2 to the Settlement Agreement. The Court also approves The Angeion Group as the Settlement Administrator.
7. The Court hereby sets deadlines and dates for the acts and events set forth in the Settlement Agreement and directs the Parties to incorporate the deadlines and dates in the Class Notice: