Filed: Jan. 31, 2020
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit _ No. 19-2158 _ Charlene F. McDonald, individually and on behalf of a class of all other persons similarly situated, and on behalf of the Edward D. Jones & Co. Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plan; Windle Pompey lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs Valeska Schultz; Melanie Waugh; Rosalind Staley lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs - Appellees v. Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P. lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee The Jones Financial Companies lllllllllllll
Summary: United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit _ No. 19-2158 _ Charlene F. McDonald, individually and on behalf of a class of all other persons similarly situated, and on behalf of the Edward D. Jones & Co. Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plan; Windle Pompey lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs Valeska Schultz; Melanie Waugh; Rosalind Staley lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs - Appellees v. Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P. lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee The Jones Financial Companies llllllllllllll..
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United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
___________________________
No. 19-2158
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Charlene F. McDonald, individually and on behalf of a class of all other persons
similarly situated, and on behalf of the Edward D. Jones & Co. Profit Sharing and
401(k) Plan; Windle Pompey
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs
Valeska Schultz; Melanie Waugh; Rosalind Staley
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiffs - Appellees
v.
Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P.
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee
The Jones Financial Companies
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant
The Edward Jones Investment and Education Committee
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee
John & Jane Does, 1-25
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant
Brett Bayston; Bonnie Caudle; Mark Vivian; Stina Wishman; Jan-Marie Kain;
Linda Banniester; Ann Echelmeier; Curtis Long; David Gibson; Ken Blanchard;
Jason Jonczak; Julie Rea; Asma Usmani; Glenn Kolod; Juli Johnson; Jess
Dechant; Peggy Robinson; Edward Jones Profit Sharing and 401(k)
Administrative Committee; John Does, 1-30
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendants - Appellees
v.
Shiyang Huang
lllllllllllllllllllllObjector - Appellant
Anna Mae Krause; Heath J. Petsche
lllllllllllllllllllllObjectors
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis
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Submitted: January 23, 2020
Filed: January 31, 2020
[Unpublished]
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Before SHEPHERD, STRAS, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
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In this Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class action,
objector Shiyang Huang appeals the district court’s1 judgment certifying a settlement
class, approving the settlement agreement, and awarding attorneys’ fees and case
contribution awards. Initially, we find that plaintiffs had standing to bring the class
action. See Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez,
136 S. Ct. 663, 670-71 (2016) (without
accepted settlement agreement, parties remained adverse); In re SuperValu, Inc.,
870
F.3d 763, 768 (8th Cir. 2017) (putative class action can proceed as long as one named
plaintiff has standing); Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.,
588 F.3d 585, 592-93 (8th
Cir. 2009) (plan participant had standing to pursue ERISA breach of fiduciary claim
on behalf of plan).
We also conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in certifying
the class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(A), as the action was
brought on behalf of the plan and requested plan-wide relief, raising the risk of
inconsistent adjudications that would establish incompatible standards of conduct for
defendants if individual actions were brought. See Rattray v. Woodbury Cty.,
614
F.3d 831, 835 (8th Cir. 2010) (standard of review); Piazza v. Ebsco Indus., Inc.,
273
F.3d 1341, 1352 (11th Cir. 2001) (because ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims
were brought on behalf of plan and relief would benefit plan as whole, individual
actions raised risk of inconsistent adjudications, and Rule 23(b)(1)(A) certification
was available). Further, the named plaintiffs’ case contribution awards did not render
their interests adverse to those of the class, and the court did not abuse its discretion
in granting the awards and attorneys’ fees. See Caligiuri v. Symantec Corp.,
855 F.3d
860, 865, 867-68 (8th Cir. 2017) (standard of review; $10,000 awards were not unfair
to class, and are regularly granted by courts in this circuit); In re Online DVD-Rental
Antitrust Litig.,
779 F.3d 934, 943, 954 (9th Cir. 2015) (awards compensating
representatives for work done on behalf of class and commensurate with awards in
similar cases did not create impermissible conflict between class and representatives;
1
The Honorable John A. Ross, United States District Judge for the Eastern
District of Missouri.
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no abuse of discretion in awarding attorneys’ fees where fee motion was filed by
court’s deadline, which was 15 days before deadline for members to object).
The judgment is affirmed. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.
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