Opinion
Civil Case No.11-cv-01063-REB-CBS
11-08-2012
JOHN GREEN, and ELIZABETH ENRIGHT, individually and on behalf of others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. DRAKE BEAM MORIN, INC., Defendant.
Judge Robert E. Blackburn
ORDER RE: PLAINTIFFS' UNOPPOSED MOTION
TO APPROVE COLLECTIVE ACTION SETTLEMENT
Blackburn, J.
The matter before me is Plaintiffs' Unopposed Motion To Approve Collective Action Settlement and Memorandum in Support [#104], filed September 28, 2012. I deny the motion without prejudice.
"[#104]" is an example of the convention I use to identify the docket number assigned to a specific paper by the court's electronic case filing and management system (CM/ECF). I use this convention throughout this order.
The parties inform the court that they have reached a settlement of the Fair Labor Standards Act claims brought in this lawsuit. They ask the court to approve the settlement. However, although the court previously conditionally certified a collective action in this matter and directed that notice be provided to all putative plaintiffs ( see Order Granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Conditional Collective Action Certification [#44], filed December 6, 2011), there has been no motion to "decertify" the class, see Thiessen v. General Electric Capital Corp., 267 F.3d 1095, 1102 (10th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 122 S.Ct. 2614 (2002); Brown v. Money Tree Mortgage, Inc., 222 F.R.D. 7676, 679-80 (D. Kan. 2004), nor any provision made for notification of opt-in plaintiffs of the terms of the settlement and procedures for filing any objections thereto.
The conditional certification of a collective action is assessed under a more lenient standard than that used to analyze a motion to decertify. See Thiessen, 267 F.3d at 1102-03; Brown, 222 F.R.D. at 679.
--------
Because the court cannot assess the fairness of, and thus cannot approve, the proposed settlement unless and until these prerequisites have been met, the motion is premature and must be denied without prejudice on that basis.
THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Unopposed Motion To Approve Collective Action Settlement and Memorandum in Support [#104], filed September 28, 2012, is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE as premature.
Dated November 8, 2012, at Denver, Colorado.
BY THE COURT:
____________
Robert E. Blackburn
United States District Judge