Class Action: $41,732,889 Fee And $3,184,274.38 Expense Awards To Class Counsel In NCAA Grant-In-Aid Cap Antitrust Litigation Affirmed By Ninth Circuit

20% Settlement Fund Fee Award Was No Abuse Of Discretion, Cross-Checked By Lodestar.

           A class of college student athletes sued the NCAA over its capped maximum grant-in-aid prior policy which did not cover the full cost of school attendance. Both sides reached a settlement under which a mega-fund settlement of $208.664 million was reached, which would make payouts to 53,000 class members and, for students playing all four years in college, would produce a payout of $6,000 each. Class counsel moved for recovery of fees and expenses. The district judge supervising the case awarded $41,732,889 in fees and $3,184,274.38 in expenses. The fee award was 20% of the gross settlement fund and was the product of a 3.66 positive multiplier applied to a lodestar of about $11.4 million. One student objected in an appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

            On April 17, 2019, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in In re National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Athlete Grand-In-Aid Cap Antitrust Litig., No. 8-15054 (9^th Cir. April 17, 2019) (unpublished memorandum decision).

            Given that the Ninth Circuit follows a 25% percentage-of-recovery benchmark, the 20% award in this case was no abuse of discretion. It also was cross-checked by detailed billing records which justified an enhancement to the lodestar. Finally, with respect to expenses, the objector argued that those had to be subtracted from the gross settlement for purposes of the ultimate fee calculation. However, the Ninth Circuit rejected that argument because the district court had discretion to base the fee award on either the gross or net settlement funds figure.   (In re Online DVD-Rental Antitrust Litig., 779 F.3d 934, 953 (9^th Cir. 2015).)