In re: Southwest Airlines Voucher Litigation

In class action that resulted in settlement that gave plaintiff-class free drink vouchers to replace vouchers that defendant-airline had unilaterally terminated, Dist. Ct. did not err in awarding class counsel $1.6 million in fees based on lodestar method of calculation, rather than on value of coupons actually redeemed. Lodestar method could be used under section 1712 of Class Action Fairness Act, even though instant settlement concerned award of coupons instead of monetary relief. Moreover, instant settlement was fair to class members, where class members essentially received all relief that it could expect to get where defendant exchanged on one-for-one basis current vouchers for expired vouchers. Fact that defendant was willing to potentially pay $3 million in fees to class counsel did not mean that class members should have held out for more relief. Ct., though, eliminated $15K award to one class representative and $15K in fees to one class counsel as sanction for failure of counsel to alert Dist. Ct. to potential conflict of interest arising out of fact that representative and counsel were co-counsel in separate lawsuit.