Grubhub class action settlement delivers nearly $25 million to drivers

After years in the making, a federal judge issued a final approval on a multi-million dollar settlement, with thousands of drivers as class members.SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge Thursday granted final approval of an almost $25 million settlement for approximately 60,000 Grubhub California delivery drivers, after a decade of litigation left them wondering if resolution was possible.U.S. District Judge Jaqueline Scott Corley was eager to issue her 20-page order on the final settlement, saying it was many years in the making.“Alright, now is my final approval of this, my oldest case, that has, of course, went through many iterations and change in law,” the Joe Biden appointee said at a brief final approval hearing.Corely mentioned that the claims rate for the settlement was high. “Kudos, to the claims administrator that the plaintiffs selected, I think they did an excellent job. Very few opt-outs and only one objection. So, I think that speaks to the quality of this settlement, and we did a lot of work to get it there," she said.The settlement class includes any individual who agreed to use the Grubhub platform as an independent contractor for delivery services and accepted or completed at least one delivery in California between Dec. 3, 2014 to March 13, 2026.The case began in November 2015 when Raef Lawson, an aspiring actor delivering food for Grubhub around Los Angeles, sued the company after four months on the job. Lawson claimed Grubhub cheated him out of minimum wages and expense reimbursements by treating him as an independent contractor and denying him the protections California law affords to employees.The case went to a bench trial in 2018, where Corley ruled in Grubhub’s favor. The Ninth Circuit later sent the case back to her, and in 2021 she reversed course, finding Lawson had in fact been a Grubhub employee all along. In March 2023, she awarded him $65.11 in personal damages.That figure was never really the point. Lawson also brought a claim under California’s Private Attorneys General Act, which allows private citizens to act in place of the state attorney general and recover civil penalties for labor violations affecting an entire workforce. Lawson will receive a $10,000 service award as the lead plaintiff in the class action.The class members will each receive no less than $25, with the final amount contingent on the number of miles they covered during their deliveries. Class members were notified of their status and to make a claim through a website, emails and a toll-free phone number.During the early days negotiating the settlement, Corley homed in on the terms of the deal, which would resolve claims through the present day. Previously, she found Lawson only had standing up to the enactment of Proposition 22, a ballot measure passed by California voters that exempts app-based ride-hail and delivery drivers from a state law requiring those workers to be treated as employees and given full employment benefits.At a settlement hearing in November, Corley was adamant the class proved standing by including a named plaintiff after the passage of Prop 22. She also said the settlement release was untethered to the claims, noting any Grubhub driver could bring “anything, any claim, that any class member has against the long list of released parties,” and said the language in the settlement needed to be clear and concise.By March, the attorneys for both parties fixed Corley’s objections and she granted preliminary approval of the settlement.However, Corley didn’t budge on her disapproval of the requested attorneys’ fees of $8.25 million, which is 33% percent of the settlement fund, a larger percentage than the Ninth Circuit benchmark of 25%. Corley granted $6.18 million in attorneys’ fees and approximately $433,000 in litigation and settlement administration costs.“The court is unpersuaded that a deviation from the typical benchmark is warranted here,” she wrote.Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan, Thomas Fowler and Adrian Bacon represented the plaintiff class. Grubhub was represented by Dhananjay Manthripragada, Theane Evangelis and Joseph Barakat of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.“We are pleased this long-running case has reached conclusion and look forward to distributing the settlement to Grubhub drivers,” Liss-Riordan said in an email.Attorneys for Grubhub could not immediately be reached for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads