$2,400,000 TCPA Settlement Granted Final Approval, $92 to Each Class Member

In 2015, Plaintiff Saber Ahmed filed a class action against HSBC Bank USA, N.A. for violations of the TCPA.  In 2017, another Plaintiff, John Monteleone, joined and a First Amended Complaint was filed alleging that HSBC and PHH Mortgage Corporation negligently and willfully violated the TCPA.  After discovery, motions, and a mediation, the parties reach a settlement in 2018.  The Court preliminarily approved a settlement in June 2019, and on December 30, 2019, the court granted final approval to the parties settlement agreement.  This included the class definition, articulated as:

“[a]ll persons within the United States to whom (a) Defendant HSBC or Defendant PHH Mortgage, (b) placed a call (c) to a cellular telephone (d) regarding a mortgage loan owned and/or serviced by, on behalf of and/or in the name of HSBC (e) through the use of any dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice (f) between October 6, 2011 and [January 18, 2019].”

The court noted that while the estimated individual recovery was $60 at the time of preliminary approval, based on the numbers of claims submitted, it appears each class member that submitted a claim form will receive at least $92.  Also, there were no objections from any class members to the settlement agreement, and only eight requests for exclusion.  Both named Plaintiffs were awarded $5,000 each.   

The settlement fund available to the class is $2,400,000.  Class counsel was awarded 25% of the gross settlement amount, $600,000, for attorney’s fees, and $51,071.92, in litigation costs.   

16 Comments

  1. I had two claims and got a check for 8.34 and one for 16.68, so what’s the deal???

  2. I got a check for 16.68 also. Where’s the 92.00. The lawyers got 600,000 and over 100,000 in litigation fees. We’ve been cheated

  3. I got checks for $2.50 each for my two claims…so where’s the rest of my $92 for each claim???? Something smells rotten……

  4. You people are so naive. Class action lawsuits punish corporations, enrich lawyers and screw the members of the class a second time! I used to send back claims forms certified mail, return receipt just to see if I got more than the cost of the certified mail. Usually I didn’t. Those who got $8.50, $25.00 etc should feel very lucky. I don’t know why I just received only $2.50. I checked off the boxes and sent off the claim form as soon as I got it. I used to go through credit card records and whatever to provide documentation but decided that, for what I received in the settlement, it was nowhere near worth the effort.

  5. I received $2.50 today. Seems fishy that many different amounts were paid. Pretty ridiculous!

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