United States Third Circuit

In multidistrict mass tort litigation concerning appetite suppressant drugs commonly known as fen-phen, district court's final award of attorneys' fees entered on behalf of class counsel is affirmed where: 1) the fee proceedings were amply transparent under the jurisdiction's precedent; 2) given the duration of the litigation and the extraordinary efforts of class counsel, the amount of award, although extraordinarily large, is not excessive in this extraordinary case; and 3) while there are some reservations regarding the allocation of the assessments between the downstream opt-out claimants and the initial opt-out and the primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) claimants, the district court did not abuse its discretion in apportioning the award as it did.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/08/2009
• Published 10/08/2009

Judges

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel