$2.6M Settlement Approved in Prevailing Wage Case

On September 14, Menken Simpson & Rozger LLP obtained court approval of a $2.6 million class action settlement it negotiated on behalf of Illinois employees of SimplexGrinnell (now known as Johnson Controls Fire Protection).  The settlement, reached after six years of hard-fought litigation, compensates those employees for unpaid prevailing wages for their work on fire alarm and sprinkler systems on public projects in Illinois.  In the lawsuit, MSR argued that Simplex could not rely on a 2001 private settlement with the Illinois Department of Labor to avoid paying prevailing wages at the appropriate rates for fire alarm and sprinkler work, and the Illinois court, after extensive briefing and argument, agreed. Jason Rozger led the firm’s litigation efforts with help from associates Brenna Rabinowitz, Raya F. Saksouk, as well as partner Bruce Menken. Local counsel David Lee in Chicago also represented the class.   

This is the firm’s third class action settlement to be approved by a federal court in the past 10 months.

On November 29, 2021, MSR and the firm’s co-counsels obtained final approval of a class action settlement on behalf of thousands of individuals who were unlawfully invasively searched while visiting family members at New York City Department of Corrections Facilities—namely Rikers Island. The total settlement in this important civil rights case, Grottano v. City of New York, exceeded $15 million and also featured significant injunctive relief provisions resulting in changes to visit procedures at Rikers Island and other city jails. Scott Simpson and Bruce Menken litigated that case along with associate Raya F. Saksouk.

And, on April 8, 2022, Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara of the Eastern District of New York granted final approval of a $483,000 settlement for a class of laborers for a food processing and distribution company. That case was litigated by partner Bruce Menken and co-counsel.