Whew! It looks like the end is finally in sight. This past Tuesday, Oct. 12th, Judge Alsup signed the official order to release the remaining proceeds from the GLA Players Inc. lawsuit, along with an amended order allowing McKool Smith to be reimbursed for their inadvertent partial payment of a Garden City Group invoice. Here’s a little shocker from the final order: 76 of the 200+ missing players were actually located using Social Security information and forms were sent to them to fill out and return in the court-ordered 4-week window. But only 32 of those players managed to return their paperwork before the deadline while three other “missing” players contacted the class attorneys on their own in the meantime. So they’ll also be included in the final disbursement. And two widows of players who passed away while all of this was going on will also be included in the final payout.
This is the 4-page final settlement agreement that was signed by Judge William Alsup in San Francisco on Nov. 23, 2009.
(The crew over at DocStoc have added some great new features: Click on the FULL SCREEN button to enlarge it for easier navigation – hit the ESC key to close. You can also click the DOWNLOAD button to save a PDF copy for printing and reading. There’s also a Menu button in the upper left corner with even more options.) .
… And here’s the 12-page Summary from Judge Alsup covering Attorneys’ Fees, costs and compensation for the class representative. Everything Bernie Parrish has pointed out is covered in this document …and more. (Ouch!)
On November 23, 2009, in San Francisco, California, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup rendered a blistering set of three orders approving the settlement agreement in Parrish & Adderley vs. NFLPA Players Inc. However, in rendering the orders, Judge Alsup said of the award of attorneys’ fees, “When combined with the expense reimbursement below, counsel is receiving approximately 25 percent of the value of the settlement. This figure adequately compensates counsel for the work performed in this action. A reasonable fee in light of the ultimate recovery obtained for the class, and is reasonable in light of the missed opportunity for an even higher recovery.”
After what seems like an eternity, Manett Phelps & Phillips and McKool Smith filed Motions in the Parrish, Adderley, Roberts vs. the NFLPA/Players Inc. class action lawsuit late last week for final review and court approval on August 20, 2009 by Judge Alsup. The documents just became available online so we’ve loaded them up on DocStoc once again for easier viewing and searching. The main part of the Motion outlines the basics of the case and subsequent settlement. The Exhibits outline the payment plan and schedules with the first payment scheduled for July 13, 2009 (they’ll miss that one!) and the second set for June 5, 2010.
It’s always interesting digging into the details: Turns out the settlement will be managed and distributed by Garden City Group which just happens to be right here in Seattle. Half of the funds (around $13 million) were placed into escrow on July 13th, the day this Motion was apparently filed. And then barring no problems, the balance will be placed into escrow on June 5, 2010 for distribution shortly after that. Another interesting detail from Page 7 of Exhibit 1: Players who elected to Opt-Out John Baker, Richard Yelvington, Lynn Chandnois, John Demarie, Dan Goich, Daniel Direnzo, James “Scottie” Graham, Deacon Jones, Steve Largent, Brig Owens, Ben Pucci, Donald Testerman and Andre Collins were all excluded from suit.
4/17/2009 Subject: Madden not paying retired players while collecting over $100 million in royalties off the retired players’ backs – Did Madden scramble your identity to keep from paying you?
The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us. Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutelynothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement. I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, “Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?”
.
