United States District Court, D. Connecticut
CHRISTOPHER MEIDL, on his own behalf and on behalf of the certified class Plaintiff,
v.
AETNA INC., and AETNA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendants.
ORDER GRANTING PRELIMINARY APPROVAL OF CLASS
SETTLEMENT
JANET
C. HALL UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
WHEREAS,
Plaintiff Christopher Meidl (“Plaintiff”),
individually and on behalf of the Class, and Defendants Aetna
Inc. and Aetna Life Insurance Company (together,
“Defendants, ” “Aetna Defendants, ”
or “Aetna”) have determined to settle the
above-captioned matter (the “Action”) on the
terms and conditions set forth in the Settlement Agreement
dated February 15, 2019 and all exhibits thereto (the
“Settlement Agreement”), the original of which is
filed with the Clerk of the Court (this settlement process
hereafter referred to as the “Settlement”);
WHEREAS,
Plaintiff has filed an unopposed motion for an order that,
inter alia, (1) preliminarily approves the Settlement on the
terms set forth in the Settlement Agreement; (2) appoints the
Settlement Administrator; (3) directs the Settlement
Administrator to notify the members of the Class per the
approved form of notice; (4) establishes a deadline for
members of the Class to opt out of or object to the
Settlement; and (5) schedules a hearing to determine whether
the Settlement should be finally approved as fair, reasonable
and adequate, and whether an order finally approving the
Settlement should be entered;
WHEREAS,
the Court, having read and considered the motion, the
memorandum submitted in support of the motion and the
exhibits thereto (including the Plan of Allocation), the
Settlement Agreement and the exhibits thereto, including the
proposed (i) Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action
and Fairness Hearing; (ii) Order of Final Approval of
Settlement; and (iii) Class Action Fairness Act of 2005
Notices, finds that substantial and sufficient grounds exist
for entering this Order Preliminarily Approving Settlement
and Approving Notice of Proposed Settlement and Fairness
Hearing (“this Order”); and
WHEREAS,
upon review and consideration of the foregoing materials, the
Court has found good cause for entering this Order.
THEREFORE,
IT IS ORDERED THAT:
1. The
definitions and terms set forth in the Settlement Agreement
are hereby adopted and incorporated into this Order.
2. The
proposed Settlement as reflected in the Settlement Agreement
and all exhibits thereto is hereby preliminarily approved.
The Court finds that it is likely to be able to approve the
Settlement as fair, reasonable, and adequate under Rule
23(e)(2) after considering whether:
(A) the class representatives and class counsel have
adequately represented the class;
(B) the proposal was negotiated at arm's length;
(C) the relief provided for the class is adequate, taking
into account:
(i) the costs, risks, and delay of trial and appeal;
(ii) the effectiveness of any proposed method of distributing
relief to the class, including the method of ...