In Re Wells Fargo Securities Litigation

ORDER

The plaintiffs in this case, a class of securities purchasers, brought this action against Wells Fargo for securities fraud, and the parties subsequently entered into a court-approved settlement agreement. Pursuant to the terms of that settlement, class counsel made distributions from the settlement fund to those members of the class who submitted forms identifying a recognized loss. All of the 2,619 claimants have now cashed their settlement checks.

Despite these distributions, the settlement fund still contains a residue of $35,583.12. This money came from two sources: (1) interest accrued during the period after the distribution cheeks were issued but before the claimants cashed them and (2) unanticipated savings realized in the administration of the fund. Most of the residue is attributable to the first source.

Currently pending before the court is a motion by class counsel urging the court to invoke its equitable power of cy pres to distribute the settlement fund residue to an alternate recipient. Class counsel claims that use of the cy pres power is appropriate because the administrative and postal expenses of allocating and distributing this residue to the class…