Turman

INTRODUCTION

Former restaurant employees initially filed this case in 2010 as a wage and hour class action against defendants Koji’s Japan Incorporated (Koji’s) and Arthur Parent, Jr., who had been Koji’s president, sole shareholder, and director. After over a decade of litigation which produced several appellate court opinions, the trial court preliminarily approved the parties’ class action settlement agreement. As relevant to the issues presented in this appeal, the preliminarily approved agreement provided for the defendants to make a nonreversionary settlement payment in the total gross amount of $2.2 million, which included an attorney fee award in the amount of $1,040,000 and enhancement awards totaling $100,000 to be distributed among the named plaintiffs and declarants. That agreement also provided that unclaimed class payments would be allocated to a designated cy près recipient. The trial court’s final order and judgment, however, provided for a reduced attorney fee award in the total amount of $880,000 and reduced enhancement awards totaling $55,500. The trial court’s final order and judgment did not provide for application of the designated cy près recipient and…