Gordon v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.

          ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS' UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY APPROVAL OF THE CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT AND DIRECTION OF NOTICE

          CHRISTINE M. ARGUELLO UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.

         This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs' Unopposed Motion for Preliminary Approval of the Class Action Settlement and Direction of Notice (the “Motion for Preliminary Approval”). (Doc. # 102.)

         For the reasons set forth in Plaintiffs' Memorandum of Law in Support of their Motion for Preliminary Approval (Doc. # 103), this Court grants preliminary approval of the Settlement Agreement (Doc. # 102-1). Given the procedural posture of this case, the Settlement Agreement is preliminary approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate. See In re Integra Realty Resources, Inc., 354 F.3d 1246, 1266 (10th Cir. 2004); Rutter & Wilbanks Corp. v. Shell Oil Co., 314 F.3d 1180, 1188 (10th Cir. 2002). Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED as follows:

         1. The Motion for Preliminary Approval (Doc. # 102) is GRANTED.

         2. Provisional Certification of the Settlement Class: Solely for purposes of the Settlement, the Court conditionally certifies the following class pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and (b)(3) ("Settlement Class"):

All persons residing in the United States who used a payment card to make a purchase at an affected Chipotle or Pizzeria Locale in-store point-of-sale device during the Security Incident, ^[1] which as described in the definition of Security Incident, occurred during the time frames and at the stores set forth in Exhibit F to the Settlement Agreement and Appendix A to the Publication Notice.

a. Excluded from the Settlement Class are (i) Defendant and its officers and directors; (ii) all Settlement Class Members who timely and validly request exclusion from the Settlement Class; (iii) the Judge assigned to evaluate the fairness of this settlement; (iv) the attorneys representing the parties in the Litigation; (v) banks and other entities that issued payment cards which were utilized at Chipotle during the Security Incident; and (vi) any other Person found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be guilty under criminal law of initiating, causing, aiding or abetting the criminal activity occurrence of the Security Incident or who pleads nolo contendere to any such charge.

b. Subject to final approval of the Settlement, and for the reasons set forth in Plaintiffs' Memorandum (Doc. # 103), the Court finds and concludes for settlement purposes only that the prerequisites to a class action, set forth in Rules 23(a) and (b), are satisfied in that:

(a) The Settlement Class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable;

(b) There are questions of law or fact common to the Settlement Class;

(c) Plaintiffs and Class Counsel fairly and adequately represent the Settlement Class;

(d) The claims of Plaintiffs are typical of those of Settlement Class Members;

(e) Common issues predominate over any individual issues affecting the members of the Settlement Class;

(f) Plaintiffs fairly and adequately protect and represent the interests of all members of the Settlement Class, and Plaintiffs' interests are aligned with the interests of all other members of the Settlement Class; and (g) Settlement of the Actions on a class ...