Zimmer Paper Products, Inc. v. Berger & Montague, P.C.
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
758 F.2d 86 (1985)
- Written by Mary Phelan D'Isa, JD
Facts
Zimmer Paper Products, Inc. (Zimmer) (plaintiff) one of more than 1,500 absent plaintiff-class members, sued its class counsel, Berger & Montague (B&M) (defendant) in an antitrust class action for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence for B&M’s alleged failure to give Zimmer proper notice of the settlement of the class action. Zimmer alleged that because it never got notice of the settlement, it failed to file a timely claim for its share, which was approximately $250,000. B&M had twice provided notice of the settlement and the need to file a claim by first-class mail and publication in the Wall Street Journal—both of which were traditional court-approved forms of notice and both of which were approved by the district court. The district court granted B&M’s motion for summary judgment after finding that the notice provided did not evidence breach of a fiduciary duty and Zimmer failed to show any negligence in B&M’s execution of the notice. Zimmer appealed. Zimmer argued that B&M breached its fiduciary duty in seeking approval to give notice via first-class mail and that there were material issues of fact regarding B&M’s negligence in executing the notice in light of the low 12 percent response rate.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Adams, J.)
Dissent (Weis, J.)
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