A recent Thomson Reuters story, “Attorney Fees in Air Cargo Case Near $93 Million,” reports that a Brooklyn federal judge has awarded $54.4 million to plaintiffs’ counsel in a class action over air cargo shipping rates, bringing the fee awarded in the antitrust case to $92.9 million.  The fee award, the third in the ongoing case was approved by U.S. District Judge John Gleeson.  Unlike some class actions, in which plaintiffs’ counsel submit fee applications when the case is nearing a final resolution, the attorney fees the air cargo case have been processed in a piecemeal manner.

The fee award will be paid to 73 firms involved in the litigation and allocated by four lead plaintiff firms – Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer; Labaton Sucharow; Hausfeld and Levin Fishbein Sedran & Berman.  Between December 2006 and December 2011, the 73 firms spent 199,510 hours litigating the antitrust action, according to court filings.

The class action was brought in 2006 on behalf of companies that purchased air cargo freight shipping services from dozens of airlines.  The plaintiffs accused the airlines of participating in a global conspiracy to artificially inflate shipping prices.  Gleeson approved $224.4 million in new settlement payments, which included the $54.4 million fee award.  That brings the total to be paid by 17 airlines to $485 million.

The case remains ongoing against 11 other airlines.  Depending on the outcome, plaintiffs and their lawyers could see the settlement funds and accompanying fee awards increase.  Gleeson cautioned plaintiffs’ firms that if the settlement fund balloons, they may need to revisit their method for computing fees in relation to the size of the settlement fund.  “In megafund cases such as this one, courts typically decrease the percentage of the fee as the size of the fund increases to avoid an unjust windfall,” Gleeson wrote.

The case is In re Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 06-1775.