CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - Class action lawyers want $250,000 for their work on a case that claimed snackers were tricked by the maker of TGI Friday's bagged mozzarella sticks into thinking the product contained actual mozzarella.
Last year, Chicago federal judge Robert Down ruled the case could proceed against Inventure Foods, which paid for the TGI Friday's brand to sell its mozzarella sticks. Claims against TGI Friday's were dismissed.
It led to a $900,000 settlement that pays class members on a pro rata basis. On Aug. 8, lawyers from Zimmerman Law Offices asked for $246,667.
"Class Counsel propelled this case to a favorable resolution in the face of considerable litigation risk against a well-funded and staunch defense," the motion says.
The figure represents one-third of the settlement after the subtraction of notice and claims administration costs.
Plaintiff Amy Joseph adequately alleged reasonable consumers relied on the "mozzarella" description and were harmed when they purchased a product made with cheddar, Dow wrote last year.
"While Defendants are correct that the packaging does not explicitly state that it 'contains mozzarella cheese,' Defendants' interpretation of the product is not the only reasonable interpretation of the product's packaging," the ruling says.
"As Plaintiff suggests, another reasonable interpretation is that a product labelled 'Mozzarella Stick Snacks' with an image of mozzarella sticks would bear some resemblance to mozzarella sticks, which presumably contain some mozzarella cheese."
Dow's decision asks why market a product without mozzarella cheese under the TGIF logo, since the business has a "strong correlation to the hot appetizer mozzarella sticks."
The motion asks for $2,500 for lead plaintiff Joseph, whose involvement in the case was questioned by the defendants.
They said Joseph was a frequent filer of class actions (at least eight in Illinois state and federal courts in the decade prior to suing over mozzarella sticks) and claimed she only bought the snack so she could file suit.