A federal appeals court that struck down a consumer class action settlement based in part on “impermissibly high” attorney fees has withdrawn its opinion, issuing a revised version that nevertheless denied the fees request.
The settlement, reached last year, resolved claims that Kellogg Co. misled a nationwide class of consumers into believing that children who ate its Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal for breakfast improved their attentiveness by 20 percent. The settlement, valued by the parties at $10.64 million, included a $2.75 million fund to provide class members with $5 to $15 off future cereal purchases. It provided at least another $5.5 million in donations under the cy pres doctrine, which allows donations to charities of money unclaimed from legal settlements.
