Who hasn’t signed a contract at least once in their life that they wish they’d paid more attention to later on? Today we’re looking at a case where the defendant probably wished their attorneys had read an agreement more carefully!
On October 6, 2025, the New Jersey District Court in Niemczyk v. Pro Custom Solar, 19-7846 (MAH), 2025 WL 2837686 (D.N.J. 2025), settled a dispute between the plaintiffs of two consolidated cases and defendant Pro Custom Solar dba Momentum Solar (“Momentum”). Ultimately, the court sided with plaintiffs, adopting their position that Momentum was responsible for satisfying outstanding claims administration expenses on an as-incurred basis.
To give a little background here, in this TCPA suit, the original plaintiff filed a class action matter on March 5, 2019. At some point, the case was consolidated with another related claim. The parties ultimately agreed to settle on a class wide basis, and the settlement was finally approved on August 18, 2025. As part of this settlement, Momentum agreed to pay out millions of dollars over a number of years into a common fund, with an initial payment in the amount of $1,000,000.
For those unfamiliar, in class action settlements, a common fund is a pool of money from which all settlement expenses are deducted. These expenses typically include valid claims, plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and other costs. This structure allows for a fixed amount to be paid to all claimants, ensuring that each receives a benefit that the parties have agreed upon and a court has approved. In addition to the settlement payment, payments were also due to a claims administrator, who was in charge of overseeing the settlement. Various fees were associated with this administration, primarily due to efforts to contact and pay class members after assessing eligibility.
Now, again, the dispute here was all about how these class administration fees should be paid—Momentum maintained that this initial payment to the claims administrator, Angeion Group (“Angeion”) should be drawn from the common fund. The plaintiffs disagreed, and maintained that Momentum was responsible for paying the claims administrator fees directly.
The court turned to the provisions of the settlement agreement to decide the issue, ultimately siding the with plaintiffs.
So first, the court looked at Section III(G), which concerned the timing of payments to settlement class members:
Section III(G): “All payments shall be paid into the Common Fund when due, even if the Settlement is otherwise on appeal. Should the Settlement be finally reversed on appeal, all Settlement payments made by Defendant into the Common Fund, with the exception of Claims Administration Expenses that have been incurred to date, shall be returned within 30 days thereafter. All Claims Administration Expenses are to be paid by Defendant when incurred even if the Settlement is otherwise terminated, not approved, or overturned on appeal, and are non-refundable.”
So, the court noted that according to Section III(G), all claims administration expenses were to be paid by Momentum, and Momentum owed Angeion a payment that was due when Angeion incurred claims administrations expenses. But Section III(G) didn’t incontrovertibly outline whether or not the claims administration expenses should be paid directly by Momentum or out of the common fund.
Next, the court turned to Section III(H) of the settlement agreement:
Section III(H): “Class Member distributions shall only be paid after the Effective Date to the Settlement. Payments to Class Members shall be made as soon as practicable at the discretion of the Claims Administrator after each time at least $1,000,000 is accumulated in the Common Fund for the benefit of Class Members after the payment of any Claims Administration Expenses and attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses that may be due.”
What solidified the court’s decision was Section V(B)(2)’s language:
Section V(B)(2): “Momentum shall pay all Claims Administration Expenses at the time those costs and expenses are incurred. Claims Administration Expenses shall count against the total $22 million cap to the Common Fund set out in Section III(A), the $30 million cap to the Common Fund set out in Section III(B), and the $20 million cap to the Common Fund set out in Section III(C). However, the payment of Claims Administration Expenses shall not offset the requirements to otherwise make payments into the Common Fund under Sections III(A), (B), and (C) in the amounts specified therein until the caps are fully paid off in their respective amounts as set out in Sections III(A), (B), and (C).”
Unfortunately for Momentum, the court stated that the language of Sections III(G) and V(B)(2) was clear. These terms very explicitly stated that Momentum was to pay all claims administration expenses at the time they were incurred. The court noted that Section V(B)(2) also contained language expressly outlining that Momentum’s payments for claims administration were separate from the payments they were required to make to the common fund. The claims administration expenses could be logged against the total amount that Momentum owed under the settlement agreement, but they could not be used to reduce the initial payment of $1,000,000. The settlement agreement’s text completely supported the plaintiffs’ position.
The court also mentioned plaintiffs’ arguments that emails from Angeion and Momentum revealed that Angeion believed the claims administration expenses were separate from payments owed under the settlement agreement, and that the court had already agreed with the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the settlement agreement at the final approval hearing. In short, Momentum owed $1,000,000 for an initial payment to the common fund in addition to what they owed Angeion for claims administration costs.
Niemczyk offers a good reminder of the importance of carefully vetting the language of settlement agreements. Now, Momentum had to pay Angeion approximately $550,000 in claims administration costs which were immediately due.
