The Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center is pleased to be the beneficiary of a substantial cy pres award that resulted from a class action lawsuit brought by San Francisco attorneys Andrew J. Ogilvie and Carol M. Brewer. The case was recently settled in Santa Clara County Superior Court. It was brought on behalf of consumers whose rights were violated when a bank ignored an injunction that had ordered it to stop collection activities on deficiency claims from its sale of repossessed cars. In the earlier case in which the injunction had been obtained, the lender had agreed to stop its collection activities, to recall accounts from collection agencies, and to clear the consumers’ credit reports. But as Ogilvie and Brewer discovered, the bank had ignored all of those promises to more than 1,000 California consumers. Ogilvie and Brewer sued on behalf of those consumers. The bank agreed to a substantial settlement, and numerous members of the class received compensation. Some members of the class, called ‘absent class members’, could not be located. Funds that were due to the absent class members, called cy pres funds, were distributed with the consent of the court to non-profit organizations whose work benefits the interests of the absent class members. The Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center’s consumer practice area represents many low-income individuals who have suffered from the unfair business practices of car dealers.
The Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, the civil clinical program of Santa Clara University School of Law, educates law students in accordance with the highest professional and ethical standards by serving individuals and communities in need with competence, conscience and compassion, through pro bono legal representation and education. In 2004, the Law Center gave legal advice and counsel to over 900 low-income clients and gave community workshop presentations to more than 1,500 individuals.
Andrew J. Ogilvie and Carol M. Brewer represent consumers in a variety of areas, including auto fraud, unlawful automobile repossession, and cases involving credit reporting issues. Their gesture and efforts to assign a portion of their cy pres fund to the Center demonstrate the confidence they have in the Law Center’s work. Awards such as this recognize the benefit the community receives and encourages others to support that work through other cy pres funds or individual contributions.
