Mediant Settlement

A Federal Court authorized the Notice because you have the right to know how the Settlement of this class action lawsuit may affect your rights. The Notice explains the nature of the litigation, the general terms of the Settlement, and what it may mean to you. The Notice also explains the ways you may participate in, or exclude yourself from, the Settlement.

The Honorable Gregory H. Woods of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is overseeing this class action. The case is known as Toretto et al. v. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. et. al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02667-GHW (the "Litigation"). The people who filed this lawsuit are called the “Plaintiffs” or “Class Representatives” and the settling company they sued, Mediant Communications Inc., is called “Mediant” or the “Defendant.”

To view a copy of the Notice, click here.

Mediant is a company that provides document processing services and communications to investors on behalf of mutual funds and public companies. Plaintiffs allege that on or around April 1, 2019, cybercriminals obtained unauthorized access to Mediant’s business email accounts, which contained certain investor information (the “Data Security Incident”). The compromised information may have included names, genders, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, and bank account numbers, as well as specific information relating to investors’ securities holdings.

The Defendant denies that it did anything wrong, and no court or other entity has made any judgment or other determination of any wrongdoing. Instead, Plaintiffs and the Defendant have agreed to a settlement to avoid the risk, cost, and time of further litigation.

In a class action, one or more people called "Class Representatives" sue on behalf of all people who have similar Claims. Together all these people are called a “Settlement Class” or “Settlement Class Members.” One court resolves the issues for all Settlement Class Members, except for those Settlement Class Members who timely exclude themselves from the Settlement Class.

The Court has not decided in favor of Plaintiffs or the Defendant. Instead, both sides agreed to a settlement. Settlements avoid the costs and uncertainty of a trial and related appeals, while more quickly providing benefits to members of the Settlement Class.

You are a Settlement Class Member if you received a postcard Notice about this Settlement or you were previously mailed a notification from the Defendant that your personal information may have been impacted in the Data Security Incident occurring on or around April 1, 2019.

Yes. Excluded from the Settlement Class are (1) all Settlement Class Members who timely and validly request exclusion (“opt out”) from the Settlement Class; (2) any other Person found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be guilty under criminal law of initiating, causing, aiding or abetting the criminal occurrence of the Data Security Incident or who pleads nolo contendere (a legal term that means “I do not wish to contend”) to any such charge; and (3) the presiding judge and his staff and family.

If you are still not sure whether you are a Settlement Class Member, you may call the Settlement Administrator’s toll-free number at 1-888-490-0774.

Under the terms of the Settlement, you may be entitled to recover the following benefits:

Reimbursement of Documented Out-of-Pocket Losses:

If you are a Settlement Class Member and you filed a valid and timely Claim Form, you may be eligible for reimbursement of the following documented out-of-pocket losses, not to exceed $10,000 per Settlement Class Member, that were incurred as a result of, and fairly traceable to, the Data Security Incident:

1. Unreimbursed costs, expenses, losses, or other charges incurred as a result of identity theft or identity fraud, falsified tax returns, or other possible misuse of a Settlement Class Member’s personal information;
2. Costs incurred on or after April 1, 2019, associated with accessing or freezing/unfreezing credit reports with any credit reporting agency;
3. Other miscellaneous expenses incurred related to any Out-of-Pocket Loss such as notary, fax, postage, copying, mileage, and long-distance telephone charges;
4. Credit monitoring or other mitigative costs that were incurred on or after April 1, 2019, through the date of the Settlement Class Member’s claim submission; and
5. Documented time taken off work to address issues related to the Data Security Incident to be compensated at the Settlement Class Member’s regular and documented hourly rate up to $250 per hour.

To receive reimbursement for any of the above-referenced out-of-pocket losses, you must have submitted documentation of your out-of-pocket losses along with your Claim Form.

Lost Time:

If you are a Settlement Class Member and you filed a valid and timely Claim Form, you may be eligible to receive up to three (3) hours for time spent dealing with the Data Security Incident (calculated at the rate of $20 per hour) if you provided the following on your Claim Form:

1. Attestation that any claimed time lost was spent related to the Data Security Incident; and
2. Provide a brief written description of how the claimed lost time was spent.

You may claim up to an additional five (5) hours of lost time at $20 per hour if you submitted reasonable supporting documentation of the time spent (along with a brief description of the documentation describing the nature of the loss, if the nature of the loss is not apparent from the documentation alone).

Required documentation to support your Claim can include receipts or other documentation that is not “self-prepared.” “Self-prepared” documents such as handwritten receipts are, by themselves, insufficient to receive reimbursement, but can be considered to add clarity to or support other submitted documentation.

Credit Monitoring Services:

Settlement Class Members are automatically eligible for two years of free credit monitoring services without the need to submit a Claim. You can access this benefit by providing your email address and Unique ID here, and you will be sent enrollment instructions after the Settlement is finalized. The deadline to access this benefit was November 21, 2022.

Your Unique ID is located on the front of the postcard Notice that was sent to Settlement Class Members via U.S. Mail. If you received a postcard Notice, you can also write your email address on the credit monitoring form included with the notice and return the prepaid postcard via the U.S. Postal Service. If you lost or do not know your Unique ID, you may contact the Settlement Administrator at info@MediantSettlement.com. You do not need to submit a Claim Form to receive this benefit.

Yes. Settlement Class Members seeking reimbursement must have completed and submitted a Claim Form to the Settlement Administrator by November 21, 2022. Paper Claim Form must be postmarked by November 21, 2022.

Unless you excluded yourself, you chose to remain in the Settlement Class. If the Settlement is approved and becomes final, all of the Court’s orders will apply to you and legally bind you. You will not be able to sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against the Defendant and the Released Parties for the Released Claims. For more information regarding the Released Parties and the Released Claims, see FAQ 11.

The Settlement Agreement in Section II, paragraph 26 and Section V, paragraphs 34-36 (titled “Release”) describes the Release, Released Claims, and Released Parties, so please read these sections carefully. The Released Parties specifically include the Defendant, Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc., Donnelley Financial LLC, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III, Inc., Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV, Inc., Griffin Institutional Access Real Estate Fund, Destra Dividend Total Return Fund, Ivy Natural Resources Fund’s 2018 proxy, Ivy National Resources Fund’s 2019 proxy, Moody National REIT II, Inc., Strategic Storage Growth Trust, Inc., Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc., Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc., Strategic Storage Trust IV, Inc., CION Investment Corporation, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Delaware Life Insurance Company, and their respective past, present, and future parent companies, partnerships, joint ventures, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, predecessors, successors, transferees, and assigns, employees, servants, members, providers, partners, principals, officers, directors, shareholders, owners, attorneys, heirs, executors, administrators, insurers, coinsurers, reinsurers, joint ventures, personal representatives, and trustees of such entities, and, any Person related to any such entities or individuals who is, was, or could have been named as a defendant in the Litigation.

The Settlement Agreement is available here or in the public court records on file in this lawsuit. For questions regarding the Releases or what it means, you can also contact one of the lawyers listed in FAQ 15 for free, or you can talk to your own lawyer at your own expense.

Claim Forms must have been submitted online or postmarked by November 21, 2022. Otherwise, you will not be entitled to any of the Settlement benefits, but you will be bound by the Settlement and the Court’s judgment.

All Settlement Class Members are automatically entitled to 24 months of credit monitoring if you provided your email address and Unique ID here by November 21, 2022. You will be sent activation instructions once the Settlement is final. Your Unique ID is located on the front of the postcard Notice that was sent to Settlement Class Members via U.S. Mail. If you received a postcard Notice, you can also write your email address on the credit monitoring form included with the Notice and return the prepaid postcard via the U.S. Postal Service. If you lost or do not know your Unique ID, you may contact the Settlement Administrator at info@MediantSettlement.com. You do not need to submit a Claim Form to receive this benefit.

If you change your mailing address or email address after you submitted a Claim Form or after you registered for credit monitoring, it is your responsibility to inform the Settlement Administrator of your updated information. You may notify the Settlement Administrator of any changes by writing to:

Mediant Settlement Administrator
P.O. Box 5290
Portland, OR 97208-5290

Or email us:
info@MediantSettlement.com

If you made a valid Claim, payment will be provided by the Settlement Administrator now that Settlement is approved by the Court and final.

Please be patient and check this website for updates.

Yes, the Court has appointed J. Austin Moore of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP, Elaine A. Ryan of Auer Ryan, PC, and John A. Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan as Class Counsel to represent you and the Settlement Class for the purposes of this Settlement. You may hire your own lawyer at your own cost and expense if you want someone other than Class Counsel to represent you in this Litigation.

Class Counsel’s motion asking the Court to award them attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount $700,000, was approved by the Final Approval Order on January 5, 2023. The Order also approved $2,500 service awards to each of the three Plaintiffs (totaling $7,500) for participating in this litigation and for their efforts in achieving the Settlement. Defendant paid fees, costs, expenses, and service awards directly.

To exclude yourself from the Settlement, you must have mailed the Settlement Administrator written Notice of a request for exclusion, which includes:

1. The case name (Toretto et al. v. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. et. al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02667-GHW [S.D.N.Y.]).
2. Your name, address, and telephone number;
3. A clear statement that you want to be excluded from the Settlement Class, such as “I hereby request to be excluded from the proposed Settlement Class in Toretto et al. v. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. et. al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02667-GHW in the United States District Court for the District of New York”; and
4. Your signature.

The exclusion request must have been postmarked and sent to the Settlement Administrator at the following address by October 3, 2022:

Mediant Settlement Administrator
P.O. Box 5290
Portland, OR 97208-5290

You cannot exclude yourself by telephone, email, or on this website.

You can only get Settlement benefits if you stay in the Settlement and submitted a valid Claim Form.

No. Unless you excluded yourself, you gave up any right to sue the Defendant and the Released Parties for the Released Claims in this Settlement. You must have excluded yourself from this Litigation to start or continue with your own lawsuit or be part of any other lawsuit against the Defendant or any of the Released Parties for the Released Claims. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that case immediately.

If you are a Settlement Class Member, you can tell the Court that you do not agree with all or any part of the Settlement, requested attorneys’ fees and expenses or service awards to Plaintiffs. You can also give reasons why you think the Court should not approve the Settlement or attorneys’ fees and expenses or service awards to Plaintiffs. To object, you must have mailed written notice stating you objected to the Settlement in Toretto et al. v. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. et. al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02667-GHW. The objection must also include the following additional information:

1. The objector’s (your) full name, address, telephone number, and email address (if any);
2. Information identifying you as a Settlement Class Member;
3. A written statement of all grounds for the objection, accompanied by any legal support the objector cares to submit;
4. A statement as to whether the objection applies only to the objector, to a specific subset of the class, or to the entire class;
5. The identity of all lawyers (if any) representing you in connection with the objection;
6. A list of individuals who will be called to testify at the Final Fairness Hearing in support of the objection;
7. A statement whether you and your counsel will appear at the Final Fairness Hearing;
8. A statement confirming whether you intend to personally appear and/or testify at the Final Fairness Hearing; and
9. Your signature or the signature of your duly authorized attorney or other duly authorized representative.

To be timely, written notice of an objection in the appropriate form must have been mailed to the Settlement Administrator postmarked no later than October 3, 2022, to the following address:

Mediant Settlement Administrator
PO Box 5290
Portland, OR 97208-5290

Any Settlement Class Member who failed to comply with the requirements for objecting as stated in more detail in Section VIII of the Settlement Agreement shall waive and forfeit any and all rights he or she may have to appear separately and/or to object to the Settlement Agreement and shall be bound by all the terms of the Settlement Agreement and by all proceedings, orders, and judgments in the Litigation.

Objecting is simply telling the Court you do not like something about the Settlement or the requested attorneys’ fees and expenses. You can object only if you stay in the Settlement Class (that is, do not exclude yourself). You will still be bound by the Settlement if you object. Requesting exclusion is telling the Court you do not want to be part of the Settlement Class or the Settlement. If you exclude yourself, you cannot object to the Settlement, and you will not be bound by the Settlement and will not receive any Settlement benefits.

The Court held the Final Fairness Hearing on January 5, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. ET before the Honorable Gregory H. Woods, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007, in Courtroom 12C.

At this hearing, the Court considered whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and decided to approve the Settlement, Class Counsel’s application for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses, and the service awards to Plaintiffs.

If you are a Settlement Class Member and you do nothing, you will not receive any Settlement benefits. You will give up the rights explained in the Settlement Agreement, including your right to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Defendant or any of the Released Parties about the legal issues in this litigation that are released by the Settlement Agreement relating to the Data Security Incident.

This website and the Notice summarize the Settlement. Complete details are provided in the Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Agreement and other related documents are available here, by calling 1-888-490-0774 or by writing to the following address:

Mediant Settlement Administrator
P.O. Box 5290
Portland, OR 97208-5290

Please do not contact the Court the Court’s Clerk office or Mediant for more information.