City of Springfield Police Department (Massachusetts) Class Action Settlement

Wage & Hour · Pending — Automatic Payment

Current Status

There is no claim form and no claim deadline. Each class member is to be paid a pro rata share of the $825,000 settlement automatically, calculated from the City of Springfield's payroll records, and the notice says the payment should be mailed in approximately January 2027. The court has not ruled. The Palmer District Court may hold a fairness hearing at 2:00 p.m. on October 27, 2026, though the settlement agreement leaves it to the court whether to schedule one at all, and no final approval order has been entered. October 24, 2026 is the deadline to object, by postmark. The notice gives class members two options — object or do nothing — and describes no procedure for excluding yourself from the class.

What Changed Recently?

The case and its settlement arrived together. The complaint in Cornet v. City of Springfield, Civil Action No. 2643-cv-196, was filed in the Palmer District Court in Hampden County, Massachusetts, and the executed Class Action Settlement Agreement and Release was filed on June 16, 2026. Notice has since gone out to the class and the settlement website is live. That structure is why there is no litigation record to read: the parties exchanged documents and payroll data informally under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, negotiated, and brought the resolution to the court rather than litigating first.

The dispute is about how student police officers were paid. The complaint asserted class claims under Massachusetts wage and hour law, and the notice describes the case as being about whether Springfield violated wage and hour laws relating to the payment of wages. The release names the Massachusetts Wage Act, M.G.L. c. 149, §§ 148 and 150, among the statutes covered, and describes the underlying theory as claims that the plaintiff and class members were underpaid wages while working as student officers.

Those are allegations. The City of Springfield denies the allegations, disputes that it is liable to anyone on any basis, and denies engaging in unlawful conduct or wrongdoing. The agreement records the city's position that it complied at all times with applicable law and that class members were properly compensated for all time worked, and states that the city agreed to settle to avoid the burden, expense and uncertainty of litigating. No court has found that the city did anything unlawful.

Who Qualifies?

The class, as the mailed notice and the proposed preliminary approval order define it, is all persons who are or were employed by the City of Springfield and worked as student police officers from March 24, 2022 through May 10, 2026. The notice puts the class at approximately 147 people. Membership is not something a person applies for: the city produces a class list from its personnel and payroll records, so anyone who received the mailed notice is a class member, and someone who believes they belong on the list but did not receive one can raise that with the settlement administrator.

One version of the notice adds that five individuals who previously settled and released their claims are excluded from the settlement class.

The paperwork does not agree with itself on where the class period ends. Section 2 of the settlement agreement ends the class period on May 10, 2025 rather than 2026, and the payment formula in section 4.6 runs its calculation period through the payroll period that includes May 10, 2025. The notice, the settlement website and the preliminary approval order all say May 10, 2026. A class member whose service falls between those two dates has a reason to contact the administrator before the objection deadline rather than wait for a check.