Are incentive payments in Rule 23 class-action settlements per se unlawful under the rule from Greenough, as the Eleventh Circuit held, or sometimes permissible subject to judicial oversight, as is the rule in every other circuit that has reviewed incentive payments?

QUESTION PRESENTED Applying general federal common law, this Court held in Trustees v. Greenough, 105 U.S. 527 (1881) that a creditor could recover attorney fees, but not personal expenses, from a trust supervised by a court. More than a century later, in the distinctly modern context of courtapproved class-action settlements, parties routinely include a negotiated term providing for moderate incentive payments to named plaintiffs to compensate them for their efforts protecting absent class members’ interests. The question presented is: Are incentive payments in Rule 23 class-action settlements per se unlawful under the rule from Greenough, as the Eleventh Circuit held, or sometimes permissible subject to judicial oversight, as is the rule in every other circuit that has reviewed incentive payments?