Pasadena-Based Law Firm Reaches Settlement With Summer Camp Company Over Unrefunded Deposits

A Pasadena-based law firm representing roughly 9,000 families in a class-action lawsuit against a summer camp company that failed to refund parents’ deposits after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of camps last summer has settled the suit, the firm announced Tuesday.

Hahn & Hahn represented the plaintiffs in their action against Oakland-based Camp Galileo, which operates camps in the Southern California, San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago regions, the firm said in a written statement.

The summer camp operator had filed for bankruptcy protection “after declining to refund over $11 million in camp deposits when the COVID pandemic sidelined its operations,” the statement said.

As a result of the settlement, Galileo is exiting bankruptcy, which Hahn & Hahn said was “only the first step toward repairing its debts.”

Hahn & Hahn attorney Dean Rallis Jr., who heads the firm’s bankruptcy and financial restructuring practice group, said the outcome was a mutually beneficial one.

“The kids and parents both won here,” he said. “At the end of the day, all parties benefited from what could have been a disaster.”

Galileo, which drew public attention in May after declining to refund all or part of parents’ deposits, dispute receiving more than $2.5 million in PPP assistance from the federal government, the statement said.

“Because Galileo had already spent much of the deposits on staffing, campground reservations and other costs it couldn’t recoup, the company did not have enough cash to repay all parents or other creditors, according to the statement. 

“By putting the collective interest of the entire class body first while also playing peacemaker with all parties involved, Hahn & Hahn was able to both keep individual parents from sidestepping the class and successfully negotiate a deal with Galileo that will see the parents being made whole before other creditors,” according to the statement.

Under terms of the settlement, which was approved on Feb. 9, class members can choose to receive a refund but allow Galileo up to five years to pay it, or credit redeemable at the company’s camps, according to Hahn & Hahn.

More information about the law firm is available on its website at hahnlawyers.com.