OPINION AND ORDER LOUIS L. STANTON, District Judge. Treating respondent's Motion to Set a New Trial Date as an application under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) to vacate petitioner's Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, the question is whether petitioner can terminate this proceeding by the simple filing of a notice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A) which provides ". . . the plaintiff may dismiss an action without a court order by filing: (i) a notice of dismissal before...
MEMORANDUM OPINION LEWIS A. KAPLAN, District Judge. Plaintiff Nagy Edrisse brings this action for workplace discrimination against Marriott International, Inc. ("Marriott"), six current Marriott employees (the "Individual Marriott Defendants") and one former Marriott employee, Frank Berry. The gravamen of the complaint is that defendants subjected plaintiff, a former Marriott restaurant server who is a black-Arab Muslim from Egypt, to a hostile work environment, and then disciplined and...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER McKENNA, District Judge. Respondent Bank of China ("Bank") objects, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 72, to a Memorandum and Order of Magistrate Judge Francis, dated August 11, 2010, which denied the Bank's motion for a protective order, precluded the Bank from asserting any lien on an account with the Bank superior to that of petitioner, and required the Bank to produce certain documents and to respond to certain interrogatories. Familiarity with Judge Francis' Memorandum...
DECISION AND ORDER VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiffs Guang Ming Lin, Qi Li, and Zeng Guan Li ("Plaintiffs") brought this action alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq., and the New York Labor Law and have moved for collective certification of their FLSA claims, approval to issue a collective action notice, and disclosure by defendants of information relating to current and former employees who could be members of a...
Opinion and Order BARBARA S. JONES, District Judge. On May 28, 2007, Plaintiff L & L Wings, Inc. ("Plaintiff") filed suit against Defendants Marco-Destin, Inc., 1000 Highway 98 East Corp., Panama Surf & Sport, Inc., and E & T, Inc. (collectively "Defendants") alleging breach of contract, trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, violations of the New York General Business Law, and common law service mark infringement and unfair competition. On December 18, 2009, this Court granted...
DECISION AND ORDER VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge. Plaintiffs Michael Ebewo, Joanne Hart, Julianne Polito, Thomasina Robinson and Brandi Scheiner (collectively, "Plaintiffs") filed the instant motion seeking recusal of Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck and District Judge Victor Marrero from presiding over this action. 1 In support they refer to statements made to Nicholas Penkovsky ("Penkovsky"), plaintiffs' current counsel, by an unnamed informant ("Doe") who was involved as a party to a...
OPINION LEWIS A. KAPLAN, District Judge. Table of Contents Facts ...........................................................................520 A. Al Qaeda and the 1998 East African Embassy Bombings ...................520 B. The Indictments .......................................................521 C. Ghailani's Years at Large (1998-July 2004).............................521 D. Ghailani's Capture and Initial Detention...............................522 E. Ghailani's Detention in CIA Custody [...
MEMORANDUM OPINION LEWIS A. KAPLAN, District Judge. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an alleged member of Al Qaeda, was indicted in this Court in 1998 and charged with conspiring with Usama Bin Laden and others to kill Americans abroad by, among other means, bombing the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The matter is before the Court on Ghailani's motion to compel production of three documents that the government contends are privileged against disclosure. The...
MEMORANDUM OPINION LEWIS A. KAPLAN, District Judge. This action for damages and a declaration of rights under a prenuptial agreement is before the Court on the defendant's motion to dismiss on the ground of forum non conveniens or for insufficiency of service of process. Facts Plaintiff Alamir, a citizen of France, and defendant Callen, a United States citizen, entered into a prenuptial agreement and were married in Nice, France, on January 10, 2004. They have separate actions for...
OPINION AND ORDER LEISURE, District Judge: This is a diversity action for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with business relations, and unjust enrichment. Plaintiffs Greenwich Life Settlements, Inc. ("Greenwich Life") and Greenwich Settlements Master Trust ("Greenwich Trust") (collectively referred to in the singular as "Greenwich") bring this action against defendant, ViaSource Funding Group,...
MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER GEORGE B. DANIELS, District Judge: In this multi-district litigation ("MDL"), plaintiffs seek to hold those who aided, abetted, sponsored, conspired to sponsor, financed, or otherwise provided material support to Osama bin Laden and the terrorist organization al Qaeda, liable for the physical destruction, death and injuries suffered as a result of the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001. Plaintiffs maintain that the responsibility for the acts of...
DECISION AND ORDER VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge. Plaintiff Kelvin VanWright ("VanWright") brings this action against defendant First Unum Life Insurance Company ("Unum") under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), challenging Unum's denial of disability benefits. VanWright and Unum now file cross-motions for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed below, the Court GRANTS Unum's motion and DENIES VanWright's cross-motion. I. BACKGROUND 1 A. FACTS 1....
OPINION AND ORDER LEISURE, District Judge: Plaintiff, Colburn Family Foundation ("Colburn"), moves this Court for an Order of Default Judgment against defendants, Chabad's Children of Chernobyl ("CCOC"), Tzeirei Chabad ("TC"), and Friends of Tzeirei Chabad In Israel, Inc. ("FTCI"), (collectively, the "Chabad defendants"), for failure to comply with the terms of a settlement agreement. For the reasons set forth below, Colburn's motion is GRANTED. BACKGROUND Colburn is a not-for-profit...
DECISION AND ORDER FRANK MAAS, United States Magistrate Judge. In this action under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), Plaintiff Fox News Network, LLC ("Fox") seeks agency records from the United States Department of the Treasury ("Treasury") related to the intervention of the federal government ("Government") two years ago to prevent the impending financial collapse of American Insurance Group ("AIG") and Citigroup, Inc. ("Citigroup" or "Citi"). Treasury provided over 10,000 pages of...
OPINION AND ORDER STEPHEN C. ROBINSON, District Judge: The Plaintiff in this case, MetroPCS, is suing the City of Mount Vernon for violations of the Telecommunications Act (TCA) of 1996, 47 U.S.C. 332(c)(7)(B), New York State and local law by denying MetroPCS's wireless facility application and illegally assessing filing fees and consulting fees against MetroPCS. Specifically, MetroPCS claims that the City of Mount Vernon (1) denied MetroPCS's applications without substantial evidence; (2)...
OPINION AND ORDER SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN, District Judge. I. INTRODUCTION In this civil-rights action, plaintiffs allege, among other things, that the New York City Police Department ("NYPD") requires rank and file officers—under threat of adverse employment consequences leveled by their superiors—to stop, question, and frisk specific numbers of individuals. Plaintiffs further contend that such mandatory quotas lead to unconstitutional racial profiling by officers, which is the gravamen of...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER RICHARD J. HOLWELL, District Judge: This opinion resolves two motions pending before the Court. First, defendant Rajaratnam, in a motion defendant Chiesi joins, asks the Court to strike what it terms "new charges" set forth in the government's letters of March 22 and April 14, 2010. Second, Rajaratnam moves to dismiss Count One of the Superseding Indictment ("Indictment") as prejudicially duplicitous. In the alternative, he asks the Court to order the government...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, District Judge. Plaintiff Michael G. McPhee brings this action against Defendant General Electric International, Inc., seeking damages for the death of his brother, Greg McPhee (the "decedent"), which occurred in Israel in 2007. Now before the Court is Defendant's motion to dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), as well as Plaintiffs request to amend the Complaint in the event that Defendant's motion is granted....
OPINION & ORDER DENISE COTE, District Judge: TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND......................................................51 I. The DASNY-Trataros Contracts................................51 II. Delays on the Project.......................................53 PROCEDURAL HISTORY..............................................54 DISCUSSION......................................................55 I. Travelers' Claims Against DASNY.............................57 A. Trataros' Impact Claim..........
OPINION THOMAS P. GRIESA, U.S.D.J. Plaintiffs, current and former employees of the storied New York City restaurant the `21' Club, bring this action on behalf of all non-exempt persons employed at the `21' Club who work private banquets. This action is against defendants `21' Club, Inc. d/b/a `21' Club and Orient Express Hotels, Inc. 1 There are two claims. The first is under New York Labor Law ("NYLL") 196-d and is for unpaid gratuities. The second is under the Fair Labor Standards Act...
