WILLIAM H. PAULEY, III, Senior District Judge.
Plaintiffs Daniel Zamora and CGC, Inc. moved for a default judgment against Defendants FIT International Group, Corp. ("FIT International"), Forex International Team Inc. ("Forex International"), Jairo Enrique Sanchez, and Dilia Margarita Baez. This Court referred the motion to the assigned magistrate judge for a Report & Recommendation. On May 10, 2019, Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn issued a Report & Recommendation (the "Report"). The Report recommended that this Court deny the motion for default judgment against Forex International, grant the motion for default judgment against the other defendants for civil RICO violations, and award Plaintiffs treble damages of $9,724,843.11 and post-judgment interest pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1961. On May 24, 2019, Plaintiffs filed a limited objection to the Report (the "Objection"). Having reviewed the Objection, this Court concludes that it lacks merit and adopts the Report in its entirety.
A district court "may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations" of a magistrate judge. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). This Court reviews
Plaintiffs take issue with the magistrate judge's determination that the "substantial portions of their memorandum of law arguing that the Amended Complaint sufficiently alleges a claim for civil RICO against the JP Morgan Defendants" essentially constitutes "an untimely motion for reconsideration" of this Court's prior dismissal of the claims against JP Morgan Chase & Co. and JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A (the "JP Morgan Defendants"). (Report, at 6.)
As an initial matter, this Court agrees with the magistrate judge that to the extent that such an objection is tantamount to a motion for reconsideration, it should be denied as untimely. Local Civil Rule 6.3 directs parties to move for "reconsideration or reargument of a court order determining a motion . . . fourteen (14) days after the entry of the court's determination of the original motion." Local Civ. R. 6.3. Thus, the time to file a motion under Local Civil Rule 6.3 would have lapsed in August 2015—almost four years ago. And "as numerous cases from this Circuit have held, the untimeliness of a motion for reconsideration is reason enough to deny the motion."
The crux of Plaintiffs' objection is that the Report overlooks evidence that Plaintiffs purportedly discovered after this Court's July 31, 2015 Memorandum & Order that they claim supports a determination that the JP Morgan Defendants violated RICO. Whatever the merits of Plaintiffs' arguments, however, their request for relief under Rule 60(b) lacks merit. First, motions for relief under subsections (b)(1), (b)(2), and (b)(3) must be made "no more than a year after the entry of the judgment or order or the date of the proceeding." Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(c)(1). Second, the reasons for relief set forth in subsections (b)(4) and (b)(5) are plainly inapplicable.
In particular, Rule 60(c)(1) mandates that
Plaintiffs' objection is overruled. Finding that the remainder of the Report is not clearly erroneous, this Court adopts it in its entirety. Specifically, Plaintiffs' motion for default judgment is denied as to Forex International; Plaintiffs' motion for default judgment is granted as to Sanchez, Baez, and FIT International based solely on civil RICO violations and denied as to all other claims; Plaintiffs are entitled to $9,724,843.11 in treble damages, for which Sanchez, Baez, and FIT International are jointly and severally liable; and Plaintiffs are entitled to postjudgment interest from the date of entry of judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1961.
Plaintiffs' request for attorney's fees is denied for the reasons set forth in the Report. However, this Court affords Plaintiffs' counsel an opportunity to substantiate his fee application with contemporaneous time records that "specify, for each attorney, the date, the hours expended, and the nature of the work done."
The Clerk of Court is directed to seal the document docketed at ECF No. 109-1 to protect financial account information.
SO ORDERED.