Jimenez v. Borinquen Super Market, Inc
- Barbara Moses
- 1:21-cv-08620
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jimenez v. Boriquen Supermarket, Judge Moses could not approve the settlement because part of the requested expense payment lacked documentation.
The plaintiff, the defendants, and the plaintiff’s counsel were affected because the court did not approve their proposed settlement in its current form and required adequate support for the expense payment.
What happened
In Jimenez v. Boriquen Supermarket, the parties asked the court to approve a settlement under rules requiring certain employment-related settlements to be fair and reasonable. The agreement required the defendants to pay $28,000, including $10,240.32 to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The court found that the lawyer’s 33.33% contingency fee would be $9,332.40. The parties said the remaining $906.99 was for litigation expenses, but the plaintiff documented only $206 in service-of-process invoices, plus the court-recognized $402 filing fee. That left $298.99 unsupported.
The court could not approve the agreement in its current form and could not rewrite it to remove the unsupported amount. The parties could submit a signed amendment eliminating that amount by November 7, 2024. Judge Barbara Moses issued the order.
The detailed version
- Jimenez v. Borinquen Super Market, Inc · No. 1:21-cv-08620
- Barbara Moses
- Oct. 24, 2024
Background
The parties submitted a joint letter-motion asking the court to approve their Settlement and Release Agreement under Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, Inc. The court also reviewed the plaintiff’s supplemental letter and documents supporting litigation costs.
Settlement Amount and Expense Discrepancy
The proposed agreement required the defendants to pay $28,000 total, with $10,240.32 designated for the plaintiff’s counsel. The contingency agreement between the plaintiff and Stillman Legal, P.C. provided for a fee equal to 33.33% of amounts recovered through trial or settlement. The court calculated that 33.33% of $28,000 was $9,332.40.
The parties represented that the remaining $906.99 allocated to counsel was for actual litigation expenses. In response to the court’s request for supporting records, the plaintiff submitted service-of-process invoices totaling $206. The court also recognized the $402 filing fee paid in the action. Those documented expenses totaled $608, leaving a $298.99 gap between the documented expenses and the $906.99 expense amount in the agreement.
Ruling
The court concluded that it could not approve the Settlement Agreement in its present form because the requested expense award was not adequately supported by records. The court also held that it could not rewrite the agreement by removing the unsupported portion. The parties were permitted to amend the agreement and file an appropriate stipulation, signed by counsel for all parties, no later than November 7, 2024, to eliminate the unsupported expense amount. Judge Barbara Moses therefore did not approve the settlement in its submitted form.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.