Shulman v. Apple
- James Oetken
- 1:24-cv-08319
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Shulman v. Apple: Judge Oetken dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failure to prosecute after Shulman missed a required hearing.
Rabbi Menachem Shulman’s complaint against Apple was dismissed without prejudice, and the Clerk of Court was directed to close the case.
What happened
In Shulman v. Apple, Rabbi Menachem Shulman sued Apple over an alleged iPhone ignition, bringing negligence, product-liability, and warranty claims. A magistrate judge ordered Shulman to attend a hearing about why the case should not be dismissed because he was not pursuing it.
Shulman did not attend the hearing, and no party timely objected to the magistrate judge’s recommendation that the case be dismissed without prejudice. The district court reviewed the recommendation for clear error and found none.
Judge Oetken adopted the recommendation and dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failure to prosecute. He directed the Clerk of Court to close the case and email the order to Shulman.
The detailed version
- Shulman v. Apple · No. 1:24-cv-08319
- James Oetken
- July 17, 2025
Background Rabbi Menachem Shulman brought claims against Apple Inc. for negligence, product liability, and breach of warranty based on an alleged ignition of an iPhone. The court referred the case to Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger for general pretrial purposes.
Judge Lehrburger ordered Shulman to appear at a June 11, 2025 hearing to explain why the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute, meaning failure to move the case forward. Shulman did not appear. Judge Lehrburger then issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that the action be dismissed without prejudice.
Court’s Review No party timely objected to the Report and Recommendation. Because there was no timely objection, the district court reviewed the recommendation for clear error, meaning an obvious mistake in the record. The court found no error and fully adopted the recommendation.
Ruling The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failure to prosecute. It directed the Clerk of Court to close the case and email a copy of the order to Shulman. The court stated that efforts to reach Shulman at the telephone number and address he provided had been unsuccessful and that he had not provided updated contact information.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.