Teodoro Gonzales v. 056 Deli & Grocery Corp. et al.
- John Cronan
- 1:25-cv-06965
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Teodoro Gonzales v. 056 Deli & Grocery Corp., Judge Cronan ordered defendants to report whether settlement occurred before dismissal of Gonzales’s FLSA lawsuit.
Teodoro Gonzales and the defendants in the FLSA lawsuit; defendants were required to report whether a settlement had been reached.
What happened
Teodoro Gonzales’s lawyers told the court that Gonzales no longer wanted to continue the lawsuit and asked how to dismiss it.
The court explained that lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act require judicial review of any settlement. Defendants must tell the court by October 1, 2025, whether a settlement was reached.
If there is a settlement, the court will review whether it is fair; if there is no settlement, the court will formally approve the dismissal notice. Judge John P. Cronan did not dismiss the lawsuit in this order.
The detailed version
- Teodoro Gonzales v. 056 Deli & Grocery Corp. et al. · No. 1:25-cv-06965
- John Cronan
- Sept. 16, 2025
Background
Counsel for Teodoro Gonzales filed a letter stating that Gonzales “no longer wishes to proceed with this action” and asking for guidance about dismissing the case.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law governing employment matters including wages and working conditions, the court retains authority to review and approve a settlement. The court relied on Second Circuit precedent requiring this review even when the parties seek to dismiss the case by agreement. The court also noted that the same approach applies to dismissals without prejudice.
Order
The court ordered defendants to file a letter by October 1, 2025, confirming whether they had reached a settlement with Gonzales. If there was a settlement, the court would conduct a fairness review. If there was no settlement, the court would formally approve the notice of dismissal. The order did not itself dismiss the case.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.