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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled Aug. 21, 2026

Cardona Lopez v. 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp.

Judge
Rearden
Docket
1:26-cv-05745
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
2

Counsel1 of record
PLAINTIFF
C.K. Lee Lee Litigation Group, PLLC

Counsel of record per CourtListener. Firm names are approximate.

FlsaCivil Procedure
In one sentence

In Cardona Lopez v. 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp., Judge Rearden accepted the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal after confirming no FLSA settlement and closed the case.

Who this affects

The ruling ended Marlon Waldemar Cardona Lopez’s FLSA case against 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp., 188 Ave A Take Out Food Corp., and Tarik Fallous by accepting the voluntary dismissal and closing the case.

What happened

In Cardona Lopez v. 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp., Marlon Waldemar Cardona Lopez filed a notice voluntarily dismissing his Fair Labor Standards Act case without prejudice. The case named 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp., 188 Ave A Take Out Food Corp., and Tarik Fallous as defendants.

The court required the plaintiff to confirm that the dismissal did not hide a settlement. The plaintiff reported that the parties had not reached a settlement.

Judge Jennifer H. Rearden accepted the voluntary dismissal and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Cardona Lopez v. 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp. · No. 1:26-cv-05745
Judge
Rearden
Date
Aug. 21, 2026

Background

Marlon Waldemar Cardona Lopez brought a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case against 1063 First Ave Restaurant Corp., 188 Ave A Take Out Food Corp., and Tarik Fallous. On July 31, 2026, he filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i).

Settlement Review

The court directed the plaintiff to review the Second Circuit’s decision in Samake v. Thunder Lube, Inc. That decision requires courts to review voluntary dismissals of FLSA claims without prejudice to ensure that they do not conceal a settlement. The court therefore also directed the plaintiff to certify that the parties had not settled the FLSA claims. On August 20, 2026, the plaintiff filed a letter stating that the parties had not reached a settlement.

Ruling

Judge Jennifer H. Rearden concluded that there was no underlying settlement and accepted the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i). The Clerk of Court was directed to close the case.

The authoritative version

Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

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