Tenesaca v. Gemelli Restaurant Group Inc.
- Alison Nathan
- 1:19-cv-10976-AJN
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Tenesaca v. Gemelli Restaurant Group Inc., Judge Nathan gave Plaintiff one final week to comply with service and default-related orders.
Plaintiff Walter Tenesaca, and Defendants Giovani Ferraioli, Mario Benforte, Gemelli Restaurant Group, Inc., and Mamica, Inc. were affected by the compliance deadlines and warning.
What happened
In Tenesaca v. Gemelli Restaurant Group Inc., Walter Tenesaca had not complied with earlier orders about serving Giovani Ferraioli and Mario Benforte or addressing the other defendants’ defaults. The court had granted him a 30-day extension, but he still did not meet the extended deadlines.
The court gave Tenesaca one final opportunity to act within one week. He had to file proof of service, a service update, or a voluntary-dismissal notice for Ferraioli and Benforte. He also had to seek default certificates and default judgment against Gemelli Restaurant Group, Inc. and Mamica, Inc., or explain why he should not do so. He also had to serve the order on all defendants and file proof of service by June 17, 2020.
Judge Alison J. Nathan warned that failing to comply could lead to dismissal of Tenesaca’s claims with prejudice for failure to prosecute. The order itself did not dismiss the claims.
The detailed version
- Tenesaca v. Gemelli Restaurant Group Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-10976-AJN
- Alison Nathan
- June 10, 2020
Background
The court had previously ordered Plaintiff Walter Tenesaca to file, by March 13, 2020, proof that he served Defendants Giovani Ferraioli and Mario Benforte, a status update about service, or a notice voluntarily dismissing those defendants. Tenesaca did not comply.
On March 31, 2020, the court ordered Tenesaca to respond to the earlier order and, within two weeks, either seek certificates of default and move for default judgment against Defendants Gemelli Restaurant Group, Inc. and Mamica, Inc., or file a status update explaining why a default-judgment motion should not be filed at that time. Tenesaca requested and received a 30-day extension, but did not comply with the extended schedule.
Order
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the court gave Tenesaca one final opportunity to comply. Within one week of June 10, 2020, he had to file one of the following for Ferraioli and Benforte: proof of service, a status update about service, or a notice of voluntary dismissal.
Within the same one-week period, Tenesaca also had to seek certificates of default and move for default judgment against Gemelli Restaurant Group, Inc. and Mamica, Inc., or file a status update explaining why a default-judgment motion should not be filed at that time.
Tenesaca was additionally required to serve the order on all defendants and file affidavits of service on the court’s electronic filing system by June 17, 2020.
Warning and disposition
The court warned that failure to comply timely could result in dismissal of Tenesaca’s claims with prejudice for failure to prosecute, meaning failure to move the case forward. The order did not itself dismiss the claims, grant default judgment, or enter another final judgment. Judge Alison J. Nathan entered the order on June 10, 2020.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.