Passante v. Luzzo's 211, LLC
- Stewart Aaron
- 1:20-cv-04771
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Passante v. Luzzo’s 211, LLC, Judge Woods held bankruptcy automatically stayed proceedings against Luzzo’s, but not Michele Iuliano.
The automatic stay pauses the proceedings against Luzzo’s 211, LLC, the bankruptcy debtor. It does not automatically pause the proceedings against Michele Iuliano.
What happened
In Passante v. Luzzo’s 211, LLC, the court addressed Luzzo’s filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy during the case brought by Mario Passante.
The court said the bankruptcy filing automatically paused the proceedings against Luzzo’s under federal bankruptcy law. It also said the proceedings against Michele Iuliano were not automatically paused.
Judge Gregory H. Woods ordered no separate stay of the proceedings against Iuliano and left them unstayed unless the court later ordered otherwise.
The detailed version
- Passante v. Luzzo's 211, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-04771
- Stewart Aaron
- July 7, 2020
Background
Mario Passante brought this action against Luzzo’s 211, LLC and Michele Iuliano. The court received a letter stating that Luzzo’s had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Court’s analysis
The court explained that federal bankruptcy law automatically pauses proceedings against a bankruptcy debtor under 11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(1). It therefore stated that the proceedings against Luzzo’s were automatically stayed. The court relied on Second Circuit decisions explaining that this automatic stay generally applies to the debtor and does not automatically extend to nonbankrupt co-defendants.
Ruling and effect
The court stated that, unless it later ordered otherwise, the proceedings against Michele Iuliano were not stayed. The opinion does not state that the court dismissed the case, entered judgment, or issued any other ruling on the underlying claims.
Judge
The order was signed by Gregory H. Woods, United States District Judge.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.