Kim v. Choi

Background

Plaintiffs Sara Kim and Angelo Duva sued Stephen Choi, Christine Tripi, and St. Vince Group, LLC, doing business as East Village Tavern and DayTripper. The settlement documents state that the lawsuit included claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), including minimum-wage claims, as well as state-law claims.

The parties reached an agreement in principle during a July 15, 2020 mediation. Their proposed settlement would resolve the FLSA claims through a settlement subject to court review under the Second Circuit’s settlement-approval requirement, while allowing the plaintiffs’ state-law claims to proceed in state court. The proposed dismissal stated that the case would be dismissed with prejudice only as to the FLSA claims, while the settlement would not bar the unreleased state-law claims.

Request for an Extension

The plaintiffs’ counsel reported that Tripi filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on August 6, 2020. Plaintiffs later received notice of the bankruptcy filing and asked for a one-week extension of the deadline for filing the settlement-approval application. They wanted additional time to determine whether the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay affected the planned settlement and dismissal. The proposed new deadline was September 2, 2020. The defendants did not oppose the request.

The letter also stated that the settlement agreement had been fully executed. It described a proposed confession of judgment under which Choi would acknowledge the LLC’s liability to the plaintiffs in the amount of $11,000, followed by a stipulated dismissal.

Ruling

Judge Ona T. Wang granted the application. The endorsement also stated that ECF 43 was denied as moot. The order did not resolve whether the bankruptcy automatic stay barred the proposed dismissal, and it did not independently decide the merits of the plaintiffs’ FLSA or state-law claims.