155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-04044
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In 155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno, Judge Furman granted 155 Wooster’s unopposed summary-judgment motion in its entirety and set a schedule for attorney’s fees.
155 Wooster LLC and Lori Bruno; the order granted 155 Wooster’s motion for summary judgment in its entirety and established a process for deciding attorney’s fees.
What happened
155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno concerned 155 Wooster’s motion for summary judgment against Lori Bruno. The motion addressed the second and third causes of action in 155 Wooster’s amended complaint and sought dismissal of Bruno’s affirmative defenses.
Bruno did not oppose the motion or respond to the court’s order requiring her to explain why it should not be treated as unopposed. The court reviewed 155 Wooster’s motion papers and supporting evidence and applied the rule that summary judgment is proper only when undisputed facts show that the moving party is legally entitled to judgment.
Judge Jesse M. Furman granted 155 Wooster’s motion in its entirety. He declined to refer the attorney’s-fee issue to a special referee and instead ordered 155 Wooster to file a fee motion with billing records by November 10, 2020, with any opposition due November 17, 2020.
The detailed version
- 155 Wooster LLC v. Bruno · No. 1:20-cv-04044
- Jesse Furman
- Oct. 27, 2020
Background
155 Wooster LLC moved for summary judgment under Rule 56(a) against Defendant Lori Bruno. Summary judgment is a judgment entered without a trial when the undisputed facts show that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The motion sought judgment on the second and third causes of action in 155 Wooster’s amended complaint and dismissal of Bruno’s affirmative defenses.
Bruno filed no opposition. The court had previously ordered her to show good cause by October 23, 2020, why the motion should not be deemed unopposed, and warned that failing to do so would result in that treatment. Bruno did not respond.
Ruling
The court stated that an unopposed summary-judgment motion may be granted only after the undisputed facts and applicable law show that the moving party is entitled to judgment. After reviewing 155 Wooster’s motion papers and supporting evidence, the court granted the motion in its entirety, substantially for the reasons given in 155 Wooster’s memorandum of law. The opinion does not provide the memorandum’s detailed explanation of the underlying claims.
155 Wooster also asked the court to refer determination of attorney’s fees related to its third cause of action to a special referee. The court declined that request. Instead, it ordered 155 Wooster to file a motion for attorney’s fees, supported by contemporaneous billing records, by November 10, 2020. Any opposition was due November 17, 2020, and no reply could be filed without the court’s permission. The clerk was directed to terminate the summary-judgment motion from the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.