United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. Collector's Coffee Inc.
- Victor Marrero
- 1:19-cv-04355
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In SEC v. Collector’s Coffee Inc., Judge Schofield denied Mykalai Kontilai’s objections as untimely.
Mykalai Kontilai, whose objections to the magistrate judge’s October 15, 2020 order were denied as untimely.
What happened
In United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. Collector’s Coffee Inc., Mykalai Kontilai objected to an October 15, 2020 order setting an evidentiary hearing on the Commission’s contempt motion.
The court said objections to a magistrate judge’s order had to be filed within 14 days. Although Kontilai first filed an appeal-related document on October 28, the clerk identified a filing error and directed him to refile it as an objection. The court found that he did not properly file his objections until November 6, after the deadline.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield denied Kontilai’s objections as untimely. The order addressed only the filing deadline and did not decide the underlying contempt matter.
The detailed version
- United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. Collector's Coffee Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-04355
- Victor Marrero
- Nov. 6, 2020
Background
On October 15, 2020, Magistrate Judge Gorenstein issued an order scheduling a December 7–8, 2020 evidentiary hearing on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion for contempt. On October 28, 2020, Defendant Mykalai Kontilai filed an “Appeal of Magistrate Judge Decision.” The clerk identified a filing error and directed Kontilai’s counsel to refile the document in the district court using the filing category for an objection.
Kontilai filed objections to the October 15 order on November 6, 2020.
Rule Applied
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a) requires a party to serve and file objections to a magistrate judge’s order within 14 days after being served with the order. The court concluded that Kontilai did not properly file his objections until November 6, more than 14 days after the October 15 order. The court also noted that he could have corrected the filing error within the objection period but waited until November 6.
Ruling
Judge Lorna G. Schofield ordered that Kontilai’s objections to the October 15 order were DENIED as untimely. The order did not resolve the Commission’s contempt motion or otherwise address the merits of the underlying dispute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.