Rahman v. Red Chili Indian Cafe, Inc.

Background

Mahfujur Rahman and Liton Shah sued Red Chili Indian Cafe, Inc., Mohammed Mojnu Miah, and Noor Islam, asserting claims for unpaid wages and other relief under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. Miah and Islam initially answered, but the opinion states that they repeatedly failed to participate in the litigation, attend court conferences, and comply with discovery obligations. Red Chili Indian Cafe, Inc. previously received a default judgment because it never appeared through counsel.

The court had previously struck the individual defendants’ answer, but later reinstated it after Miah and Islam appeared at a show-cause hearing and received another opportunity to participate. The court warned them that they would lose the case if they again failed to respond, attend proceedings, or meet deadlines. The defendants nevertheless missed another conference and fell short of their discovery obligations.

Report and Recommendation

The plaintiffs filed a second motion to strike the individual defendants’ answer. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses recommended granting the motion, striking the defendants’ Joint Answer and Affirmative Defenses, and allowing the plaintiffs to seek a default judgment against Miah and Islam.

Miah sent two letters. The letters expressed a desire to participate in future proceedings, comply with discovery, and address financial difficulties, but they did not identify specific errors in Judge Moses’s findings or conclusions and did not directly address the motion to strike. Judge Abrams therefore reviewed the recommendation for clear error rather than conducting a fresh review of disputed issues.

Ruling

Judge Ronnie Abrams found no clear error and adopted Judge Moses’s report and recommendation in its entirety. The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion to strike and struck the defendants’ Joint Answer and Affirmative Defenses. The court did not enter a default judgment against Miah or Islam in this order. Instead, it instructed the plaintiffs to file any motion for default judgment against them by March 10, 2021, under the applicable federal and local rules.

The order also directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion and mail a copy of the order to Miah and Islam. The ruling was based on the defendants’ repeated failures to litigate and comply with court orders; it did not decide the underlying wage claims.