Dominguez v. The Vintage Twin, LLC
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:20-cv-00202
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Dominguez v. The Vintage Twin, Judge Engelmayer dismissed the ADA case without prejudice for failure to prosecute after plaintiff ignored court directives.
Yovanny Dominguez’s ADA case was dismissed without prejudice; The Vintage Twin, LLC was not required to litigate the case because it had not appeared.
What happened
In Dominguez v. The Vintage Twin, LLC, Yovanny Dominguez claimed that the defendant’s website was not equally accessible to blind and visually impaired customers, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The defendant did not respond or appear. After more than a year of inactivity, the court ordered Dominguez to explain why the case should not be dismissed, but he did not respond. He also did not object to the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss the case.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer adopted the recommendation and dismissed the action without prejudice for failure to prosecute. The court directed the Clerk of Court to close the case.
The detailed version
- Dominguez v. The Vintage Twin, LLC · No. 1:20-cv-00202
- Paul Engelmayer
- Mar. 15, 2021
Background
Yovanny Dominguez filed this action under the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging that The Vintage Twin, LLC’s website was not equally accessible to blind and visually impaired customers. The opinion states that Dominguez filed a document purporting to show service on the defendant, but the defendant did not respond to the complaint or otherwise appear.
After more than a year without further activity, Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein ordered Dominguez to show why the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The order required a legal memorandum and affidavit by February 15, 2021, and warned that failure to comply could itself result in dismissal. Dominguez did not contact the court afterward.
Report and Recommendation
Judge Gorenstein recommended dismissing the action for failure to prosecute. Dominguez did not object to the recommendation. Because no party objected, Judge Engelmayer reviewed the recommendation for clear error, meaning an obvious error on the face of the record. The court found no such error and adopted the recommendation in its entirety.
The court also stated that the parties’ failure to object waived appellate review, based on the warning in the report and recommendation and the authorities it cited.
Ruling
Judge Engelmayer dismissed the action, without prejudice, for failure to prosecute. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the case.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.