DeJesus v. Kane
- James Cott
- 1:19-cv-07914
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In DeJesus v. Kane, Judge Cott denied defendants’ request to cancel a settlement conference and required an authorized Geico representative to attend.
The order directly affected defendants Cynthia Kane and Minneh Mary Kane, their counsel, and Geico, whose representative was ordered to participate in the settlement conference.
What happened
In DeJesus v. Kane, the court had postponed an earlier settlement conference because the defendants did not have someone with authority to settle the case present. The court then scheduled a continuation for May 10, 2021, and ordered a representative of Geico with complete settlement authority to participate by telephone.
Defendants’ counsel asked to cancel the conference because they could not guarantee that such a Geico representative would attend. The court found the request untimely and stated that defendants had to comply with its order.
Judge James L. Cott denied the request to cancel the conference. He ordered that the conference proceed and warned that failing to provide the required Geico representative could result in sanctions.
The detailed version
- DeJesus v. Kane · No. 1:19-cv-07914
- James Cott
- May 7, 2021
Background
The court held a settlement conference on April 12, 2021, but adjourned it because defendants did not have a participant with authority to settle the case. When the court scheduled a continuation for May 10, it ordered that the person attending have ultimate responsibility for determining the settlement amount. Because Geico had authority over the settlement, the court also ordered a Geico representative with complete settlement responsibility to participate by telephone for the entire conference.
Request to Cancel
On May 7, defendants’ counsel told the court that defendants could not guarantee the presence of a Geico representative with enough authority to settle and asked the court to cancel the conference. The court found the request untimely because the parties had known about the conference for a month. It also stated that defendants were not free to disregard the directive requiring a Geico representative with complete settlement authority to attend.
Ruling
Judge James L. Cott denied the request to cancel the settlement conference. He ordered that the conference proceed at 10:30 a.m. on May 10, 2021, and warned that failure to comply with the requirement for a fully authorized Geico representative could result in sanctions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.