Navarrete v. Crystal Deli Inc.
- Jesse Furman
- 1:20-cv-06775
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Navarrete v. Crystal Deli, Judge Furman denied another extension and stay but allowed the parties until January 6 to submit required materials.
The plaintiffs and defendants in the Fair Labor Standards Act case were affected by the denial of another extension and stay, the January 6 filing deadline, and the requirement to keep preparing for the January 11 trial unless the court ordered otherwise.
What happened
In Navarrete v. Crystal Deli, an Fair Labor Standards Act wage case, trial was scheduled for January 11, 2022. The parties had told the court they had reached a settlement and asked for another extension of the pretrial-materials deadline and a stay of other deadlines.
The court denied that request because a trial date was set and jury trials were difficult to schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a courtesy, it gave the parties until 5 p.m. on January 6, 2022, to file their pretrial materials, submit their settlement for review, or file an accepted offer of judgment.
Judge Furman kept the January 11 trial date in place and said no further extension of the January 6 deadline would be granted. He also explained that a proposed settlement should address its fairness, incentive payments, and attorney fees, and generally should not include certain confidentiality, broad-release, or non-disparagement provisions.
The detailed version
- Navarrete v. Crystal Deli Inc. · No. 1:20-cv-06775
- Jesse Furman
- Jan. 3, 2022
Background
The plaintiffs brought this case under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal wage-and-hour law. Trial was scheduled for January 11, 2022. The parties previously received a two-week extension of the deadline for pretrial submissions because they were negotiating a settlement. The court warned that the deadline would not be extended again.
On the new deadline, December 27, 2021, the parties reported that they had reached a settlement. They asked for another extension of the pretrial-materials deadline and a stay of all other deadlines.
Court’s ruling
The court denied the request for another extension and stay. As a courtesy, however, it granted the parties until January 6, 2022, at 5 p.m. to do one of three things:
- File their pretrial materials under the court’s rules;
- File the settlement agreement and a joint letter explaining why the proposed settlement was fair and reasonable, including any incentive payments to the plaintiff and any attorney-fee request; or
- File an accepted offer of judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68(a), which the court said does not require judicial approval.
The court explained that a settlement resolving Fair Labor Standards Act claims generally requires approval by the district court or the U.S. Department of Labor when the parties seek a stipulated dismissal with prejudice. The court said it would not approve an agreement containing a confidentiality provision, a release of unaccrued or unrelated claims, or a non-disparagement clause lacking an appropriate exception for truthful statements about the plaintiff’s litigation experience, unless the parties showed case-specific reasons for the provision. The court also said it could approve or reject a settlement but could not rewrite the agreement by removing provisions itself.
Effect of the order
The January 11, 2022 trial date remained in effect unless the court later ordered otherwise. The court stated that it would grant no extensions of the January 6 deadline. Judge Jesse M. Furman issued the order as a scheduling and settlement-related ruling; the opinion does not decide the underlying Fair Labor Standards Act claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.