Dalmau v. 1084 NY Ave LLC

Background

The court reviewed the parties’ joint request to approve a fully executed settlement agreement under the requirement that certain wage-and-hour settlements receive judicial review. The agreement settled Juan Mejia Dalmau’s claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law against Liberty Place Property Management LLC. Liberty Place managed the building where Dalmau worked until January 2018. Liberty Place was only one of the defendants in the action, and claims against other defendants, including the successor management company, remained pending.

The parties reached the settlement after arm’s-length bargaining at a judicially supervised settlement conference before Judge Moses on December 1, 2021. The parties later consented to Judge Moses’s jurisdiction for purposes of approving the settlement.

Settlement Terms and Court’s Analysis

Liberty Place agreed to pay Dalmau a lump sum of $20,000. The parties acknowledged that this amount was substantially less than Dalmau’s counsel’s estimate of a possible maximum recovery of up to $280,000. The court nevertheless found the payment fair and reasonable because Dalmau faced several litigation risks, including:

- Liberty Place’s non-frivolous argument that Dalmau was entirely exempt from overtime under New York law as a residential-building “janitor”; - sharp factual disputes about the hours Dalmau actually worked; and - a 2016 release that, if enforceable, would bar recovery for approximately one-third of the period covered by Dalmau’s New York Labor Law claims against Liberty Place.

Dalmau’s attorneys waived their fee, so Dalmau would receive the entire $20,000 settlement. The agreement also included a limited release covering claims concerning or related to minimum-wage and overtime pay and related matters. It did not include a confidentiality clause, rehiring prohibition, or non-disparagement requirement.

Disposition

The court found that the financial and non-financial terms satisfied the applicable fairness requirement and approved the proposed settlement. The court dismissed this action as to Liberty Place Property Management LLC only, with prejudice and without costs. The opinion states that claims against other defendants remained pending.

Classification

This is a procedural order because the court approved a settlement and dismissed the claims against one defendant without deciding the underlying wage-and-hour merits.