Vasquez v. MobileShack Inc.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:19-cv-10371
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Vasquez v. MobileShack Inc., Judge Engelmayer directed termination of 12 defendants after plaintiffs stipulated to voluntarily dismiss them without prejudice.
The plaintiffs and the 12 defendants named in the voluntary-dismissal stipulation were affected; the Clerk of Court was directed to terminate those defendants. The opinion does not state what happened to any remaining defendants or claims.
What happened
Vasquez v. MobileShack Inc. is a Fair Labor Standards Act case in which the plaintiffs submitted an agreement to voluntarily dismiss 12 defendants. The filing was made under the federal rule allowing parties to dismiss defendants by stipulation.
The plaintiffs told the court that the dismissal would be without prejudice and that no settlement existed between them and the defendants being dismissed. Because there was no settlement for the court to review, the court said it did not need to examine settlement terms.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the 12 listed defendants. The opinion did not state that the claims against the remaining defendants were resolved.
The detailed version
- Vasquez v. MobileShack Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-10371
- Paul Engelmayer
- May 11, 2022
Background
The plaintiffs brought this case under the Fair Labor Standards Act. On May 10, 2022, they submitted a stipulation of voluntary dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) against First Class Wireless Inc., International Cellular Inc., BestBuy Wireless Inc., Express Mobile, Inc., Cellular Stop Inc., Cellular Stop IT, Inc., WorldWide Mobile, Inc., Mobilecom Inc., International Mobile, Inc., Repair City Inc., Wireless World of Manhattan Inc., and Cellular To Go, Ltd.
Court’s analysis
The court explained that parties generally cannot privately settle Fair Labor Standards Act claims with prejudice without approval from the district court or the Department of Labor. Here, however, the plaintiffs stipulated to dismissal without prejudice and informed the court that no settlement existed between the plaintiffs and the defendants to be dismissed. The court therefore concluded that it did not need to review settlement terms under the cited precedent.
Disposition
The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the 12 listed defendants. The opinion did not state a separate disposition concerning any other defendants or claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.