Rosario v. Fresh Smoothies LLC
- Lewis Liman
- 1:20-cv-05831
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Rosario v. Fresh Smoothies LLC: Judge Liman granted a motion correcting Robinson Capello’s name to Robinson Capellan in the judgment.
The ruling affected Yajaira Rosario, the individual defendant whose name was corrected from “Robinson Capello” to “Robinson Capellan,” the other defendants named in the judgment, and the Clerk of Court, who was directed to update the caption and issue a revised judgment.
What happened
In Rosario v. Fresh Smoothies LLC, Yajaira Rosario asked the court to correct the name of one individual defendant in an earlier default judgment. The case had already resulted in a judgment against the defendants, including the person identified in the filings as Robinson Capello.
Rosario’s lawyer explained that the filings used the wrong spelling, while records and addresses connected the defendant to the name Robinson Capellan. No defendant responded to the motion. The court considered whether this was a simple labeling mistake involving the correct defendant rather than a mistake about which person was sued.
The court granted the motion. Judge Lewis J. Liman directed the Clerk of Court to replace “Robinson Capello” with “Robinson Capellan” in the caption and issue a revised judgment containing the corrected name.
The detailed version
- Rosario v. Fresh Smoothies LLC · No. 1:20-cv-05831
- Lewis Liman
- Aug. 1, 2022
Background
On December 9, 2021, the court ordered entry of default judgment against Fresh Frutii LLC, Fresh Smoothies LLC, Robinson Capello, and John Francis Rivera. The Clerk of Court entered a judgment in favor of Yajaira Rosario that stated the court’s ruling and awarded damages.
Rosario later moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a) to amend the judgment because the filings had misspelled one individual defendant’s name. The motion stated that the correct name was Robinson Capellan. No defendant, including Capellan, responded.
Court’s analysis
Rule 60(a) allows a court to correct a clerical error or an error caused by oversight in a judgment, order, or other part of the record. The court explained that this rule can correct a misnomer—a mistake in naming a party—when the plaintiff sued the correct defendant but used the wrong label.
The court applied three considerations: how the plaintiff identified the defendant, whether the complaint listed the defendant’s correct address, and how similar the incorrect and correct names were. It found that all three factors supported correction. The complaint described “Capello” as an officer, director, shareholder, or person in control of the restaurants; a time sheet identified the manager of Fresh Frutii LLC as “Robinson Capellan”; records connected Capellan with addresses listed in or used for service in the case; and “Robinson Capello” was highly similar to “Robinson Capellan.”
Ruling
The court held that Rosario had shown she mislabeled the correct defendant rather than sued the wrong person. The court therefore granted the motion to amend the judgment. Judge Lewis J. Liman directed the Clerk of Court to amend the caption by substituting “Robinson Capellan” for “Robinson Capello” and to issue a revised judgment with the corrected name.
Result and scope
The opinion addresses only the requested name correction to the existing judgment. It does not revisit the earlier default judgment or the damages stated in that judgment.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.