Dominguez v. City of New York
- Katherine Failla
- 1:21-cv-02302
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Dominguez v. City of New York, Judge Failla granted requests to separate and extend discovery deadlines.
Steven Dominguez, the City of New York, the individual City defendants, and the parties’ discovery schedule were affected. Discovery concerning the City’s municipal-liability claims was stayed, while other discovery deadlines were extended.
What happened
In Steven Dominguez v. City of New York, the defendants asked for more time to complete fact discovery and to separate discovery about the City’s municipal-liability claims from other discovery. The plaintiff agreed to the requests.
The case includes claims involving an alleged January 1, 2020 incident, including false arrest, excessive force, and municipal liability. Additional police defendants had recently been added, and the parties said more documents might need to be produced.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted the requests. She stayed discovery about the claims against the City under the municipal-liability rule known as Monell, set October 21, 2022, as the fact-discovery deadline and December 5, 2022, as the expert-discovery deadline, and moved the pretrial conference to November 2, 2022.
The detailed version
- Dominguez v. City of New York · No. 1:21-cv-02302
- Katherine Failla
- Aug. 15, 2022
Background
The defendants requested a 60-day extension of the fact-discovery deadline, along with corresponding extensions of the remaining discovery deadlines. They also asked the court to separate discovery concerning Steven Dominguez’s municipal-liability claims against the City of New York and to pause that discovery until after liability had been determined as to individual City defendants. The plaintiff consented to both requests.
The opinion states that Dominguez asserts claims including false arrest, excessive force, and municipal liability arising from an alleged incident on January 1, 2020. Dominguez filed a Second Amended Complaint on May 25, 2022, adding Patrick Graney, Evan Nielsen, and Patrick Lynch as defendants. The newly added defendants had been served and had filed answers. The parties had exchanged paper discovery and said that additional documents might need to be produced.
Ruling
The court granted the application. It granted the parties’ request to bifurcate, or separate, discovery and stayed discovery concerning Dominguez’s claims against the City under Monell v. Department of Social Services, the legal theory for municipal liability referenced in the order. The court also granted an extension of the remaining discovery deadlines. Fact discovery had to be completed by October 21, 2022, and expert discovery by December 5, 2022. The court adjourned the pretrial conference from August 31, 2022, to November 2, 2022, at 3:00 p.m., and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion at docket entry 71. Judge Katherine Polk Failla did not decide the underlying claims in this discovery order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.