Sutton v. Burger Keeper, LLC
- Rochon
- 1:23-cv-02487
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Sutton v. Burger Kepper, Judge Rochon ordered settlement discussions and reporting deadlines without deciding the case’s merits.
Stason Sutton and defendants Burger Kepper, LLC and La Scala Restaurant, LLC, who must comply with the settlement-discussion and joint-letter deadlines.
What happened
In Sutton v. Burger Kepper, LLC and La Scala Restaurant, LLC, the court ordered the parties to meet for at least one hour within 30 days after the summons and complaint are served. They must make a good-faith effort to settle and discuss whether Sutton meets the legal requirement of having a valid stake in the case.
If the parties cannot settle, they must also discuss whether mediation or a settlement conference with a magistrate judge would help. Within 15 more days, they must send the court a joint letter stating whether they settled.
If the case is not settled, the joint letter must ask the court either to refer the case to mediation or a magistrate judge, or to schedule an initial status conference. Judge Jennifer L. Rochon did not decide the merits of Sutton’s claims.
The detailed version
- Sutton v. Burger Keeper, LLC · No. 1:23-cv-02487
- Rochon
- Mar. 29, 2023
Order
The court ordered the parties to meet and confer for at least one hour within 30 days after service of the summons and complaint. The meeting must be a good-faith attempt to settle the action.
The parties were directed to discuss whether the plaintiff has satisfied the threshold requirement of standing, meaning whether the plaintiff has a sufficient legal stake to bring the case. The order cited Second Circuit decisions addressing standing. The order did not decide whether standing exists.
If the parties cannot settle on their own, they must discuss whether additional settlement discussions through the court’s mediation program or before a magistrate judge would be productive at that time.
Within 15 additional days—45 days after service of the summons and complaint—the parties must submit a joint letter telling the court whether they settled. If they did not settle, the letter must request either referral to mediation or a settlement conference before a magistrate judge, with a stated preference between those options, or an initial status conference.
Disposition and effect
This was a procedural settlement-management order. It did not resolve the parties’ claims, decide the standing issue, or enter judgment.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.