Ortega v. Trident Restoration, Inc.
- Katherine Failla
- 1:23-cv-01927
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ortega v. Trident Restoration, Judge Failla directed defendants to respond to plaintiffs’ requests to postpone mediation and allow pre-certification wage-and-hour discovery.
The plaintiffs and defendants in the proposed Fair Labor Standards Act collective and New York Labor Law class action, particularly the parties’ mediation schedule and the plaintiffs’ request for pre-certification discovery.
What happened
Ortega v. Trident Restoration, Inc. is a proposed class and collective action alleging minimum-wage and overtime violations under federal and New York law. The court had referred the case to mediation, scheduled for July 19, 2023.
The plaintiffs said they had been unable to communicate with defense counsel about discovery and requested that mediation be postponed until after the court decided class-certification motions. They also asked to obtain wage, time, payroll, and compensation records before certification.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla did not decide those requests in this order. Instead, she directed the defendants to file a response by July 7, 2023.
The detailed version
- Ortega v. Trident Restoration, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-01927
- Katherine Failla
- July 5, 2023
Background
The plaintiffs, Angel Ortega, Jorge Navarro, and ten opt-in plaintiffs, brought a proposed class and collective action against Trident Restoration, Inc. and other associated entities. The complaint alleges minimum-wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The defendants had answered the complaint, and the court had referred the case to mediation under a pilot program for cases involving Fair Labor Standards Act claims. The mediation was scheduled for July 19, 2023.
Plaintiffs’ requests
In a letter to the court, the plaintiffs said they had tried to contact defense counsel since June 1, 2023, to discuss the scope of discovery and documents to be produced before mediation. They said they had received no response after three emails and a telephone call. The plaintiffs asked the court to postpone the mediation until after deciding their class-certification motion. They also asked permission to conduct discovery before certification concerning class-wide wage-and-hour and compensation records.
Court’s action
The order did not decide whether to postpone mediation or permit the requested pre-certification discovery. Judge Katherine Polk Failla directed the defendants to file a response to the plaintiffs’ letter by July 7, 2023.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.