Akhmed Gadzhievich v. Herman Gref

Background

Akhmed Gadzhievich Bilalov sued Herman Gref, Sberbank CIB USA, Inc., Sberbank of Russia PJSC, and Does 1-100. He asserted claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, as well as claims for fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, conversion, malicious abuse of process, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Alien Tort Claims Act.

In a September 13, 2022 order, Judge Torres granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Bilalov’s Second Amended Complaint. That order permitted Bilalov to request permission to file a third amended complaint, but only to amend his abuse-of-process claim. Bilalov moved for that permission on October 4, 2022. The parties later withdrew his appeal from the dismissal order.

Magistrate Judge’s Recommendation

Judge Gardephe referred the motion to Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis. Judge Willis issued a Report and Recommendation, or R&R—a magistrate judge’s proposed decision for the district judge—recommending that the motion be denied. The R&R concluded that neither proposed amendment corrected the defect identified in Judge Torres’s dismissal order.

The R&R gave the parties fourteen days to file written objections and warned that failing to object would waive judicial review. No party filed objections.

Court’s Analysis and Ruling

Because no objections were filed, the parties waived ordinary judicial review of the R&R. The court explained that this waiver rule is not jurisdictional and that it could review the record for clear error, meaning an obvious mistake. After reviewing the R&R, the court found it thorough, well reasoned, and free of clear error.

Judge Gardephe adopted Judge Willis’s R&R in its entirety and denied Bilalov’s motion for leave to file a third amended complaint. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the motion and close the case. The opinion does not state that the court separately dismissed the case in this order; it states that the case was closed after the motion was denied.