Lin v. Grand Sichuan 74 st Inc.

Background

The court had previously extended discovery through June 30, 2023. On that date, the plaintiffs filed a motion to compel and asked to extend the deadline for dispositive motions. The defendants opposed the requests, asserting that the plaintiffs’ document requests repeated earlier requests and that the defendants had no additional responsive documents in their possession, custody, or control.

The plaintiffs sought employee records, lease agreements, and tax documents from the corporate defendants. The court applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1), which permits discovery of nonprivileged information relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case. The party seeking discovery initially must show relevance and proportionality; after that showing, the responding party must justify limiting discovery.

Discovery Rulings

The court found the employee records relevant to the plaintiffs’ claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law. It found the lease agreements relevant to determining which entity functioned as the plaintiffs’ employer under the FLSA’s economic-reality analysis. It also found tax documents relevant because the defendants asserted that the plaintiffs could not establish FLSA enterprise coverage, which depends in part on an employer’s annual gross volume of sales or business.

The court directed the defendants to file a letter by October 6, 2023, stating whether they had already searched for and produced all requested employee records, lease agreements, and tax documents in their possession. If they had not, the defendants were required to inform the court and produce the documents by October 20, 2023. The court stated that it would rely on counsel’s representations absent demonstrable sanctionable conduct, while noting that the plaintiffs could seek permission to pursue sanctions under Rule 37(b) if the representations were untruthful or made in bad faith.

The defendants also asserted that the plaintiffs had produced no documents required by the initial-disclosure rule. The court therefore ordered the plaintiffs to provide all disclosures required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) by October 6, 2023.

Deadline Extensions and Other Ruling

Because further discovery was required, the court granted the request to extend fact discovery and set a new deadline of October 31, 2023. The court also granted the request to extend the deadline for dispositive motions, setting December 1, 2023, as the filing deadline.

The court separately denied the defendants’ request to reconsider an earlier ruling concerning the removal of Miao Wang and Youmin Shen from the docket as plaintiffs. The court denied that request as untimely under Southern District of New York Local Rule 6.3, which requires a reconsideration or reargument motion to be served within fourteen days after entry of the challenged determination.

The court directed the parties to submit a joint letter regarding their interest in a settlement conference or mediation and requested that the Clerk close Docket Nos. 323 and 327. Judge Jennifer E. Willis signed the order.