Lewis v. Steward
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:19-cv-08085
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Lewis v. Stein, Judge Engelmayer adopted the report, granted Stein’s motion in full, dismissed Lewis’s remaining claims, and closed the case.
Bernard Lewis’s claims against Mark H. Stein and all other remaining defendants were dismissed, and the case was closed. The opinion had previously stated that Lewis’s claims against Chase, Steward, Van De Mark, Giove, and Legal Servicing had already been dismissed.
What happened
Bernard Lewis sued Mark Stein and other defendants over two state-court default judgments arising from unpaid credit-card debt. The court had already dismissed Lewis’s claims against some defendants. The remaining dispute included Stein and several defendants who had not appeared.
Stein asked for judgment based on the pleadings, meaning a decision based on the parties’ filed claims and defenses. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang recommended granting Stein’s motion and dismissing the claims against Stein and the non-appearing defendants. Lewis objected, but the court found that his objections were general, focused partly on issues already decided, and did not address the reasons for dismissing his claims against Stein.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer found no clear error, adopted the recommendation in full, granted Stein’s motion in full, and dismissed Lewis’s claims against all remaining defendants. The clerk was directed to terminate the outstanding motions and close the case.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. Steward · No. 1:19-cv-08085
- Paul Engelmayer
- Feb. 5, 2024
Background
Pro se plaintiff Bernard Lewis brought claims against Annemarie FE. Steward, Legal Servicing, LLC, Robert T. Van De Mark, North American Process Serving, LLC, Rodney A. Giove, Robert Crandall, William Singler, Resolution Management, LLC, Mark H. Stein, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., and Erin Capital Management, LLC. The claims arose from two default judgments entered against Lewis in state court because of unpaid debt on a credit card originally issued by Chase.
The court had previously dismissed Lewis’s claims against Chase and later dismissed his claims against Steward, Van De Mark, Giove, and Legal Servicing. The pending motion was Stein’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang recommended granting that motion and dismissing Lewis’s claims against Stein with prejudice and without leave to amend. The recommendation also proposed the same result for North American Process Serving, LLC, Crandall, Singler, Resolution Management, and Erin Capital, based either on Lewis’s failure to prosecute those claims or on the merits because the claims necessarily failed along with claims against defendants who had appeared.
Objections and review
Lewis timely objected to the recommendation. The district court explained that specific objections require fresh review of the challenged portions of a magistrate judge’s recommendation, while general or conclusory objections are reviewed for clear error. The court concluded that Lewis’s objections were not specific enough to require fresh review. Although Lewis quoted portions of the recommendation and stated that he objected to some conclusions, he did not engage with the recommendation’s reasoning. Many objections concerned defendants and issues that had already been dismissed or decided, including the conduct of Steward.
As to Stein, Lewis argued that there was no evidence that Resolution Management, which Stein represented as an attorney, sold the default judgment back to Legal Servicing after purchasing it. The court found that this argument did not respond to the reasons given for dismissing the claims against Stein. Those reasons included that the New York Judiciary Law § 487(1) claims were time-barred or did not allege deceit by Stein directed at a court; that the negligence claims did not allege that Stein owed Lewis a duty; and that the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claims did not plausibly allege a criminal enterprise or a pattern of racketeering activity.
Ruling
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer found no clear error in Judge Wang’s thorough recommendation and adopted it in full. The court granted Stein’s motion in full and dismissed Lewis’s claims against all remaining defendants. The court directed the clerk to terminate all outstanding motions and close the case. The opinion’s conclusion does not separately state a disposition for each remaining defendant beyond dismissing Lewis’s claims against all of them.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.