Suarez v. Beyond Health International, LLC
- Jesse Furman
- 1:24-cv-00822
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Suarez v. Beyond Health International, LLC, Magistrate Judge Tarnofsky ordered the parties to discuss settlement and standing, then report whether to mediate, hold a conference, or proceed.
The plaintiff and defendant in the action, and any other parties represented by the proposed class, must follow the ordered settlement discussions and joint-reporting deadlines.
What happened
Suarez v. Beyond Health International, LLC is a putative class action in which the court ordered the parties to meet and confer for at least one hour within 30 days after service of the summons and complaint. They must make a good-faith effort to settle and discuss whether the plaintiff satisfies the threshold requirement of standing.
If the parties cannot settle on their own, they must also discuss whether mediation through the court’s program or a settlement conference would be productive. Within 45 days after service, they must submit a joint letter stating whether they settled.
If there is no settlement, the parties must ask the court to refer the case to mediation, set a settlement conference, or proceed with an initial case-management conference. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky issued this order on February 12, 2024.
The detailed version
- Suarez v. Beyond Health International, LLC · No. 1:24-cv-00822
- Jesse Furman
- Feb. 12, 2024
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. They must make a good-faith effort to settle the action.
During those discussions, the parties should consider whether the plaintiff has satisfied the threshold requirement of standing—the requirement that a plaintiff has the necessary connection to the dispute to invoke the court’s authority. The order cited two Second Circuit decisions concerning standing.
If the parties cannot settle without court involvement, they must also discuss whether additional settlement discussions through the court’s court-annexed mediation program or before Magistrate Judge Tarnofsky would be productive at that time.
Reporting Requirement and Disposition
Within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint, the parties must submit a joint letter telling the court whether they have settled. If they have not settled, the letter must request that the court either refer the case to mediation, set a settlement-conference date, or proceed with an initial case-management conference. The opinion is a procedural settlement-management order; it does not resolve the standing issue or the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.