Marquez v. Rosebox LLC
- Stewart Aaron
- 1:23-cv-08171
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Marquez v. Rosebox LLC, Judge Aaron required more information before deciding whether to approve a federal wage-and-hour settlement because its release appeared too broad.
The parties to the proposed settlement, including Lily Andreina Sosa Marquez, Rosebox LLC, and the other defendants, as well as potential members of the settlement group.
What happened
In Marquez v. Rosebox LLC, the parties asked the court to approve a settlement involving claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal wage-and-hour law, and related New York law. The case was brought by Lily Andreina Sosa Marquez individually and for others in a similar situation.
The parties said the settlement’s release covered only wage-and-hour claims connected to Marquez’s alleged employment. The court found that the release as written covered many other types of claims beyond those at issue in the lawsuit.
The court did not decide whether to approve the settlement. Judge Stewart D. Aaron ordered the parties to file a joint letter by March 8, 2024, explaining how the release complied with the required settlement-review standards.
The detailed version
- Marquez v. Rosebox LLC · No. 1:23-cv-08171
- Stewart Aaron
- Mar. 1, 2024
Background
Lily Andreina Sosa Marquez brought this action individually and on behalf of others similarly situated against Rosebox LLC and other defendants. The claims included alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal wage-and-hour law, and the New York Labor Law. The parties submitted a joint letter seeking court approval of their settlement under the Second Circuit’s requirements for reviewing FLSA settlements.
Issue
The parties represented that Paragraph 5 of the settlement agreement contained a release limited to FLSA, New York Labor Law, and related regulatory claims concerning Marquez’s alleged employment. The court reviewed the actual release and found that it was not limited in that way. Instead, it included numerous claims beyond the wage-and-hour claims at issue in the lawsuit.
Ruling
The court did not approve or reject the settlement in this order. It ordered the parties to file a joint letter no later than Friday, March 8, 2024, addressing how the release, as written, complied with the settlement-review requirements. Judge Stewart D. Aaron cited authority stating that a release may be improper when it requires a plaintiff to give up a broad set of claims extending beyond wage-and-hour issues or the claims in the lawsuit.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.