Fernandez v. GreatFaces, Inc.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:24-cv-01585
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Fernandez v. GreatFaces, Magistrate Judge Tarnofsky ordered the parties to discuss settlement and report whether the case should proceed.
Jacqueline Fernandez and GreatFaces, Inc. must comply with the required settlement meeting and joint-letter deadlines.
What happened
Fernandez v. GreatFaces, Inc. is an order requiring the parties to begin settlement efforts soon after the lawsuit was served. The order does not decide the legal claims or whether the plaintiff has standing to sue.
Within 30 days after service of the summons and complaint, the parties must meet for at least one hour and make a good-faith effort to settle. They must also discuss whether further mediation or a settlement conference would be useful, including whether the plaintiff satisfied the basic requirement of having standing.
Within 45 days after service, the parties must submit a joint letter stating whether they settled. If not, they must ask the court either to refer the case to mediation, schedule a settlement conference, or set an initial case-management conference, as ordered by Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky.
The detailed version
- Fernandez v. GreatFaces, Inc. · No. 1:24-cv-01585
- Paul Engelmayer
- Mar. 11, 2024
Order
The court ordered Jacqueline Fernandez and GreatFaces, Inc. to meet and confer within 30 days after service of the summons and complaint. The meeting must last at least one hour and must involve a good-faith attempt to settle the action.
Standing and Further Settlement Discussions
The parties were instructed to discuss whether Fernandez had satisfied the threshold requirement of standing—the requirement that a plaintiff be legally entitled to bring the case. The order cited Second Circuit decisions addressing standing. The court did not decide whether Fernandez had standing.
If the parties could not settle the case themselves, they were also required to discuss whether additional settlement discussions through the court’s mediation program or before Magistrate Judge Tarnofsky would be productive at that time.
Required Joint Letter and Disposition
Within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint, the parties must submit a joint letter telling the court whether they settled. If they did not settle, the letter must request one of three next steps: referral to mediation, a scheduled settlement conference, or an initial case-management conference.
This is a procedural order concerning settlement and case management. It does not resolve the parties’ underlying claims or the standing issue.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.