| Disputed Deli Deal Leads To
W 119 St Mystery and Motion to Judge Liman To
Withdraw
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 14 – Sometimes Fair Labor
Standards Act litigation gets
interesting or volatile. Such
was the case on May 28 before
Judge Lewis J. Liman of the
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York.
Inner City Press covered the
proceeding. A settlement
had been filed, but was then
contested.
But Judge Liman,
reading from the docket during
the conference, said he was
troubled by counsel's
statements to the
court.
Still,
judiciously, he focused on
resolving the dispute, urging
the parties to contact the
assigned Magistrate Judge Ona
T. Wang, or a mediator. If
not, he's going to rule on the
motion to set aside the
default judgement.
Now on
June 14, the phantom settler's
lawyer is seeking to withdraw,
stating in part: "I have sent
my client two letters by US
Mail, one sent on or about
April 18, 2020, and another on
or about June 1, 2020. I have
also emailed him, messaged him
on facebook, and my office has
made calls and sent text
messages. In terms of calls
and text messages, my office
has attempted to contact him
in that manner once a week for
the past 3 weeks. Voicemails
were left but no response was
received.
10. I also
attempted to visit Plaintiff
at two of the physical
addresses I have for him. At
one address, no one answered
when I knocked on the door.
11. The other
address I have for Plaintiff
is actually from the “Waiver
of General Liability” that
Defendants filed on the
docket. That document lists
the following address for
Plaintiff: 30 West 119th
Street, Apt 4, New York, NY
10026. When I went to that
address, I spoke to an
individual named Mansoor S.
Alhalmi who said he lived
there but that Plaintiff did
not live there. When I asked
him where Plaintiff did live,
he asked me my name. I
identified myself as an
attorney and gave my name,
Mohammed Gangat. Mr. Alhalmi
stopped speaking with me
immediately. Interestingly, I
represent another individual
in another wage and hour
action against a deli where we
obtained a default judgment
against an individual
defendant named Mansoor S.
Alhalmi, residing at 30 West
119th Street, Apt 4, New York,
NY 10026. See Bouhajrah v.
Halmi et al., No 651962/2019
(Sup. Ct., NY Cty.)
12. In terms of
communicating with the
Plaintiff, I think the
Defendants or Mr. Alhalmi are
in contact with Plaintiff,
however neither of them are
willing to share any
information with me so at this
point I have no other ways of
attempting to contact
Plaintiff and must seek to
withdraw." Will Judge Liman
accep it?
The case is El
Aalaoui v. Lucky Star Gourmet
Deli Inc. et al, 19-cv-773
(Liman).
***
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