Medina v. The City of New York

Opinion

Sian, USDC SDNY ENDORSED (28 DOCUMENT flat: See ELECTRONICALLY FILED LHe iE DOC #____ pies oy DATE FILED:_220/2020

THE CiTy OF NEW YORK JAMES E. JOHNSON LAW DEPARTMENT GIANCARLO MARTINEZ Corporation Counsel 100 CHURCH STREET, Rm. 3-137 Assistant Corporation Counsel NEW YORK, NY 10007 Phone: (212) 356-3541 Fax: (212) 356-3509 gmartine @law.nyc.gov

February 20, 2020

BY ECF Honorable Judge Valerie E. Caproni United States District Judge United States District Court Southern District of New York 40 Foley Square New York, NY 10007 Re: Zahirah Medina v. City of New York, et al., 20 Civ. 797 (VEC) Your Honor: I am an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Office of James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, and the attorney assigned to the defense of the City of New York (“City”) in the above-referenced matter. I write to request a 60 day enlargement of time for the City to respond to the Complaint, from February 25, 2020, until April 24, 2020. Further, the City also requests that the Court will apply this enlargement sua sponte to the named defendant, Officer Christopher Wintermute. No enlargement request is being made for Officer Wintermute, as this Office has not yet been able to determine whether it is capable of representing him. Additionally, the City requests an adjournment of the Initial Conference, currently set for March 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., to a date convenient to the Court after April 24, 2020. This is the City’s first request for an enlargement of time and to adjourn the Initial Conference, and plaintiff's counsel consents to both requests. The reason for these requests is that, pursuant to Section 50-k of the New York General Municipal Law, this Office must determine, based on a review of the facts of the case, whether we may represent the aforementioned defendants. See General Municipal Law § 50(k). The defendants must then determine whether they wish to be represented by this Office. If they do, we must obtain their written consent. Only after this procedure has been followed can we determine how to proceed in this case. See Mercurio v. The City of New York, et al., 758 F.2d 862, 864-65 (2d Cir. 1985) (quoting Williams v. City of New York, et al., 64 N.Y.2d 800, 486

N.Y.S.2d 918 (1985) (decision whether to represent individual defendants is made by the Corporation Counsel as set forth in state law)). Accordingly, the City respectfully requests that the Court (1) extend all defendants’ time to respond to the Complaint from February 25, 2020, until April 24, 2020, and adjourn the Initial Conference, currently scheduled for March 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., to a date convenient to the Court after April 24, 2020. Thank you for your consideration herein.

Respectfully submitted, /s/ Giancarlo MaKiney Giancarlo Martinez Assistant Corporation Counsel Special Federal Litigation Division

Application GRANTED. Defendants’ time to cc: All Counsel of Record (via ECF) respond to the Complaint is extended to April 24, 2020. The initial pretrial conference currently scheduled for March 13, 2020 is adjourned to May 2020 at 10:00 a.m. SO ORDERED. le 2/20/ HON. VALERIE CAPRONI UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE