Viada v. Osaka Health Spa, Inc.

235 F.R.D. 55, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8957, 2006 WL 571350
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 3, 2006
DocketNo. 04 CIV. 02744(VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 235 F.R.D. 55 (Viada v. Osaka Health Spa, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Viada v. Osaka Health Spa, Inc., 235 F.R.D. 55, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8957, 2006 WL 571350 (S.D.N.Y. 2006).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

MARRERO, District Judge.

I. BACKGROUND

By Orders dated December 8 and December 9, 2005, Magistrate Judge Kevin N. Fox, to whom the Court referred this matter for pretrial supervision, issued a Report and Recommendation (the “Lee Reports”) recommending that the Court deny each of two motions filed by defendant Nam-Hi Lee (“Lee”) herein: (1) to dismiss the action pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) and (2) to sever Lee from the case. In addition, by Order [57]*57dated December 12, 2005, Magistrate Judge Fox submitted another Report and Recommendation (the “Osaka Report”) recommending that the motion of plaintiffs for entry of default judgment against the corporate defendants Osaka Health Spa, Inc. and Osaka Spa Construction, Inc. (collectively, the “Osaka Defendants”), for failure to comply with a previous Court Order directing the Osaka Defendants, upon the withdrawal of their previous attorney, to obtain new counsel. None of the parties submitted opposition or any other comment to any of Magistrate Judge Fox’s three reports described herein.

II.STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court evaluating a Magistrate Judge’s report may adopt those portions of the report to which no “specific, written objection” is made, as long as the factual and legal bases supporting the findings and conclusions set forth in those sections are not clearly erroneous. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b); Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 149, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985); Greene v. WCI Holdings Corp., 956 F.Supp. 509, 513 (S.D.N.Y.1997). “Where a party makes a ‘specific written objection’ within ‘[ten] days after being served with a copy of the [magistrate judge’s] recommended disposition,’ however, the district court is required to make a de novo determination regarding those parts of the report.” Cespedes v. Coughlin, 956 F.Supp. 454, 463 (S.D.N.Y.1997) (quoting United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 676, 100 S.Ct. 2406, 65 L.Ed.2d 424 (1980)). A district judge may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings and recommendations of the Magistrate Judge. See DeLuca v. Lord, 858 F.Supp. 1330, 1345 (S.D.N.Y.1994); Walker v. Hood, 679 F.Supp. 372, 374 (S.D.N.Y.1988).

III.DISCUSSION

The Court finds that the facts set forth in the Lee Reports and the Osaka Report are supported by the record and are thus incorporated herein by reference. Having conducted a review of the full record, including, among other things, each of the Reports and applicable legal authorities, the Court concludes that the factual findings, reasoning and legal support for the recommendations made by Magistrate Judge Fox in each of the three Reports are not clearly erroneous.

With regard to Lee’s motion to dismiss, Magistrate Judge Fox correctly noted that the Rule 60 provision Lee invoked applies only to obtain relief from a prior judgment issued by the Court, and therefore did not serve as a proper means to seek dismissal of an action. As an alternative approach, the report suggested that Lee’s request be deemed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), as plaintiffs proposed, and then be converted into a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56. The Court considers that recommendation more appropriate and notes that the parties are already undertaking to file motions for summary judgment. Lee may elect to follow this course, upon preparation of the necessary evidentiary support for such motion. As regards Lee’s request to sever, Magistrate Judge Fox proposed that the motion be read as one filed under Rule 21 for misjoinder of parties. On that basis, the report found that, given plaintiffs’ factual allegations as set forth in the complaint, the prerequisites of Rule 20 for permissive joinder of Lee had been met, and therefore that no relief for misjoinder under Rule 21 was warranted. The Court agrees, substantially for the reasons articulated by Magistrate Judge Fox.

Finally, the Court adopts Magistrate Judge Fox’s recommendation in the Osaka Report to deny the default judgment plaintiffs sought. There is no basis for such drastic relief under the circumstances of this case, especially after the Osaka Defendants proceeded to retain new counsel.

IV.ORDER

For the reasons discussed above, it is hereby

ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox dated, respectively, December 8, 2005 (Docket No. 136); December 9, 2005 (Docket No. 135); and December 12, 2005 (Docket No. 138), each is adopted in its entirety, and that the motions of defendant Nam-Hi Lee (Docket Nos. 43 and 58) to dismiss and/or to [58]*58sever this case, and of plaintiffs (Docket No. 118) for entry of default judgment against defendants Osaka Health Spa, Inc. and Osaka Spa Construction, Inc., are DENIED.

SO ORDERED.

REPORT and RECOMMENDATION

FOX, United States Magistrate Judge.

TO THE HONORABLE VICTOR MARRE-RO, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

In the case at bar, brought under, inter alia, the Fair Labor Standards Act, defendant Nam-Hi Lee (“Lee”) has made a motion to dismiss, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). Lee contends that the relief she seeks is warranted because the plaintiffs have stolen medical records and documents pertinent to their work and salary history from premises controlled by the defendants and, thereby, have hampered the defendants’ ability to contest the allegations made against them in this action. According to Lee, as a consequence of the plaintiffs’ misconduct, criminal charges have been preferred against two of them by a local prosecutor.

The plaintiffs oppose Lee’s motion. They contend that the motion should be construed liberally as a request to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), and, furthermore, that inasmuch as Lee has relied upon matters outside the pleadings to support her motion, the motion should be converted to a motion for summary judgment, made pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56.

Other defendants in the action have submitted a writing to the Court in support of Lee’s motion. They maintain that the motion should be construed liberally as a request that the court exercise its inherent equitable powers to sanction the plaintiffs for seeking to use, in this action, evidence that was wrongfully obtained.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 60, which is a vehicle through which a litigant may obtain relief from a judgment entei-ed by a court, in its most pertinent part, provides the following:

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235 F.R.D. 55, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8957, 2006 WL 571350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/viada-v-osaka-health-spa-inc-nysd-2006.