14 results for 'judge:"Merchant"'.
J. Merchant preserves an online journalist-activist’s civil rights and equitable relief complaint alleging Inna Vernikov, a sitting New York City Councilmember, violated her First Amendment rights when she blocked her on X, formerly known as Twitter, due to a series of comments criticizing her policies. The councilmember argued the claims are now moot because she has since unblocked the journalist. However, the court finds the councilmember has not provided enough assurances that she or one of her staff members will not block the journalist again in the future.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3460, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: First Amendment, Technology
J. Merchant grants a motion in limine and excludes a tenured law professor from St. John’s University School of Law as an expert witness in a trademark lawsuit concerning a dispute over the MED-AIRE brand of medical mattresses. The court finds a report he authored for the case relates to straightforward matters regarding trademark law that a jury can understand without the assistance of an expert.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv1272, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Trademark, Experts
J. Merchant dismisses a Middle Eastern employee’s retaliation claims against a Brooklyn health care provider, finding that filing complaint she made against her supervisor, for forcing her to work near an employee who tested positive for Covid-19, is not protected activity for purposes of a retaliation claim. The court however preserves her discrimination claims, finding she provides enough detail to allege she faced differential treatment because of her national origin.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3313, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Merchant dismisses a Suffolk County father’s civil rights lawsuit alleging the Suffolk County District Court violated his constitutional rights when it granted custody of his children to their mother. His claims concerning the court’s ruling are precluded by the domestic-relations abstention doctrine, the judges involved in the child custody case are entitled to judicial immunity and the remainder of his claims fail to conform to civil procedure by failing to name an official acting under state law.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: April 8, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv126, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law
J. Merchant tosses an employment discrimination complaint that alleges a group of health care workers were wrongfully terminated for refusing to comply with their employer’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. Their requests to be exempt from the vaccine mandate for religious purposes would have posed an undue hardship on the hospital’s operations and they also fail to provide any substantiative detail that would suggest management discriminated against them because of their religions.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1277, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination
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J. Merchant tosses a class action lawsuit alleging a lithium refiner made false or misleading statements in connection with a troubled mining project located in North Carolina. The project involved extracting spodumene, which would then be converted into lithium hydroxide for use in electric vehicles. However, the company’s stock price suffered a 20% drop after a Reuters article cited issues with the project, including its failure to obtain the necessary zoning permits from the local government. The litigant’s claims fail to establish scienter.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv4161, NOS: Securities/Commodities/Exchange - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, Securities, Class Action
J. Merchant denies a motion to stay the court’s decision to remand a laborer’s personal injury complaint back to New York state court. The construction companies named in the suit had removed the complaint to federal court after the state court judge denied their motion to dismiss, which argued they are unable to mount a competent defense after discovering the litigant was an undocumented immigrant and went by several aliases. However, the court saw through the defendants’ attempt to circumvent the prior ruling and remanded the action back to state court. The court finds no compelling reason to override the state court’s ruling.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv7864, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Immigration, Tort, Due Process
J. Merchant trims an autobody repair shop’s deceptive business practices complaint against Progressive and further remands the action back to state court due to lack of standing. The shop sued the insurer alleging its photo-estimating service deceives its insureds into accepting loss payments without ever having their vehicles inspected or repaired by a licensed repair shop after being involved in a car accident, thus limited the shop’s potential business. To the extent of claims not barred under res judicata, the court finds the shop fails to provide a single instance of an insured being misled or coerced by the insurer’s deceptive actions and thus fails to show it suffered a concrete injury.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: November 22, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv221, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Business Practices
J. Merchant grants conditional certification to a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action brought against the owner of a chain of Brooklyn-based coffee shops over unlawful pay practices. The coffee chain operator tried to argue against certification by suggesting the litigant’s claims applied only to her experience as a manager and general manager. However, the litigant provided the names of several employees, including two line cooks and a barista, who all claimed they were not being paid their full wages.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: November 17, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv2675, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Class Action, Labor
J. Merchant grants the insurance companies motion for preliminary injunction and stay of all pending arbitrations brought by a medical imaging company in allegations of a no-fault scheme. Pending the declaratory judgment claim disposition, the court enjoins the medical imaging company from any further state court action or no-fault insurance collection arbitrations against the insurers.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: November 2, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv3124, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract