Lastra v. City of N.Y.

Full title: JAMES LASTRA, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., Defendants.

Court: UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Date published: Jun 18, 2018

16-cv-3088 (JGK) (S.D.N.Y. Jun. 18, 2018)

Opinion

16-cv-3088 (JGK)

06-18-2018

JAMES LASTRA, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., Defendants.

JOHN G. KOELTL, District Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER JOHN G. KOELTL, District Judge :

The Court has received the June 12, 2018, letter filed by the pro se plaintiff, James Lastra. In that letter, Lastra asks the Court to remove the case from Magistrate Judge Lehrburger, to whom the case is assigned for general pretrial purposes. There is no basis for that relief. There is no showing that Magistrate Judge Lehrburger is biased against Lastra or that any reasonable person could conclude that he was biased. The request for removal from Magistrate Judge Lehrburger is therefore denied.

Lastra also asks for various additional orders staying this case and enjoining his prior counsel, Scott Korenbaum, from various actions. Those requests are denied without prejudice to raising them in the first instance before Magistrate Judge Lehrburger, to whom this case remains assigned for general pretrial purposes.

Finally, Lastra objects to Magistrate Judge Lehrburger's June 6, 2018, Order, which required Korenbaum to "mail Plaintiff's file to Plaintiff's mailing address by June 20, 2018," unless the parties otherwise agreed on a date for Lastra to pick up the file. Dkt. No. 118. Magistrate Judge Lehrburger also determined that Korenbaum need only provide printouts of email exchanges with Evan Jaffe, who is counsel for certain defendants, and need not disclose the "program used to compose the emails." Id. Lastra has failed to explain why Magistrate Judge Lehrburger's Order is clearly erroneous or contrary to law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a). Lastra objects that he did not have the opportunity to respond to Korenbaum's letter dated June 6, 2018, but the letter was not a motion that required a response, and a magistrate judge can deal with straightforward discovery issues based on correspondence that is copied to all the parties. If Lastra was displeased with Magistrate Judge Lehrburger's Order, he could have raised the issue with Magistrate Judge Lehrburger, and indeed can still do so. The objection to the June 6, 2018, Order is overruled.

SO ORDERED.

Dated: New York, New York

June 18, 2018

/s/ _________

John G. Koeltl

United States District Judge

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