Argudo et al v. Parea Group LLC, et al

Filing 274

ORDER granting 273 Letter Motion to Stay re: 273 LETTER MOTION to Stay (temporarily) paragraph 17 of the Final Order and Judgment addressed to Judge Jesse M. Furman from Josef Nussbaum dated April 14, 2021. Application GRANTED. The escalation is STAYED until May 20, 2021. The Clerk of Court is directed to terminate ECF No. 273. SO ORDERED.. (Signed by Judge Jesse M. Furman on 4/15/2021) (ks)

JOSEPH & KIRSCHENBAUM LLP
Attorneys at Law
Charles Joseph
D. Maimon Kirschenbaum
Denise Schulman
Josef Nussbaum
Lucas Buzzard

32 Broadway, Suite 601
New York, NY 10004
Phone [phone]
Fax [phone]
www.jk-llp.com

April 14, 2021
VIA ECF
Honorable Jesse M. Furman
Thurgood Marshall
United States Courthouse
40 Foley Square
New York, NY 10007
Re:

Argudo, et al. v. Parea Group Ltd., et al., 18-CV-0678 (JMF)

Dear Judge Furman,
We represent the Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 23 Class/Judgment-Creditors in the abovereferenced matter. We write, on behalf of the Class as well as the non-bankrupt
Defendants/Judgment-Debtors, namely IMNY GS LLC d/b/a Il Mulino Tribeca, GFB Restaurant
Corp. d/b/a Il Mulino Downtown, K.G. IM Management, LLC, IM LLC-I, Gerald Katzoff, Pasta
Perfect LLC, IM 60 Street, Wonderful Restaurant LLC d/b/a Il Mulino Uptown, and Brian
Galligan (the “Judgment-Debtors”1 and collectively with the Class, the “Parties”), to respectfully
request that Court extend the 15% escalation to the Judgment amount that is scheduled to go into
effect on April 29, 2021 by twenty-one days until May 20, 2021. The reason for this request is
that the Parties have reached an agreement whereby the Judgment in this matter is expected to be
paid in full by May 12, 2021.
On January 29, 2021, the court entered a Final Order and Judgment (the “Judgment”) in
favor of the Class and against Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $1,971,313.44
(with the exception that Defendants Pasta Perfect, LLC, Il Mulino USA, LLC and IM LLC-1 are
only responsible for $1.5 million of the Judgment amount). See Dkt. No. 270 at ¶ 13. In the
Judgment, the Court also provided that pursuant to N.Y. Lab. Law § 198(4), interest on all
monies not paid within ninety days of the Judgment shall be automatically awarded at the rate of
15% of the Judgment. Id. at ¶ 17.

1

For the sake of clarity, Judgment-Debtor Il Mulino USA, LLC (with respect to which this case is stayed)
is not party to the instant application.

Since the time Judgment was entered, the Class has been engaged in aggressive
collections efforts and, as a result of these efforts, we have been successful in reaching an
agreement whereby the non-bankrupt Judgment-Debtors agreed to completely satisfy the
Judgment by May 12, 2021. In fact, to date, the claims administrator is holding $100,000 in
escrow and an additional $1.55 million is being held in escrow by counsel for the JudgmentDebtors. In other words, only $321,313.44 of the Judgment remains to be funded and, per the
Parties agreement, it will be funded by May 12th. Accordingly, to allow the Judgment-Debtors
time to fully fund by May 12th, the Parties respectfully request that the Court temporarily stay the
escalation to the Judgment amount. Specifically, the Parties request that that the date set forth in
paragraph 17 of the Judgment by which the 15% escalation on monies that remain unpaid will go
into effect be extended from April 29, 2021 until May 20, 2021.
We thank the Court for its attention to this matter.
Respectfully submitted,
JOSEPH & KIRSCHENBAUM LLP

Application GRANTED. The escalation is
STAYED until May 20, 2021. The Clerk of
Court is directed to terminate ECF No. 273.
SO ORDERED.

/s/ Josef Nussbaum
Josef Nussbaum
32 Broadway, Suite 601
New York, NY 10004
[phone]

April 15, 2021

cc: All Counsel of Record (via ECF)

2