Joseph A. Marutollo
How Judge Marutollo decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On default-judgment motions he is a strict Local-Civil-Rules gatekeeper: he denies WITHOUT PREJUDICE for procedural noncompliance before ever reaching the merits. A missing memorandum of law (Local Civil Rule 7.1) is, by itself, enough; so is a mailing that omits a copy of the claim or a proposed form of default judgment (Local Civil Rule 55.2). If you move for default judgment before him, append the full Rule 55.2(b) package and a real memorandum of law, and mail it to the defaulting party's last known business address -- an attorney affirmation will not substitute.
“Hainesport's Motion for Default Judgment fails to include a memorandum of law as required by Local Civil Rule 7.1. The failure to comply with Local Civil Rule 7.1 is enough, on its own, for a court to deny the motion.”
Before recommending a default judgment he independently verifies personal jurisdiction and valid service of process, taking judicial notice of the New York Secretary of State's records. A plaintiff who serves a purported 'registered agent' without establishing that it actually is the defendant's agent -- or who uses a wrong business address -- will be denied for lack of personal jurisdiction even though the defendant defaulted.
“there is no indication otherwise that 'Registered Agents Inc.' is, in fact the registered agent of Defendant ... the Court respectfully recommends that Plaintiff's motion be denied, without prejudice, for lack of personal jurisdiction over Defendant.”
When the procedural box is checked and damages are proven, he grants -- and awards the full sum-certain amount. In GEICO he recommended the entire requested $456,666.65 in contractual liquidated damages plus interest, and Judge Chen adopted it as a 'thorough R. & R.' for clear error. He also revisits his own work: he sua sponte amended that R&R before it was adopted.
“the Court adopts the recommendations of Judge Marutollo's thorough R. & R. in full ... Plaintiffs' motion for default judgment is granted”
On a pro se motion to dismiss he liberally construes the complaint and resolves it claim-by-claim rather than wholesale, sustaining the plausibly-pleaded constitutional theories while dismissing the rest and granting narrow, specified leave to amend. His granular MTD recommendation in Lynch survived DE NOVO review of both sides' objections and was adopted in full -- evidence the district judges find his dispositive analysis durable.
“the Court adopts the R&R's recommendations that the Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 37, be granted in part and denied in part as specified in the R&R and that Plaintiff be granted leave to amend the Complaint as specified in the R&R.”
Procedural preferences
In copyright/BitTorrent 'John Doe' cases he routinely grants Rule 26(d)(1) expedited discovery to unmask the subscriber, but only subject to a fixed set of protective measures designed to shield a possibly-innocent subscriber and curb abusive settlement leverage: a 60-day notice period, disclosure limited to name and address (no phone/email), the subscriber's right to move to quash or proceed anonymously, and a bar on contacting the defendant to discuss settlement before service. Plan for the conditions, not just the grant.
“Under no circumstances is Plaintiff permitted to seek or obtain Doe Defendant's phone number or email address ... Plaintiff shall not initiate settlement discussions or attempt to contact the Defendant prior to service of the Complaint, without leave of Court.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Default judgment N = 4 |
Granted: 1Granted in part: 1Denied: 2 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for expedited discovery N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Court adopts the recommendations of Judge Marutollo's thorough R. & R. in full ... Plaintiffs' motion for default judgment is granted ... $456,666.65 in liquidated damages, for which Defendants are jointly and severally liable”
“plaintiff's motion for default judgment is granted with respect to his first, second, and third causes of action and denied with respect to his fourth and fifth causes of action. Judgment is to be entered against defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $102,099.31”
“the Court adopts the R&R's recommendations that the Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 37, be granted in part and denied in part as specified in the R&R and that Plaintiff be granted leave to amend the Complaint as specified in the R&R.”
“this Court respectfully recommends that Hainesport's Motion for Default Judgment be denied in its entirety for failure to comply with Local Civil Rules 7.1 and 55.2 without prejudice and with leave to renew once the deficiencies discussed above are addressed.”
“this Court respectfully recommends that Plaintiff's motion for default judgment be denied, without prejudice.”
“this Court grants Plaintiff's motion for leave to take discovery prior to holding a Rule 26(f) conference, subject to the protective measures set forth herein.”