Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.
How Judge Jr. decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Follows binding Second Circuit precedent even where the policy question is sympathetic and the historical record is 'troubling' -- he denied a 1326 equal-protection challenge as foreclosed rather than engaging the merits, expressly noting district courts are bound to follow controlling Circuit precedent unless it is overruled.
“Bound by Suquilanda, the Court denies Defendant's motion to dismiss. ... '[D]istrict courts are bound to follow controlling Second Circuit precedent unless that precedent is overruled or reversed.'”
On default judgments he is exacting about E.D.N.Y. Local Civil Rule 55.2(c) service formalities: a movant who fails to mail the motion to the defaulting party's last known residence/business address, or who cannot prove every paper was mailed, can have the motion denied in full on that ground alone -- even on a second attempt.
“Local Rule 55.2(c) is construed strictly, and lack of compliance alone frequently results in denial of the default judgment motion. ... I respectfully recommend that the Motion be denied in its entirety.”
Procedural preferences
Will recommend the harshest Rule 37 sanction (strike answer + default) for willful, sustained discovery noncompliance after clear warning, and does not require exhausting lesser sanctions first when the record shows they would not induce compliance.
“the Court concludes that no lesser sanction would induce Abdullaev's compliance and that a severe sanction is necessary to serve the deterrence rationale justifying sanctions.”
Guards subject-matter jurisdiction: he denied a plaintiff's Rule 41(a)(2) voluntary dismissal where granting it would have stripped the court of jurisdiction over the defendant's surviving state-law counterclaims, applying the rule's purpose of protecting the defendant.
“Because dismissal of the Wentworths' claim would destroy the Court's subject matter jurisdiction over Hedson's counterclaims, the Court is precluded from dismissing the Wentworths' claim under Rule 41(a)(2).”
Cautions
On objections to a magistrate R&R, do not raise arguments you could have made to the magistrate but did not -- district judges in this district reviewing his R&Rs refuse to consider new arguments and review unobjected/conclusory portions only for clear error.
“courts ordinarily refuse to consider arguments, case law and/or evidentiary material which could have been, but was not, presented to the magistrate judge in the first instance.”
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: 2Granted in part: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to compel arbitration N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for sanctions N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to modify arbitration award N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for voluntary dismissal N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Denied: 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.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Wentworths' motion for voluntary dismissal is denied. SO ORDERED.”
“For the reasons discussed herein, the motion is denied.”
“On August 12, 2014, Judge Reyes issued his R&R, recommending that Defendants' motion be granted. ... Plaintiff's objections are OVERRULED and the R&R is ADOPTED IN FULL.”
“the Court grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment and denies Plaintiff's cross motion for summary judgment”
“the Court grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment and denies Plaintiff's cross motion for summary judgment”
“the court ADOPTS the R&R as modified, and GRANTS Plaintiffs motion for default judgment.”
“Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. issued a Report and Recommendation ("R&R"), recommending "that Ryeco's motion for default judgment be granted ..." ... Accordingly, the Court ADOPTS the R&R”
“On August 20, 2021, Magistrate Judge Reyes recommended (1) denying default judgment on all of Hitrinov's and Empire's breach of contract claims and dismissing those claims; and (2) granting Hitrinov's and Empire's libel claim and awarding them $2,436,050. ... the Court adopts in full Magistrate Judge Reyes's thorough and well-reasoned ... Report & Recommendation, granting in part and denying in part ... Motion for Default Judgment.”
“for the reasons set forth herein, I respectfully recommend that the Motion be denied in its entirety.”
“I respectfully recommend that the Court grant Gilead's motion for case ending sanctions and strike Abdullaev's answer and enter default against him.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Case-level snapshot from a 21-docket search_dockets sample of his DISTRICT-JUDGE assignments (all filed 2026, most still PENDING). Nature-of-suit mix is dominated by a 2026 surge of 463 Habeas Corpus - Alien Detainee petitions (Pastrana-Beltran, Soliev, Ochoa-Vizcaino, Gomez-Gomez, S.G. v. Mullin), alongside contract, fraud/TILA, FLSA labor, consumer credit, securities, Social Security, ADA civil-rights, and criminal matters. Terminations in the sample were fast and procedural: Gomez-Gomez (habeas granted, ~8 days), Kovaleski (voluntary dismissal, 21 days), S.G. v. Mullin (~5 days).