John C. Ninfo II
How Judge Ninfo rules, drawn from 18 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Ninfo no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Ninfo decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
A recusal request did not justify judge-shopping where adverse rulings reflected the record rather than personal bias.
“This Court, which is a single Judge Court in the Rochester Division of the Western District of New York, must scrutinize recusal motions so as not to establish precedent that might encourage forum shopping and prejudice litigants.”
A purchaser of filed claims had to prove ownership through a chain of title or other acceptable evidence before receiving estate distributions.
“In the absence of sufficient proof of the ownership of a claim, whether it be by a purchaser, transferee or successor-in-interest, that proof of claim can and must be disallowed.”
Procedural preferences
A secured creditor seeking stay relief before the initial creditors' meeting should provide the trustee with the supporting documents at least one week before the return date.
“the Court will deny the stay motion without prejudice if: (1) the Required Documents are not supplied to the trustee at least one week prior to the return date; and (2) the trustee has notified the Court that he did not receive the Required Documents.”
Cautions
Unsubstantiated and undocumented allegations did not preserve speculative estate causes of action against dismissal.
“No party has demonstrated that P1 has any other valid causes of action. To the contrary, the Court has only heard a series of unsubstantiated, unfounded and undocumented allegations of such causes of action”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The Recusal Motion is in all respects denied, as is the request for a stay of all actions and proceedings in this Chapter 7 case.”
“The P1 case is dismissed with prejudice, as more fully detailed in this Decision & Order, and Trustee Arnold is authorized to dissolve P1 in accordance with New York State Law.”
“The County’s Motion for Summary Judgment is hereby granted in all respects.”
“The Debtor’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment and the County’s Counterclaims are hereby in all respects denied.”
“The Trustee’s causes of action seeking the turnover of the Ring, or its value, and attorney’s fees and costs, are in all respects denied.”
The decision resolved several claim and abandonment issues but scheduled remaining issues for later presentation; it is retained outside final-outcome statistics.
“Doherty Claim # 7, Doherty Claim # 8 and Benedetti Claim # 7 are disallowed for the foregoing reasons.”
“The Chapter 13 Trustee’s Objection is sustained. The Trustee shall restore the Debtor’s case to a Confirmation Hearing Calendar for further proceedings.”
“The Motion to Vacate is in all respects denied.”
“The Trustee’s Motion is denied. Section 362(h) is not applicable in a Chapter 13 case.”
“The Objection is sustained and the Debtors may amend their Schedule C Claim of Exemptions to claim the Federal Exemptions available under Section 522(d).”
“The Trustee’s Objection is overruled and a confirmation order shall be submitted.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
All five sampled matters were terminated. Palumbo and Byrne supplied six express outcomes; the other streams were outcome-empty.
A historical record
Judge Ninfo no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.