Michael A. Telesca
How Judge Telesca rules, drawn from 18 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Telesca no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Telesca
Michael Anthony Telesca was a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Telesca received a commission on April 21, 1982. Judge Telesca assumed senior status on May 3, 1996 and served until death on March 5, 2020.
How Judge Telesca decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Telesca enforced settlement terms by comparing the promised accessibility feature with what the defendant actually constructed.
“Because the current sod-covered inclines do not constitute ramps as required under the Agreements, I grant plaintiffs motion to enforce the settlement agreements.”
Telesca allowed a retaliation claim to proceed where the employee’s reasonable good-faith belief could not be resolved from the pleadings.
“the issue of whether or not the plaintiff held a reasonable belief that the defendant was violating the FSMA can not be determined from the pleadings”
Telesca ordered payment of benefits when the developed record established disability and another administrative round would add nothing.
“In the present case, further administrative proceedings would serve no purpose. Accordingly, remand for the calculation of benefits is warranted.”
Procedural preferences
Telesca treated temporal proximity alone as insufficient to show that an employer’s stated performance concerns were pretextual.
“the temporal proximity between plaintiffs medical absences and her negative performance evaluations is insufficient to demonstrate that WICSD’s legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions was pretextual.”
Telesca enforced administrative exhaustion where the claimant received clear notice and still did not pursue the available appeal.
“He was advised in clear, unequivocal language, and thus lost an opportunity to have his denial reviewed prior to commencement of this action.”
Telesca reduced a fee request where billing and settlement conduct did not reasonably advance the clients’ interests.
“The Court will not reward Plaintiffs’ attorneys for letting issues of attorneys' fees cloud their judgement in doing what was primarily in the best interests of their clients.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons set forth above, I grant plaintiffs motion to enforce the settlement agreements, and ORDER defendants to install compliant ramps at their expense within 60 days of the date of this Order.”
“For the reasons discussed below, the Court grants defendants’ motion for summary judgment in part.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Court denies plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and grants defendant’s motion dismissing the complaint in its entirety with prejudice.”
“I find that there exists no genuine dispute as to any material questions of fact and therefore grant summary judgment dismissing the complaint in its entirety with prejudice.”
“Accordingly, T grant defendant’s motion for summary judgement dismissing the complaint with prejudice.”
“For the reasons set forth above, I grant defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs design defect claims, and New York General Business Law Claim with prejudice. I grant defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs fraud claim without prejudice, and deny defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs strict liability claim based on failure to warn, and claim for negligent misrepresentation.”
“For the‘foregoing reasons, Defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings (Dkt # 8) is denied.”
“Plaintiffs motion for judgment on the pleadings (Dkt # 7) is granted and the Commissioner’s decision is reversed and remanded for calculation and payment of benefits.”
“The Court finds that the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs requested is unreasonable and awards attorneys’ fees and costs, as calculated herein. ... Defendants are hereby ordered to pay Plaintiffs $420,000 in attorneys’ fees and $53,793.10 in costs, for a total of $473,793.10.”
“Accordingly, I find that Chase has stated a prima facie case of retaliation, and I deny defendant’s motion to dismiss.”
“For the reasons set forth above, plaintiffs motion for reconsideration is denied, defendant’s motion to amend the judgment is granted, and the defendant’s motion for an award of attorneys fees is denied.”
“For the reasons set forth above, I grant plaintiffs motion for remand and order that the Commissioner’s determination denying benefits is vacated, and that this matter is remanded to the Commissioner for further administrative proceedings consistent with this Decision and Order.”
“For the reasons set forth below, I grant plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and stay this action pending resolution of current administrative proceedings before the New York State Commissioner of Education.”
“Pursuant to the stay of further proceedings discussed above, I deny defendant’s motion to dismiss without prejudice to refile once the plaintiffs’ proceedings before the New York State Commissioner of Education are completed.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sampled matters included tort, civil-rights, criminal, foreclosure, pharmaceutical, prisoner, statutory, and naturalization proceedings. Sparse entry text and the short-lived late-tenure cohort do not support broad duration or base-rate conclusions.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Telesca was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2020.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
A historical record
Judge Telesca no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.