20

- 3453 Helwing v. Michalow



## UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT



# SUMMARY ORDER

RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY

ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF

APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT ’ S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “ SUMMARY ORDER ” ). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY

ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.

At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1
held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of 2

New Yo rk, on the 2 8 t h da y of O c t o b e r , two thousand twenty

- one

. 3

4

PRESENT: 5

JON O. NEWMAN

, 6

MICHAEL H. PARK

, 7

EUNICE C. LEE

, 8
Circuit Judges. 9

_____________________________________ 10

11

TOMASZ HELWING

, 12

13
Plaintiff

- Appellant

, 14

15

16

v. 20

- 3453 17

18
DARIUSZ MICHALOW, SEBASTIAN 19
TKACZYK, WILLIAM GONZALEZ , for 20
themselves and others similarly situated who 21
were employed by East Coast Restoration & 22
Consulting Corp., Midtown Restoration, Inc., 23
East Coast Installation & Consulting Corp., East 24

Coast Restoratio n & Construction Consulting 25
Corp., 26

27
Plaintiffs

- Appellees , 28

29

30EAST COAST RESTORATION & 1

CONSULTING CORP.

, et al., 2

3
Defendants

- Appellees

. 1 4

5

_____________________________________ 6

7

8

FOR PLAINTIFF

- APPELLANT: Tomasz Helwing , pro se, 9
Howard Beach, NY

. 10

11

FOR PLAINTIFFS

- APPELLEE S : La D onna M. Lusher, Jenny 12 S. Brejt, Virginia & 13
Ambinder, LLP , New York, 14

NY

. 15

16

FOR DEFENDANTS

- APPELLEES: Michael M

. Rabinowitz, 17

Rabinowitz & Galina

, 18
Mineola, NY ; James A. 19
Randazzo, Drew W. Sumner, 20

Porta le Randazzo LLP, White 21
Plains, NY. 22

23

Appeal from a n order and judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern 24

District of New York ( Matsumoto

, J

. ). 25

UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND 26

DECREED that the order and judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED

. 27

Appellant Tomasz Helwing, proceeding pro se

, appeal s the district court ’ s order and 28

judgment approving a settlement in this Fair Labo r Standards Act collective action and New York 29

Labor Law class action. We assume the parties ’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the 30

procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal. 31

A class action settlement must be “fair, reasonable, and adequate.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 32

23(e)(2). We review a district court’s “factual findings relating to a settlement agreement in a 33

1 The Clerk is respectfully directed to amend the caption accordingly.3 class action lawsuit under the clearly erroneous standard of review,” review its interpretation of 1

law de novo, and review its “determination that a settlement in a class action

. . . is fair, reasonable, 2

and adequate” for abus e of discretion. McReynolds v. Richards

- Cantave , 588 F.3d 790, 800 (2d 3

Cir. 2009) ( cleaned up ). 4

Here, our review of the record and relevant case law reveals no error in the district court’s 5

decision to approve the settlement. We affirm for substantiall y the reasons stated by the district 6

court on the record at the fairness hearing. 7

We have considered all of Helwing’s arguments and find them to be without merit. 8

Helwing failed to present admissible evidence that any of the parties to the settlement , or their 9

attorneys, violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or otherwise engaged 10

in unethical conduct. Additionally, t he Older Workers Benefit Protection Act does not apply to 11

this case, and Helwing ha s not demonstrated that the settl ement should have been rejected for any 12

other reason. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. 13

FOR THE COURT: 14

Catherine O = Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court 15

16