In Separ v. County of Nassau, 2025 WL 51206 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 8, 2025), the court denied defendant’s motion to enforce a settlement agreement/breach of the settlement agreement.
The court outlined the facts as follows:
The parties achieved a settlement in principle in this employment discrimination case during a settlement conference held before the undersigned on June 13, 2024. The settlement was for a sum certain, an exchange of releases and a non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement. They left the settlement table with a shake of hands and the task of preparing formal documents for execution, coupled with the Court’s direction to file the stipulation of dismissal. The documents were prepared, but apparently the execution of the settlement documents became nothing short of a Sisyphean task, to the point where Plaintiff executed the main Settlement Agreement and signed all of the documents with the lone exception of Exhibit “D”: a confidentiality and non-disparagement acknowledgment form that the Settlement Agreement itself mandated her to sign. Since the settlement involves a non-disclosure provision in the context of the resolution of discrimination claims, both N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-336 and N.Y. C.P.L.R. 5003-B apply, providing a 21-day preference period, along with a 7-day period to revoke the agreement.
Plaintiff steadfastly refuses to execute Exhibit D to the Settlement Agreement. Defendant in turn filed the instant motion to enforce the Settlement Agreement (ECF No. 61-1, 2, 8, 9 and 10), which is opposed by Plaintiff (ECF No. 61-3, 4, 5, 6 and 7). The question raised on this motion is whether the refusal by Plaintiff to execute Exhibit D is a bar to enforcement of the settlement or instead a breach of the Settlement Agreement.
The court concluded that plaintiff “did not sign Exhibit D, which was integral to and part of the Settlement Agreement, the failure to sign of which means the Settlement Agreement never became effective” and that plaintiff “simply exercised her right within the 21-day period not to move forward with the settlement.”