Leslie v. The Corcoran Group, 1:21-cv-05414

Plaintiffs Gayle Leslie and Michael Jackson sued defendants Craig Hollander and the Corcoran Group alleging race discrimination (FHA, §§ 1981–1982) and City/State income-discrimination claims (NYCHRL, NYSHRL).
Complaint filed June 20, 2021; Amended Complaint filed September 2, 2021.
Defendants moved for summary judgment on November 1, 2022, dedicating substantial argument to why the federal race claims fail under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework.
In their opposition, Plaintiffs did not respond to Defendants’ arguments or evidence on the federal race claims and instead addressed only the state and city income-discrimination claims.
The Court treated Defendants’ unrefuted, admissible statements as admitted and granted summary judgment for Defendants on the FHA and §§ 1981–1982 claims.
The Court declined supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining NYCHRL and NYSHRL claims and dismissed them without prejudice; the case was closed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether plaintiffs abandoned federal race claims by failing to oppose summary judgment	Plaintiffs did not contest federal claims in their opposition (focused on state claims)	Federal claims fail on the merits; evidence supports summary judgment	Court found plaintiffs abandoned the federal race claims and deemed defendants' statements admitted
Whether federal race claims survive summary judgment under McDonnell Douglas	No substantive response on the McDonnell Douglas framework	Defendants argued plaintiffs cannot make a prima facie case and relied on admissible evidence to rebut any inference of discrimination	Court granted summary judgment for defendants on FHA and §§ 1981–1982 claims
Whether unrefuted, admissible statements at summary judgment are deemed admitted	Plaintiffs offered no rebuttal	Statements supported by admissible evidence should be treated as admitted	Court deemed unrefuted statements admitted and relied on them in granting summary judgment
Whether to retain supplemental jurisdiction over NYCHRL and NYSHRL claims after dismissal of federal claims	Plaintiffs urged their state/city claims survive summary judgment	Defendants sought dismissal of all claims via summary judgment	Court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction and dismissed state and city claims without prejudice

McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (establishes the burden-shifting framework for discrimination claims)
In re Merrill Lynch LP Litig., 154 F.3d 56 (2d Cir. 1998) (when federal claims are dismissed, state claims should ordinarily be dismissed as well)
United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715 (1966) (principles governing supplementary jurisdiction over state-law claims)